[SOLVED] DVD/audio playback not ready for prime time?

[disastrophe]

Hi, I'm a recent defector from windoze. In that realm I'm fairly competent but now that I've made a clean break I'm definitely a noob. I am using Kubuntu 10.04/2.6.32-23 in a dual boot with Ubuntu 10.04(Gnome.) w/Grub 1.98. No probs there.
Where it's been getting a bit dicey is in multimedia. I own a number of DVDs and have purchased a rather large amount of music over the years which I enjoy playing on my PC, pretty basic functionality. Gnome handles it superbly and I was thinking since the main difference between the two is mainly in the UI, Kubuntu would be a pretty safe bet. To make a long story as short as possible ---- HELP! What the heck is going on with this thing?
I got DVD playback finally but only with Dragon Player and only if I load the DVD and let the system start the app. If I stop playback I have to eject the DVD, reload it, wait for it to mount, and then select DP from the system prompt. I have video in VLC but no sound, ditto for Kaffiene. This is getting a little frustrating. I have the necessary codecs for video playback and am using ALSA analog for sound. This partition is a really fresh install, I've been using my Gnome installation for a few weeks now without any trouble. Is it possible to get this thing to work reliably? And if so, how?
Kubuntu is really pretty to look at but that only goes so far. I haven't even tried any of my AAC audio yet but one thing at a time. Any advice would be appreciated. Thank you.

[dibl]

Re: DVD/audio playback not ready for prime time?

Multimedia stuff can be tricky on KDE. I have been having good results with PulseAudio in recent times, but apparently it's not universally loved. I'm not much on playing DVDs, but I'll share this, regarding audio:

I recommend you install pulseaudio, pavucontrol, padevchooser, and paman. (No need to disturb your alsa stuff -- I use alsaplayer too).

Use Alt-F2 to open pavucontrol, check/change the profile in "Configuration", and then on Output Devices take a look at the "sinks" -- look at the tiny mute button for each sink, and make sure it is not muted for speakers or other needed components.

Open System Settings > Multimedia, observe the list of audio output "devices" -- they should match your "sinks" in pavucontrol. On my desktop (an onboard Intel HDA), the two devices are "Internal Audio Analog Surround 5.1" and "LADSPA Plugin Multiband EQ on Internal Audio Analog Surround 5.1". Highlight your top device and push the "Test" button. Do you hear the tune? Do the same for the other devices. Work between pavucontrol and the Multimedia window to learn which device works reliably. The best working device should be moved to the top of the list so it will be default. Mine has the Intel Audio Analog Surround 5.1 device at the top of the list.

Hope this helps.

[Rog131]

Re: DVD/audio playback not ready for prime time?

Useful links

> HOWTO find Kubuntu's manual / reference / guide / documentation / help
> Top 20 Kubuntu FAQs & Answers


KDE (at here)

When i insert a DVD the Device notifier plasmoid is popping up with the list of options.

[img width=248 height=400]http://img231.imageshack.us/img231/7034/dvdplay.png[/img].

The Device notifier can only offer option for those applications that have added the solid actions for it. More/earlier > Topic: Device Notifier Problems with KDE 4.xxx.


Probing

Rule of Thumb

When you get a mysterious error/no start/no audio/no video with the gui, use the cli.
With the cli you usually get a full error message and could do a net search with the error message.

If you start the VLC/MPlayer/Kaffeine/Whatever in the konsole there should be lot of information what is going on.

Here with the VLC/konsole:

vlc

Media > Open Disk > (is the Disk device pointing to the right device ?) > Play

... the DVD is starting to play or there should be bunch of error messages.


The > Top 20 Kubuntu FAQs & Answers has how to probe the audio problems.


Post installation (at here)

0) Adding the > Medibuntu to the repositories
1) Upgrading
2) Installing:
- kubuntu-restricted-extras non-free-codecs ffmpeg mplayer smplayer kaffeine vlc mozilla-plugin-vlc mencoder mplayer-doc avidemux-qt sox libsox-fmt-all libdvdcss2 kid3...

... after this the audio/video seems to work without problems at here.

[disastrophe]

Re: DVD/audio playback not ready for prime time?

Multimedia stuff can be tricky on KDE. I have been having good results with PulseAudio in recent times, but apparently it's not universally loved. I'm not much on playing DVDs, but I'll share this, regarding audio:

I recommend you install pulseaudio, pavucontrol, padevchooser, and paman. (No need to disturb your alsa stuff -- I use alsaplayer too).

Use Alt-F2 to open pavucontrol, check/change the profile in "Configuration", and then on Output Devices take a look at the "sinks" -- look at the tiny mute button for each sink, and make sure it is not muted for speakers or other needed components.

Open System Settings > Multimedia, observe the list of audio output "devices" -- they should match your "sinks" in pavucontrol. On my desktop (an onboard Intel HDA), the two devices are "Internal Audio Analog Surround 5.1" and "LADSPA Plugin Multiband EQ on Internal Audio Analog Surround 5.1". Highlight your top device and push the "Test" button. Do you hear the tune? Do the same for the other devices. Work between pavucontrol and the Multimedia window to learn which device works reliably. The best working device should be moved to the top of the list so it will be default. Mine has the Intel Audio Analog Surround 5.1 device at the top of the list.

Hope this helps.

Thank you, I will try it. I also have an Intel HDA onboard. Currently my sound is set to Intel Audio Analog Stereo - 2 big speakers and a sub (an external pre amp deals with the LFE etc, so I keep any post processing to a minimum on my pc.)
When I first finalized my divorce with redmond, I was running KDE and Gnome concurrently in the same install, they seemed to trip over each other a lot(hence the dual boot now.) One of the areas where it was having problems was with PA, especially when running more than one app that even looked at the sound card, this resulted in a sporadic loss of audio on all apps. There was probably more to it than just PA, like me not knowing what I'm doing lol. I know it works great with Gnome, no probs at all. So I will try it now that KDE is in a separate install.

Rule of Thumb

When you get a mysterious error/no start/no audio/no video with the gui, use the cli.
With the cli you usually get a full error message and could do a net search with the error message.

If you start the VLC/MPlayer/Kaffeine/Whatever in the konsole there should be lot of information what is going on.

I will do that, thank you.

One last thing I thought you might like to know, if you don't already. Gnome might have an edge on multimedia but I had to install K3B in Gnome just to get decent CD burns and verifications. <- bootable install CD's too, not much room for error there. Brasero sux, K3B owns!

[Snowhog]

Re: DVD/audio playback not ready for prime time?

...I had to install K3B in Gnome just to get decent CD burns and verifications. <- bootable install CD's too, not much room for error there. Brasero sux, K3B owns!

One needs [read: should] be careful making such rash statements. What one can say, is that the statement is (claimed to be) true for them. Speaking for myself, but knowing others would concur, Brasero in Gnome is a good program. I've used it to burn LiveCD .iso files with no problems what so ever.

[disastrophe]

Re: DVD/audio playback not ready for prime time?

One needs [read: should] be careful making such rash statements. What one can say, is that the statement is (claimed to be) true for them. Speaking for myself, but knowing others would concur, Brasero in Gnome is a good program. I've used it to burn LiveCD .iso files with no problems what so ever.

Point taken. I meant to say it most definitely didn't work well for me, 5 discs in a row went in the trash. It was producing anywhere from 4 to 43 bad sectors each attempt just based on timing alone and then when I attempted to verify the discs from within brasero it was telling me I didn't have permission to use that device () - even starting it with sudo. K3B did it perfectly. A bunch of folk on Ubuntu forums had similar experiences and opinions. What am I to think?0 for 5 and 2 for 2 respectively was my exact experience. I wish they would fix it or remove it from the default install, thats the kind of stuff that scares a lot of windows users away from Linux.

[disastrophe]

Re: DVD/audio playback not ready for prime time?

Oops, I forgot to mention. I got the DVD and audio issues sorted. After I got the restricted addons package from Medibuntu Dragon Player and VLC are happy and I'm getting outstanding audio with VLC. AAC playback is wonderful too. Thanks all for the help! I'm going to be using Kubuntu a whole lot more now. I am starting to get the environment all set up and finding my way around, I can see why a lot of KDE users are such die hards. Even with all the goodies it's still way lighter on the system and much faster than any windows install I've seen.

[Snowhog]

Re: [SOLVED] DVD/audio playback not ready for prime time?

Glad to hear that. Patience will serve you well. When I switched to Linux/Kubuntu in 2007, I just wanted to see if I could use it on my laptop. Windows Vista Home Edition was still on it. Went with a dual-boot installation using NeoSmarts Easy BCD to control the booting. Stayed with that for a few months I think, before I dumped Vista completely and went 100% Linux/Kubuntu. I've never looked back.

[disastrophe]

Re: [SOLVED] DVD/audio playback not ready for prime time?

I dumped windoze a month ago and haven't missed it a bit - couldn't stand it anymore, I dual boot with an Ubuntu Gnome install and I love that! I know my way around it much better than KDE and have been able to resolve almost all problems on my own. I love learning new OS's. I tried openSuSe 11.2 for a week but got rid of it, everything seemed too beta-ish or even alpha-ish and it has some serious known multimedia issues although everything seemed pretty straightforward. After +20 yrs. of m$ it was a needful thing make a clean break.