I use VideoLAN to play DVDs under Linux. I bought "PowerDVD" for Windoze but no longer use it because VideoLAN gives me better sound and video quality. (Click here for information about my system.)
VideoLAN is an open-source project. It compiles on many different operating systems. It can play encrypted DVDs, MPEGs from a hard-disk and MPEG streams received from a network.
I have contributed some code to the VideoLAN project. I have supplied some bug-fixes and I wrote the first version of the XVideo output module.
Go get it... www.videolan.org
Here are some patches I've written. These add features not yet available in the code from the VideoLAN CVS repository. (Some of these patches are reasonably old and might not apply cleanly to the recent VideoLAN source.)
Use the mouse-wheel to move backwards or forwards in a stream, change audio volume, etc.
Press "Z" to enlarge (XVideo) video output by 10%, "z" shrinks ouput by 10%.
The changes in the patch file are to be applied to vout_xvideo.c after the optimisation patch I posted on the vlc-devel mailing list has been applied. (The optimisation was to write the YUV data for each frame directly into the shared memory segment which is read by the X server.)
I have several DVDs which used to start playing in languages I don't understand: This patch fixes that problem.
Description of changes can be found here.
I do not know the real cause of the problem. I suspect the problem may be as a result of a bug in the X server I am using. I've had this problem while using XFree 4.0.1a and 4.0.3 (the X servers which come with Red Hat 7.0 and 7.1) as well as XFree 4.1.0 (which I compiled from source). The problem could also be with the NVidia drivers I'm using -?
This patch may fix a similar problem with the standard X11 video output module.
hdparm to enable DMA transfers from
your DVD drive.
Check the hdparm man page. hdparm -d 1
[device]should enable DMA transfers.
On RedHat 7.1 you should copy /etc/sysconfig/harddisks to
/etc/sysconfig/harddiskhd[abcd] (choose correct letter for
your DVD drive). Uncomment the line "USE_DMA=1" so that DMA
transfers from your DVD drive will be enabled when your system starts.
I upgraded from RH7.0 to RH7.1 and was shocked by the poor performance of vlc running on RH7.1. Other people have reported the same problem. 1, 2. Red Hat 7.1 has the 2.4.2 kernel. I now use the 2.4.5 kernel and I am very happy with the performance. On my system X now uses ~0.3% of the CPU resources while playing a DVD (with the 2.4.2-2 kernel X often used more than 50% of the CPU resources).
If you want to use the optimised video decoders (in the vlc 2.80 release) which use SSE instructions (available on Pentium-IIIs, AMD Durons, etc) you may need to use Linux 2.4.0 or later. (Alternatively, you may be able to patch an old kernel to add SSE support.)
Open the Gnome "Control Center". Select Desktop/Panel, then move the "Auto hide"/size scroll-bar to the minimum setting.
To enable "auto hide" for a panel: Right-click on the panel and select Panel, Properties, Hiding Policy => Auto Hide.
Many DVDs have a large dynamic range: It's normal that many DVDs may seem too quiet at times.
I suspect that the default volume used by the VideoLAN audio output
module is too high (some audio inputs will be "clipped" which sounds
horrible). I suspect that to avoid clipping that
VOLUME_DEFAULTwhich is defined in
include/config.h should be 256 (it's normally
512).
Some DVDs frequently change from being too quiet to being too loud. I'd like VideoLAN to be able to reduce the audio dynamic range (by amplifying quiet sections).
An open-source DVD player which supports DVD navigation menus.
Last update: 6 July 2001