Cannot playback DVDs from non-standard DVD device location

[GoogleCodeExporter]

What steps will reproduce the problem?
1. Insert favorite DVD in DVD drive
2. In gnome-mplayer, click on File > Disc > Open DVD

What is the expected output? What do you see instead?
Expected to see DVD playback. Got an error window instead:
"Couldn't open DVD device: /dev/dvd
 No stream found to handle url dvd://"
My DVD device is located at /dev/sr0. But there seem to be no way to
configure gnome-mplayer to use a device different from /dev/dvd

What version of the product are you using? On what operating system?
gnome-mplayer-0.98
gnome-2.26.1
ubuntu-studio jaunty (kernel 2.6.28)

Please provide any additional information below.
In Edit > Preferences > Mplayer > Extra options, I also tried passing the
Mplayer option '-dvd-device /dev/sr0' but DVD didn't play (same error as
before).

Original issue reported on code.google.com by florent....@gmail.com on 26 Sep 2009 at 8:17

[GoogleCodeExporter]

might try creating a symlink from /dev/sr0 to /dev/dvd. Also there may be other 
error
messages that are not being shown. Try running mplayer dvd:// from the command 
line
and see if anything else comes up. For example you might need to install 
libdvdcss or
something like that.

Original comment by kdeko...@gmail.com on 26 Sep 2009 at 8:33

[GoogleCodeExporter]

Actually, I realize that I have 2 DVD drives:
$ ls -al /dev/dvd*
/dev/dvd  -> sr1
/dev/dvd1 -> sr0

DVD playback on my machine is fine. Running the following commands work:
$ mplayer -dvd-device /dev/sr0 dvd://
$ mplayer -dvd-device /dev/dvd1 dvd://
And when I insert the DVD on the other drive, this works too:
$ mplayer -dvd-device /dev/sr1 dvd://
$ mplayer -dvd-device /dev/dvd dvd://

Problem:
If I don't want to screw with the system settings (the links in /dev) or don't 
have
the permissions to, it is impossible for me to play DVDs from one of my drive 
with
gnome-mplayer.

Possible solution:
I don't know if Linux distros are required to use the /dev/dvd* device names. If
not, a way configure the CD/DVD drives present on the machine would be needed. 
If
dvd* is a required location, then gnome-mplayer could autodetect all drives 
present.
In any case, based on the drives that gnome-mplayer is aware of, it could 
populate
the File > Disc accordingly. It would be even better if it would report in that 
menu
which drives have a CD/DVD in, maybe by displaying the disc's title if there is 
one.

Original comment by florent....@gmail.com on 26 Sep 2009 at 9:19

[GoogleCodeExporter]

Probably an oversite in the code as no one has asked for this feature before. 
Might
be a bit to get this functionality in.

Original comment by kdeko...@gmail.com on 26 Sep 2009 at 11:05

• Added labels: Type-Enhancement
• Removed labels: Type-Defect

[GoogleCodeExporter]

Just got an idea..

Rather than saying "Open DVD" can you choose "Open DVD from folder" and choose 
either
/dev/dvd or /dev/dvd1 as the folder or the mount point where the DVD is mounted 
like
/media/[disk name] and see if that works?

Original comment by kdeko...@gmail.com on 27 Sep 2009 at 4:21

[GoogleCodeExporter]

Check https://bugs.edge.launchpad.net/ubuntu/+source/udev/+bug/468210 -> you 
might
need to edit /etc/udev/rules.d/70-persistent-cd.rules to bind the drives as you 
want

Original comment by risto.kurppa@gmail.com on 1 Nov 2009 at 11:03

[GoogleCodeExporter]

In SVN r1601 I have added a new preference that allows you to enter in a default
optical device to read from. If gio is enabled then a list of potential device 
will
be shown to pick from. /dev/dvd is the default.

Original comment by kdeko...@gmail.com on 16 Dec 2009 at 9:02

• Changed state: Fixed