Can no longer play DVDs using VLC

I used to be able to play DVDs using VLC without issues. I recently did a re-install. Now I get this error when trying to play the disc /dev/sr0 in VLC:

Your input can't be opened:VLC is unable to open the MRL 'dvd:///dev/sr0'. Check the log for details.

However, the VLC messages dialog does not show anything.

I have checked that libdvdcss, libdvdread, and libdvdnav are installed. I have added myself to the optical group (and rebooted). I have unmounted the DVD, before trying to play in VLC.

I have checked with regionset that the correct region is still set.

I ran cdrecord dev=/dev/sr0 -checkdrive

Result looked good, I guess?

Cdrecord-ProDVD-ProBD-Clone 3.02a09 (–) Copyright (C) 1995-2016 Joerg Schilling
scsidev: ‘/dev/sr0’
devname: ‘/dev/sr0’
scsibus: -2 target: -2 lun: -2
Warning: Open by ‘devname’ is unintentional and not supported.
Linux sg driver version: 3.5.27
Using libscg version ‘schily-0.9’.
Device type : Removable CD-ROM
Version : 5
Response Format: 2
Capabilities :
Vendor_info : 'PIONEER ’
Identifikation : ‘BD-RW BDR-209M’
Revision : ‘1.34’
Device seems to be: Generic mmc2 DVD-R/DVD-RW/DVD-RAM.
Using generic SCSI-3/mmc-2 DVD-R/DVD-RW/DVD-RAM driver (mmc_dvd).
Driver flags : NO-CD DVD MMC-3 SWABAUDIO BURNFREE
Supported modes: PACKET SAO LAYER_JUMP
cdrecord: Warning: Cannot read drive buffer.
cdrecord: Warning: The DMA speed test has been skipped.

This is what I get with journalctl - f when I insert the DVD and then manually unmount it:

Okt 08 22:16:43 NCC-1701-D kernel: UDF-fs: INFO Mounting volume ‘DVD_VIDEO’, timestamp 2007/03/12 12:55 (1000)
Okt 08 22:16:43 NCC-1701-D udisksd[861]: Mounted /dev/sr0 at /run/media/sven/DVD_VIDEO on behalf of uid 1000
Okt 08 22:17:02 NCC-1701-D udisksd[861]: Cleaning up mount point /run/media/sven/DVD_VIDEO (device 11:0 is not mounted)
Okt 08 22:17:02 NCC-1701-D udisksd[861]: Unmounted /dev/sr0 on behalf of uid 1000
Okt 08 22:17:02 NCC-1701-D systemd[1]: run-media-sven-DVD_VIDEO.mount: Deactivated successfully.

Opening it in VLC does not create any message there.

I have used k3b to rip audio CDs and burn data CDs with this drive without issues.

System:
 Host: NCC-1701-D Kernel: 6.16.8-1-MANJARO arch: x86_64 bits: 64
 Desktop: KDE Plasma v: 6.3.6 Distro: Manjaro Linux
Machine:
 Type: Desktop Mobo: Micro-Star model: PRO Z690-A DDR4(MS-7D25) v: 1.0
   serial:  UEFI: American Megatrends LLC. v: 1.L0
   date: 04/16/2025
CPU:
 Info: 6-core 12th Gen Intel Core i5-12400F \[MT MCP\] speed (MHz): avg: 800
   min/max: 800/5600
Graphics:
 Device-1: Advanced Micro Devices \[AMD/ATI\] Navi 22 \[Radeon RX 6700/6700
   XT/6750 XT / 6800M/6850M XT\] driver: amdgpu v: kernel
 Display: wayland server: X.org v: 1.21.1.18 with: Xwayland v: 24.1.8
   compositor: kwin_wayland driver: X: loaded: amdgpu
   unloaded: modesetting,radeon dri: radeonsi gpu: amdgpu
   resolution: 3440x1440\~60Hz
 API: OpenGL v: 4.6 compat-v: 4.5 vendor: amd mesa v: 25.2.3-arch1.2
   renderer: AMD Radeon RX 6700 XT (radeonsi navi22 LLVM 20.1.8 DRM 3.64
   6.16.8-1-MANJARO)
 Info: Tools: api: clinfo, eglinfo, glxinfo, vulkaninfo
   de: kscreen-console,kscreen-doctor gpu: corectrl wl: wayland-info
   x11: xdpyinfo, xprop, xrandr
Audio:
 Device-1: Intel Alder Lake-S HD Audio driver: snd_hda_intel
 Device-2: Advanced Micro Devices \[AMD/ATI\] Navi 21/23 HDMI/DP Audio
   driver: snd_hda_intel
 Device-3: Lautsprecher Teufel GmbH Cinebar Ultima driver: snd-usb-audio
   type: USB
 API: ALSA v: k6.16.8-1-MANJARO status: kernel-api
 Server-1: PipeWire v: 1.4.8 status: active

Anything else I can try?

there are a lot of possible reasons. first check if the “optical” is in your groups from a terminal with

groups

A lot of vlc functionality has been split off into separate packages - there’s one specifically for DVDs.

sudo pacman -S vlc-plugin-dvd

# or vlc-plugins-extra
# to see what plugins it pulls in: pacman -Si vlc-plugins-extra 
sudo pacman -S vlc-plugins-extra

# or if you prefer, you can install all the plugins
sudo pacman -S vlc-plugins-all
7 Likes

Similar issue was reported by Xfce user recently
VLC is arguably more or less useless in this state in default Manjaro XFCE install

But Manjaro Team only seems to be considering dropping VLC from KDE ISOs
No consideration or response about Xfce ISO

Providing VLC as media player (#191) · Issues · Profiles & Settings / iso-profiles · GitLab

The idea of VLC splits was to actually remove VLC from Plasma. VLC is a Qt5 app and Plasma aims for Qt6. Profiles were not updated so VLC is still given in a non-functional way

3 Likes

Installing vlc-plugins-all did the trick.

Thanks @dmt and @nikgnomic !

3 Likes

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