System not reading DVDs at all

Support Software & Applications
1

Hi all. I’ve been using an external disc drive to play DVDs using VLC. However, it has recently stopped working at all for DVDs only: CDs still play as expected.

The issue isn’t specific to VLC because I also get similar issues with e.g. smplayer and DVDs also are not showing up in Thunar (CDs also appear as expected).

When using VLC I get these messages in the GUI:

Playback failure:
DVDRead could not open the disc "/dev/sr0".
Your input can't be opened:
VLC is unable to open the MRL 'dvd:///dev/sr0'. Check the log for details.

Running VLC from the terminal I get:

VLC media player 3.0.21 Vetinari (revision 3.0.21-0-gdd8bfdbabe8)
[0000559cdfa24610] main libvlc: Running vlc with the default interface. Use 'cvlc' to use vlc without interface.
[0000559cdfabdd80] main playlist: playlist is empty
[00007fc6640011a0] dvdnav demux error: Could not open /dev/sr0 with libdvdcss.
[00007fc6640011a0] dvdnav demux error: Can't open /dev/sr0 for reading
[00007fc6640011a0] dvdnav demux error: vm: failed to open/read the DVD
[00007fc6640011a0] dvdread demux error: Could not open /dev/sr0 with libdvdcss.
[00007fc6640011a0] dvdread demux error: Can't open /dev/sr0 for reading
[00007fc6640011a0] dvdread demux error: DVDRead cannot open source: /dev/sr0

I’ve already (re)installed VLC, other media players and all available codecs.

Any help would be greatly appreciated! Thanks as always.

2

I think the first thing to try (if not already tried) is to ensure vlc-plugins-all is installed.

4 Likes
3

There is also the “other” possibility…

Anecdotal:- I had a BluRay burner for a few years than began to fail, and this caused many symptoms that I didn’t immediately recognise (but, perhaps I should have) – burns would fail randomly, sometimes a disc would not be be “seen”, and so on.

Ultimately, replacing the hardware itself solved all issues (except for the pile of drink “coasters” I’d accumulated).

I’m not suggesting this is absolutely the cause in your case, but it’s certainly something to consider.

Regards.

2 Likes
4

Install vlc-plugin-dvd to support dvd playback

Or vlc-plugins-all for all VLC plugins

$ pamac info vlc
Name                  : vlc
Version               : 3.0.21-31
Description           : Free and open source cross-platform multimedia player and framework
URL                   : https://www.videolan.org/vlc/
Licences              : GPL-2.0-or-later LGPL-2.1-or-later
Repository            : extra
Installed Size        : 42.0 MB
Groups                : --
Depends On            : bash hicolor-icon-theme vlc-gui-qt=3.0.21
Optional Dependencies : vlc-gui-ncurses: for ncurses TUI
                        vlc-gui-skins2: for Skins2 GUI
                        vlc-plugins-all: for all plugins
                        vlc-plugins-extra: for extra plugins
                        vlc-plugins-visualization: for visualization plugins
                        vlc-plugin-aalib: for ASCII art video output support
                        vlc-plugin-aom: for AOM AV1 codec support
                        vlc-plugin-aribb24: for ARIB STD-24 codec and demux support
                        vlc-plugin-aribb25: for ARIB STD-25 stream filter support
                        vlc-plugin-ass: for SSA/ASS subtitle codec support
                        vlc-plugin-avahi: for mDNS/DNS-SD services discovery support
                        vlc-plugin-bluray: for Blu-ray access support
                        vlc-plugin-caca: for color ASCII art video output support
                        vlc-plugin-cddb: for CDDB access support
                        vlc-plugin-chromecast: for Chromecast stream out support
                        vlc-plugin-dca: for DTS Coherent Acoustics codec support
                        vlc-plugin-dvb: for DVB access, mux and demux support
                        vlc-plugin-dvd: for DVD access support
                        vlc-plugin-ffmpeg: for FFMPEG based access, codec, demux, packetizer, VDPAU, video chroma and video filter support
                        vlc-plugin-firewire: for FireWire device access support
                        vlc-plugin-fluidsynth: for FluidSynth codec support
                        vlc-plugin-freetype: for subtitle and on screen display text rendering support
                        vlc-plugin-gme: for Game Music Emulation demux support
                        vlc-plugin-gstreamer: for GStreamer codec support
                        vlc-plugin-jack: for JACK access and audio output support
                        vlc-plugin-kate: for kate karaoke codec support
                        vlc-plugin-kwallet: for kwallet keystore support
                        vlc-plugin-libsecret: for libsecret keystore support
                        vlc-plugin-lirc: for infrared remote control support
                        vlc-plugin-live555: for RTP/RTSP stream access support
                        vlc-plugin-mad: for MPEG Audio Decoder audio filter support
                        vlc-plugin-matroska: for Matroska demux support
                        vlc-plugin-mdns: for mDNS services discovery support
                        vlc-plugin-modplug: for MOD demux support
                        vlc-plugin-mpeg2: for MPEG2 codec support
                        vlc-plugin-mtp: for MTP device access and discovery support
                        vlc-plugin-musepack: for MusePack demux support
                        vlc-plugin-nfs: for NFS access support
                        vlc-plugin-notify: for notification support
                        vlc-plugin-quicksync: for Intel QuickSync H264/H262 codec support
                        vlc-plugin-samplerate: for samplerate audio filter support
                        vlc-plugin-sdl: for SDL codec support
                        vlc-plugin-sftp: for SFTP access support
                        vlc-plugin-smb: for SMB access support
                        vlc-plugin-soxr: for SoX Resampler audio filter support
                        vlc-plugin-srt: for SRT subtitle file support
                        vlc-plugin-svg: for SVG codec and text renderer support
                        vlc-plugin-udev: for ALSA services discovery support using udev
                        vlc-plugin-upnp: for UPnP services discovery support
                        vlc-plugin-x264: for H264/AVC encoding support
                        vlc-plugin-x265: for H265/HEVC encoding support
                        vlc-plugin-zvbi: for VBI access (also over V4L2) and codec support
Required By           : --
Optional For          : --
Provides              : --
Replaces              : vlc-plugin
Conflicts With        : vlc-plugin
Packager              : Christian Heusel <gromit@archlinux.org>
Build Date            : Thu 30 Oct 2025 14:46:34 GMT
Install Date          : Thu 06 Nov 2025 13:19:03 GMT
Install Reason        : Explicitly installed
Validated By          : Signature
Backup files          : --

Stable Update 2025-07-12 - Known Issues and Solutions

VLC does not play (certain) videos

For this update, the VLC packages were split up, and not all codecs may be installed on your system. You can install the additional codecs individually, or install the vlc-plugins-all meta-package, which will pull in all available plugins.

3 Likes
5

Tried that already, but thanks for the suggestion!

6

Both already installed, unfortunately.

I think you and I have almost the same outputs from info vlc, except for the final bit of the version number. But I’m sure I have the latest one that my system wants to install, so I’m not sure what’s going on there (or if it’s relevant).

Name                  : vlc
Version               : 3.0.21-28
Description           : Free and open source cross-platform multimedia player and framework
URL                   : https://www.videolan.org/vlc/
Licences              : GPL-2.0-or-later LGPL-2.1-or-later
Repository            : extra
Installed Size        : 42.0 MB
Groups                : --
Depends On            : bash hicolor-icon-theme vlc-gui-qt=3.0.21
Optional Dependencies : vlc-gui-ncurses: for ncurses TUI [Installed]
                        vlc-gui-skins2: for Skins2 GUI [Installed]
                        vlc-plugins-all: for all plugins [Installed]
                        vlc-plugins-extra: for extra plugins [Installed]
                        vlc-plugins-visualization: for visualization plugins [Installed]
                        vlc-plugin-aalib: for ASCII art video output support [Installed]
                        vlc-plugin-aom: for AOM AV1 codec support [Installed]
                        vlc-plugin-aribb24: for ARIB STD-24 codec and demux support [Installed]
                        vlc-plugin-aribb25: for ARIB STD-25 stream filter support [Installed]
                        vlc-plugin-ass: for SSA/ASS subtitle codec support [Installed]
                        vlc-plugin-avahi: for mDNS/DNS-SD services discovery support [Installed]
                        vlc-plugin-bluray: for Blu-ray access support [Installed]
                        vlc-plugin-caca: for color ASCII art video output support [Installed]
                        vlc-plugin-cddb: for CDDB access support [Installed]
                        vlc-plugin-chromecast: for Chromecast stream out support [Installed]
                        vlc-plugin-dca: for DTS Coherent Acoustics codec support [Installed]
                        vlc-plugin-dvb: for DVB access, mux and demux support [Installed]
                        vlc-plugin-dvd: for DVD access support [Installed]
                        vlc-plugin-ffmpeg: for FFMPEG based access, codec, demux, packetizer, VDPAU, video chroma and video filter support [Installed]
                        vlc-plugin-firewire: for FireWire device access support [Installed]
                        vlc-plugin-fluidsynth: for FluidSynth codec support [Installed]
                        vlc-plugin-freetype: for subtitle and on screen display text rendering support [Installed]
                        vlc-plugin-gme: for Game Music Emulation demux support [Installed]
                        vlc-plugin-gstreamer: for GStreamer codec support [Installed]
                        vlc-plugin-jack: for JACK access and audio output support [Installed]
                        vlc-plugin-kate: for kate karaoke codec support [Installed]
                        vlc-plugin-kwallet: for kwallet keystore support [Installed]
                        vlc-plugin-libsecret: for libsecret keystore support [Installed]
                        vlc-plugin-lirc: for infrared remote control support [Installed]
                        vlc-plugin-live555: for RTP/RTSP stream access support [Installed]
                        vlc-plugin-mad: for MPEG Audio Decoder audio filter support [Installed]
                        vlc-plugin-matroska: for Matroska demux support [Installed]
                        vlc-plugin-mdns: for mDNS services discovery support [Installed]
                        vlc-plugin-modplug: for MOD demux support [Installed]
                        vlc-plugin-mpeg2: for MPEG2 codec support [Installed]
                        vlc-plugin-mtp: for MTP device access and discovery support [Installed]
                        vlc-plugin-musepack: for MusePack demux support [Installed]
                        vlc-plugin-nfs: for NFS access support [Installed]
                        vlc-plugin-notify: for notification support [Installed]
                        vlc-plugin-quicksync: for Intel QuickSync H264/H262 codec support [Installed]
                        vlc-plugin-samplerate: for samplerate audio filter support [Installed]
                        vlc-plugin-sdl: for SDL codec support [Installed]
                        vlc-plugin-sftp: for SFTP access support [Installed]
                        vlc-plugin-smb: for SMB access support [Installed]
                        vlc-plugin-soxr: for SoX Resampler audio filter support [Installed]
                        vlc-plugin-srt: for SRT subtitle file support [Installed]
                        vlc-plugin-svg: for SVG codec and text renderer support [Installed]
                        vlc-plugin-udev: for ALSA services discovery support using udev [Installed]
                        vlc-plugin-upnp: for UPnP services discovery support [Installed]
                        vlc-plugin-x264: for H264/AVC encoding support [Installed]
                        vlc-plugin-x265: for H265/HEVC encoding support [Installed]
                        vlc-plugin-zvbi: for VBI access (also over V4L2) and codec support [Installed]
Required By           : --
Optional For          : --
Provides              : --
Replaces              : vlc-plugin
Conflicts With        : vlc-plugin
Packager              : Christian Heusel <gromit@archlinux.org>
Build Date            : Wed 20 Aug 2025 08:16:10 BST
Install Date          : Mon 17 Nov 2025 13:50:56 GMT
Install Reason        : Explicitly installed
Validated By          : Signature
7

The fact that it’s playing CDs OK seems to suggest it’s probably not a hardware problem. Could you have removed libdvdcss perhaps?

8

Not necessarily, dvd has higher density. A failing dvd could start with errors on dvd and still working cd.
But yeah, check libdvdcss too.

9

No, libdvdcss is installed and up to date according to the terminal.

I agree it’s unlikely to be a hardware issue as it’s also quite a new player!

10

Could it be the media in question?

There is - as I recall - different types of dvd media - some is written on one side - some on the other and some on both?

11

And for that reason alone, let’s hope you are correct. At least if it is a hardware issue, being so new, it’s presumedly still under warranty.

Thanks for responding, at least, indirectly. Good luck.

12

you have to be in the ‘optical’ group to access dvd’s. please post the output of

groups

also the following packets must be installed if the dvd’s are copy-protected

libdvdread libdvdcss libdvdnav

if you’re not in the optical-group add yourself to it with

sudo usermod -aG optical $USER

a reboot is needed after.

1 Like
13

Logout and then login should be sufficient to activate group membership.
:footprints:

1 Like
14

Per the Arch wiki, this should not be necessary anymore since the switch to systemd.

Users and groups - ArchWiki

Also, @frankPod stated that it used to work, but now not anymore or only partially.