I am trying to play a DVD(Pirates of the Carribbean) in antiX and MPlayer just freezes. Do I need to install something first? libdvdcss2?

Yes, you will need to install codecs and such to play most commercial DVDs (not all - I have a few that play just fine without installing anything else)

I installed libdvdcss2 and then tried to play it in MPlayer and I get the following error:"Error opening/initializing the selected video out device"

The disc is mounted and I can see the Video_TS files. It also plays fine in Mepis and normal DVD players. Any ideas?

Open video from the fluxbox menu, click on the blue mplayer screen and go to preferences/video and chooses xv (or any except the default first one.) Save, close mplayer and open again.

OK...I did that and changed it to xv. I don't get the message any more and it opens my disc, kind of. It shows 0 seconds out of 5 minutes 23 seconds on MPlayer but will not start playing it. It can read the DVD because when I move the progress bar to the middle it shows a seen in the movie and it freezes there and just keeps repeating a noise through the speakers. Any ideas?

I also tried playing the same DVD in xine-ui and VLC with the same results. They know that it is there and can see the length and the name of the disc but none can play it successfully. Any ideas on what I should try next?

It might be the audio that is the problem. Can you play mp3's or cd's.
If not, what audio card do you have?

I tried playing a CD (one that I know works because it plays in Mepis) and I got similar results. The disc mounts and I can see all the tracks. I click one to play it with XMMS and it shows the number and length of the track in the XMMS window but will not start playing it. If I drag the progress bar to the middle (or anywhere in the track) the sound just keeps looping from whatever second I am at. I don't have any mp3's I can try, do you know of anywhere where I can DL one quick to see if it works? Other than that I am not sure, what should I try?

OK, I am making some progress. I remembered having a similar issue when I first installed Mepis. I looked at the thread I started about the topic in the Mepislovers.org forum ( I would have linked to it but it appears they are having some database issues). Sound works now. I can play CD's with no issue. Sound also works on the DVD I tried and it plays, sort of. For some reason I can only play the previews and bloopers not the main feature. I couldn't find where to navigate to the DVD menu and every title and/or chapter I tried either resulted in nothing or a preview or movie blooper. Is there something else I am missing?

Check to see if you have libdvdread installed. It may have a version number on the end depending what repos you are using. Maybe libdvdnav as well.

eriefisher

Yea, I have libdvdread3 and libdvdnav4 already installed. What should I try next?

Try this.
1. Put in dvd
2. Open video from menu (Audio/video)
3. Right click on the blue mplayer screen
4. Open>Play dvd

I understand that, and that is why I had been doing. It will show 0/5:23 for the time in MPlayer. Then it plays the cast/crew out takes of the movie for the 5 minutes and 23 seconds and then it just stops. Doesn't go into the movie or bring me to the menu. I can't navigate to the menu in the beginning because I can not find an option to do that.

It might be the dvd. Try another dvd and see if it plays properly.

This DVD plays fine in Mepis and Windows. I will try another one though.