[plug] Command line encrypted dvd playing with mplayer

[Craig Ringer]

> Now I thought I'd give mencoder a try, which runs mplayer via the
> command line ..

eh? Mencoder is a separate app that happens to share some code, intended 
for video encoding/transcoding.

> but I can't get DVDs to play via the command line.
> 
> mplayer -dvd 1 /dev/scd0

Weird. And it works in gmplayer on the same machine? Is the drive 
running in SCSI-emulation mode or a real SCSI dvd drive?

Did you compile mplayer yourself, or get a .deb/.rpm? If you first 
installed a package then compiled yourself, you will have overwritten 
mplayer but /not/ gmplayer unless you specifically compiled the GUI 
(./configure option).

> Starts is up but can't decrypt the stream, so I guess I have to use
> -dvdauth etc, but am not sure how to specify it, and can't find any
> useful examples in the usual places.

-dvdauth and such are for the old dvd decryption method. Newer mplayer 
versions (not that new, mind you) have a built in copy of mpdvdkit or 
something (can't remember) that does decryption etc. It should "just 
work". Debug messages?

> Does anyone know how to start encrypted DVDs from the command line?

mplayer -dvd titlenum
or
mplayer dvd://titlenum

> Any hints on mencoder would be much appreciated too :)

Its handy but I've never got acceptable quality out of it. (note: I'm a 
video quality snob, so my def'n of "acceptable" is pretty inflexible). I 
use it to grab "snippets" of video from DVDs sometimes, just streamcopy 
the bits. Sure, its a totally nonstandard AVI but mplayer can handle it.