<page xmlns="http://projectmallard.org/1.0/"
      type="topic" style="problem"
      id="video-dvd">

  <info>
    <link type="guide" xref="media#videos"/>
    
    <desc>You might not have the right codecs installed, or the DVD might be the
 wrong region.</desc>

    <revision pkgversion="3.2" date="2011-09-20" status="candidate"/>
    
    <credit type="author">
      <name>GNOME Documentation Project</name>
      <email>gnome-doc-list@gnome.org</email>
    </credit>
    
    <include href="legal.xml" xmlns="http://www.w3.org/2001/XInclude"/>
  </info>

<title>Why won't DVDs play?</title>

  <p>If you insert a DVD into your computer and it doesn't play, you may not
 have the right DVD <em>codecs</em> installed, or the DVD might be from a
 different <em>region</em>.</p>

<section id="codecs">
 <title>Installing the right codecs for DVD playback</title>
 <p>In order to play DVDs, you need to have the right <em>codecs</em> installed.
 A codec is a piece of software that allows applications to read a video or
 audio format. If your movie player software doesn't find the right codecs, it
 may offer to install them for you. If not, you'll have to install the codecs
 manually - ask for help on how to do this, for example on your Linux
 distribution's support forums. You'll probably need to install the packages
 <app>gstreamer0.10-plugins-ugly</app> and <app>libdvd0</app>.</p>

  <p>DVDs are also <em>copy-protected</em> using a system called CSS. This
 prevents you from copying DVDs, but it also prevents you from playing them
 unless you have extra software to handle the copy protection. You can buy a
 commercial DVD decoder that can handle copy protection from
 <link href="http://www.fluendo.com/shop/product/fluendo-dvd-player/">Fluendo</link>.
 It works with Linux and should be legal to use in all countries.</p>
</section>

<section id="region">
 <title>Checking the DVD region</title>
  <p>DVDs have a <em>region code</em>, which tells you in which region of the
 world they are allowed to be played. If the region of your computer's DVD
 player doesn't match the region of the DVD you are trying to play, you won't be
 able to play the DVD. For example, if you have a Region 1 DVD player, you will
 only be allowed to play DVDs from North America.</p>

  <p>It is often possible to change the region used by your DVD player, but it
 can only be done a few times before it locks into one region permanently. To
 change the DVD region of your computer's DVD player, use
 <link href="http://linvdr.org/projects/regionset/">regionset</link>.</p>
</section>
	
</page>
