How to get my Linux system to recognize a video CD or DVD?

[Matt Graham]

From: joe
> A friend gave me a [VCD].  When I put the disc in my Linux box
> external CD/DVD drive, it is not recognized. Nada.

VCDs don't have filesystems on them.  As a result, automounters tend to have
difficulty with them.  VCDs are not really that common in the USA, so
supporting them wasn't a must-have feature.

> When I put the same disc in my wife's windblows laptop, it plays fine.
> All other discs that I put in my Linux box CD/DVD drive work fine.

I know that mplayer can play VCDs.  I'm not sure if xine can play VCDs, but it
might be able to.  If you put the VCD in the drive and start mplayer or xine,
see if you can tell it "play the VCD in /dev/sr0".  I can't tell you exactly
what to do as I don't have any VCDs.  The command-line program vcdimager can
extract VCD data as MPEG-1 (or MPEG-2 if it's an SVCD) which may be easier to
fool with.

-- 
Matt G / Dances With Crows
The Crow202 Blog:  http://crow202.org/wordpress/
There is no Darkness in Eternity/But only Light too dim for us to see