How To Play DVD In Ubuntu 14.04 And 16.04

Last updated August 5, 2016 By Abhishek Prakash 77 Comments

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Ubuntu won’t play DVD? Even after you installed all codecs from Ubuntu Restricted Extra package? Welcome to the club. You are not alone who cannot play DVD in Ubuntu Ubuntu 14.04. In this quick tip, I’ll show you how to fix the issues with playing DVD or even encrypted DVD in Ubuntu 14.04.

This article was originally written for Ubuntu 13.10 but as many readers have verified that it is also applicable to Ubuntu 14.04 and Ubuntu 16.04.

This issue was raised by an It’s FOSS reader Etienne Batori on things to do after installing Ubuntu 13.10. Here we shall see, in a more organized way, what we did to fix this issue of Ubuntu not reading DVDs.

Play DVDs in Ubuntu 14.04 and 16.04:

We need to install few codecs required specifically to play DVDs comfortably. These are:

libdvdcss2: to recognize DVD
libdvdread4: to read DVD
libdvdnav4: to navigate DVD

Step 1:

First step (actually optional) is to get VLC media player. You can install VLC from Ubuntu Software Center or using the following command in terminal:

sudo apt-get install vlc

Once you have it installed, install libdvdcss2. It used to come by default with Medibuntu repository. But since Medibuntu is no longer available, you will have to install this library from the VLC repository. Use the links bellow to install libdvdcss2:

Double click on the downloaded deb files to install it via Ubuntu Software Center. Alternatively, you can use GDebi to install .deb files more easily.

Step 2:

Once we have it, lets install libdvdread4 and libdvdnav4. Use the following command in the terminal:

sudo apt-get install libdvdread4 libdvdnav4

If the DVD play back does not work, try to set your region code. You can follow the instructions given here to set the region code. It worked for me without it.

About Abhishek Prakash

I am a professional software developer, and founder of It's FOSS. I am an avid Linux lover and Open Source enthusiast. I use Ubuntu and believe in sharing knowledge. Apart from Linux, I love classic detective mysteries. I'm also a huge fan of Agatha Christie's work.

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77 comments

4:52 pmMay 20, 2017 Ron

I'm using Kubuntu 16.04
I followed the instructions and it worked, thank you.
However, since I rebooted my laptop it no longer works.
When I try to open a DVD in VLC media player, I get :
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.
I followed the instructions again, but it still doesn't work.
Any help would be much appreciated.

6:53 pmJuly 15, 2017 Eugene

Abhishek Prakash, It would help if you could add downloadable links to libdvdread4 and libdvdnav4 because they are no longer default list of ubuntu's terminal. Here are the links I used to get dvd's working in my computer:

https://pkgs.org/download/libdvdread4
https://pkgs.org/download/libdvdnav4

6:48 pmJuly 15, 2017 Eugene

Ps...I used to be able to get dvd's working in VLC by opening the disc in VLC and selecting 'DVD' and then changing '/dev/sr0' to '/dev/dvd' but with no result.

I did just manage to get a dvd menu to work in vlc by going: Media>Open Multiple Files... then I would go to my dvd player via the 'media' folder and then select the dvd's video files and pressing Shift or Ctrl and selecting all of the files in the VIDEO TS file and then selecting >Open.

6:39 pmJuly 15, 2017 Eugene

I am using ubuntu 16.10 and I the terminal doesn't recognise any of these packages anymore so, I googled 'libdvdread4 official download' and I went to: https://pkgs.org/download/libdvdread4 (which I dowloaded and installed in the ubuntu software centre.

Then I googled 'libdvdnav4 official dowload' and found this link: https://pkgs.org/download/libdvdnav4

I dowloaded the .deb file and clicked and installed it in ubuntu software centre, then I opened a dvd in a default ubuntu video player and it worked.

I can't seem to get this to work in VLC either.

1:25 amMay 19, 2017 Vivian

Thank You so much! It worked after thousand of attempts from other sources. You are brilliant.

3:39 pmApril 19, 2017 Willis Cook

I have used Ubuntu for more than ten years and it still frustrates me. Evidently when I upgraded from 12.04 to 14.04 in December I lost the ability to read DVDs, which I had before. When my wife brought home a DVD from the Library it wouldn't play. I spent several hours typing in commands offered by various sites as the solution to the problem before finding your site. Your instructions worked perfectly. Thank you very much. I assume the problem is that one of the necessary codexes is proprietary and Ubuntu refuses to include it in its distribution. That's well and good, but the purpose of an OS is to allow the user to use his computer -- not to demonstrate one's objection to practices of the commercial software world. How many thousands have given up on Ubuntu and returned to Windows? When Totem doesn't recognize a DVD couldn't it at least give a more helpful message than "An error has occurred"? And yes, I like VCL much better.
As a classic mystery lover, have you read The Moving Toyshop by Edmund Crispin (1946)?
Thanks again.

6:38 pmFebruary 28, 2017 Ralph

I did a fresh install of Ubuntu Mate 16.04. CD/DVD’s not working. Installed Ubuntu Restricted Extras. VLC was pre installed. Also installed “libdvdcss2” (32 bit), “libdvdread4”, “libdvdnav4” thru the terminal. When I go to play an instructional CD, a CD icon shows up on my desktop with the title of the CD showing that’s it’s in the CD-dvd rom. Back in Computer there is nothing showing that the CD is in the player, in either of the CD/DVD’s.

It seems to me that when I installed Ubuntu 12.04 that just putting in the Restricted Extras did the trick

I don’t know what to do first, or if there is a less complicated way to do this.

Before I go any further, and mess things up...Please help.

Thanks

6:25 pmNovember 21, 2016 bvrulez

Hi, I bought a new TSST TS-U633A USB 3.0 drive and I an not able to use it in Linux. Mac is no problem. Linux (Lubuntu 16.04) is mounting it but no software will play the movie-files. MakeMKV is saying that there is protection on it that is not able to work around. Region is "SET", according to the terminal. And it is the correct region for my original DVD. So I used your libdvdcss2, but still not possible.

4:43 amOctober 18, 2016 Tony Ward

Install Mint 18 {Sarah} and after much tearing-out of hair, this worked. Thanks Heaps!!

5:54 pmOctober 15, 2016 Tom Bell

Any idea why When I run

sudo apt-get install libdvd-pkg

I get this?

E: Could not get lock /var/lib/dpkg/lock - open (11: Resource temporarily unavailable)

E: Unable to lock the administration directory (/var/lib/dpkg/), is another process using it?

???

12:22 pmNovember 19, 2016 Alexander Garber

You probably tried installing something else and haven't closed the process.

If everything else has been closed, use this command, with caution:

sudo rm /var/lib/dpkg/lock

The "lock" file is exactly that, a file called "lock" in the folder "/var/lib/dpkg/" which the package manager checks for whenever it performs an action. If it finds the "lock" file it won't proceed; if you delete it, you can get back to doing what you wanted.

7:55 amJune 12, 2016 solitudeseeker64150

Thanks! It worked like a charm. I want to tell you that I have been having this issue for a couple of years. I will insert a CD/DVD and nothing would happen. I resigned to believing that the drive is faulty and I need to replace it. You saved me some money. Thanks again!

3:28 pmMay 18, 2016 thisisit

This worked for me on 16.04.

11:16 pmFebruary 13, 2016 tap364

Thanks! That was the missing piece to the puzzle.

11:59 pmJanuary 23, 2016 spicyflash

Thanks a ton!

7:38 pmDecember 26, 2015 BrunoVissu

Thank you.

It worked fine for me on 14.04 (although step 2 was not needed, i.e. done previously whilst trying to get the thing working). VLC was there, but I removed it and installed it back. I think the libdvdcss2 install (using the plain built in application installer) did the trick. Just too bad you need you need so much fiddlings to get a simple function (playing dvd) to work. Probably some restriction on licenses prevents Ubuntu to distribute a finished OS. But I remain a fan anyway. Thank you again. Regards.