[MPlayer-users] MPLAYER DVD Play Usability Question...

[Alexander Roalter]

Bruce Willis wrote:
> Hello, I am new to MPLAYER and it is great and comprehensive.
> 
> Can somebody please provide tips or guidance on how to execute playing of DVD from command line, where it always syncs up the start of the DVD?  Maybe it's impossible, but I found one disc I had to use
> 
> mplayer dvd://16 
> 
> to get to what would be the beginning of the Movie.... and another movie "GO" could not be played properly at all.  What I mean is, 
> 
> mplayer dvd://1
> 
> Would spin up the start of the movie, *with* director commentary.... I don't know how to turn that off... and all the rest of the tracks to the very end were 'extras'.  Could not get the movie to play cleanly.
> 
> Is there a sure-fire way to get into DVD's reliably in a standard way, or is that just simply not possible?
> 
> I didn't try the DVDMENU feature, but I noticed it wasn't included and heard it was very "Alpha" and such.  Maybe someone can clear any misconceptions or set me straight. :))
> 
> Best regards, BW.
> 
the main feature is not always the first title on a DVD. Some studios 
use mostly 1 as their feature (esp. Sony, Warner), while others have a 
whole mix of 1st, last or something in the middles (esp. 
Touchstone/Buena Vista). It really depends on the authoring software the 
studios use.

As for playability: use mplayer dvd:// -identify, which will print out 
something like this:

ID_DVD_TITLES=25
ID_DVD_TITLE_1_CHAPTERS=28
ID_DVD_TITLE_1_ANGLES=1
ID_DVD_TITLE_2_CHAPTERS=2
ID_DVD_TITLE_2_ANGLES=1
ID_DVD_TITLE_3_CHAPTERS=2
ID_DVD_TITLE_3_ANGLES=1
ID_DVD_TITLE_4_CHAPTERS=2
ID_DVD_TITLE_4_ANGLES=1
ID_DVD_TITLE_5_CHAPTERS=2
ID_DVD_TITLE_5_ANGLES=1
ID_DVD_TITLE_6_CHAPTERS=2
ID_DVD_TITLE_6_ANGLES=1
ID_DVD_TITLE_7_CHAPTERS=2
ID_DVD_TITLE_7_ANGLES=1
ID_DVD_TITLE_8_CHAPTERS=2
ID_DVD_TITLE_8_ANGLES=1
ID_DVD_TITLE_9_CHAPTERS=2
ID_DVD_TITLE_9_ANGLES=1
ID_DVD_TITLE_10_CHAPTERS=1
ID_DVD_TITLE_10_ANGLES=1
ID_DVD_TITLE_11_CHAPTERS=1
ID_DVD_TITLE_11_ANGLES=1
ID_DVD_TITLE_12_CHAPTERS=1
ID_DVD_TITLE_12_ANGLES=1
ID_DVD_TITLE_13_CHAPTERS=2
ID_DVD_TITLE_13_ANGLES=1
ID_DVD_TITLE_14_CHAPTERS=1
ID_DVD_TITLE_14_ANGLES=1
ID_DVD_TITLE_15_CHAPTERS=1
ID_DVD_TITLE_15_ANGLES=1
ID_DVD_TITLE_16_CHAPTERS=1
ID_DVD_TITLE_16_ANGLES=1
ID_DVD_TITLE_17_CHAPTERS=28
ID_DVD_TITLE_17_ANGLES=1
ID_DVD_TITLE_18_CHAPTERS=28
ID_DVD_TITLE_18_ANGLES=1
ID_DVD_TITLE_19_CHAPTERS=28
ID_DVD_TITLE_19_ANGLES=1
ID_DVD_TITLE_20_CHAPTERS=28
ID_DVD_TITLE_20_ANGLES=1
ID_DVD_TITLE_21_CHAPTERS=28
ID_DVD_TITLE_21_ANGLES=1
ID_DVD_TITLE_22_CHAPTERS=28
ID_DVD_TITLE_22_ANGLES=1
ID_DVD_TITLE_23_CHAPTERS=28
ID_DVD_TITLE_23_ANGLES=1
ID_DVD_TITLE_24_CHAPTERS=28
ID_DVD_TITLE_24_ANGLES=1
ID_DVD_TITLE_25_CHAPTERS=28
ID_DVD_TITLE_25_ANGLES=1
ID_DVD_TITLE_1_LENGTH=7106.920
ID_DVD_TITLE_2_LENGTH=143.600
ID_DVD_TITLE_3_LENGTH=118.600
ID_DVD_TITLE_4_LENGTH=115.600
ID_DVD_TITLE_5_LENGTH=104.640
ID_DVD_TITLE_6_LENGTH=103.160
ID_DVD_TITLE_7_LENGTH=129.600
ID_DVD_TITLE_8_LENGTH=69.400
ID_DVD_TITLE_9_LENGTH=14.600
ID_DVD_TITLE_10_LENGTH=12.600
ID_DVD_TITLE_11_LENGTH=15.200
ID_DVD_TITLE_12_LENGTH=10.000
ID_DVD_TITLE_13_LENGTH=36.200
ID_DVD_TITLE_14_LENGTH=9.520
ID_DVD_TITLE_15_LENGTH=8.520
ID_DVD_TITLE_16_LENGTH=9.520
etc...

this means, title 1 is most probably what you want (it has a reasonable 
amount of chapters and is long more than 7000 seconds (~2hrs).

so you can use mplayer dvd://1 for this dvd.

As for the language: You can either toggle the languages with the '#' 
key, or specify -alang en at the command line, which selects the first 
english language track. to see all available tracks for a title just 
look at the output of mplayer:

audio stream: 0 format: ac3 (5.1) language: en aid: 128.
audio stream: 1 format: ac3 (5.1) language: de aid: 129.
audio stream: 2 format: ac3 (stereo) language: en aid: 130.
audio stream: 3 format: ac3 (stereo) language: en aid: 131.
number of audio channels on disk: 4.
subtitle ( sid ): 0 language: en
subtitle ( sid ): 1 language: de
subtitle ( sid ): 2 language: tr
subtitle ( sid ): 3 language: de
subtitle ( sid ): 4 language: de
number of subtitles on disk: 5

Track 130 and 131 are audio commentaries. Instead of using -alang you 
can also use -aid with the channel number (this is especially useful if 
there are more english tracks and you want one specific, e.g. the dts track.


-- 
cheers,
Alex