Playing encrypted DVDs in Ubuntu

December 19, 2006 · General ·

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The movie players provided in Ubuntu can play back unencrypted DVDs. However, many commercial DVDs are encrypted with a weak algorithm called Content Scrambling System (CSS).You can enable playback of encrypted DVDs with MPlayer, xine and Totem-xine by installing libdvdcss2.

The CSS key sets are licensed to manufacturers who incorporate them into products such as DVD drives, DVD players and DVD movie releases.Most DVD players are equipped with a CSS Decryption module.

Installing libdvdcss2

First you need to install the libdvdread3 package using the following command

sudo apt-get install libdvdread3

Now download the libdvdcss2 library using the following command

sudo /usr/share/doc/libdvdread3/examples/install-css.sh

For Ubuntu 6.10 (Edgy Eft) users use the following command

sudo /usr/share/doc/libdvdread3/install-css.sh

If you want to download libdvdcss2 library manually you can download from here

For AMD64 Users

First you need to install the following packages

sudo apt-get install debhelper build-essential fakeroot

Now download the libdvdcss2 library using the following command

sudo /usr/share/doc/libdvdread3/examples/install-css.sh

For Ubuntu Edgy Users use the following command

sudo /usr/share/doc/libdvdread3/install-css.sh

That's it now Your DVD player should now play back encrypted DVDs.You can ope your Movie player from Applications > Sound & Video

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20 Comments to “Playing encrypted DVDs in Ubuntu”

  1. fil says:
    April 18, 2007 at 3:40 pm

    thanks

  2. Dan says:
    June 4, 2007 at 3:36 am

    I got an error when I tried this, and I ended up needing to install some libxine packages using adept…

  3. Mark Stowe says:
    June 28, 2007 at 12:47 pm

    I have Ubuntu 7.04 Feisty… However, in your instructions, the filepath is wrong. I had to use..
    sudo /usr/share/doc/libdvdread3/install-css.sh
    ..instead. The examples folder was nonexistent.

  4. vodkaice says:
    July 9, 2007 at 10:48 pm

    Thanks Mark Stowe, this command works on 7.04:
    sudo /usr/share/doc/libdvdread3/install-css.sh

  5. Andronicus says:
    August 15, 2007 at 1:59 am

    Thanks Mark Stowe, the command does work on 7.04.

  6. ScoopJumps says:
    September 26, 2007 at 10:45 am

    Worked like a charm. Thanks for this article. For your information this was on Ubuntu 6.06

  7. crypticdb8 says:
    February 8, 2008 at 11:10 pm

    Worked perfectly. THank you.

  8. Cory says:
    September 15, 2008 at 9:51 pm

    Correction for the 64-Bit Instructions:
    sudo /usr/share/doc/libdvdread3/install-css.sh
    should be used on version 8.04 and probably higher.

  9. Aaron says:
    November 10, 2008 at 2:03 am

    8.10 the command is:

    sudo /usr/share/doc/libdvdread3/install-css.sh

  10. Gavin C. Stewart says:
    December 25, 2008 at 3:16 am

    Hello,

    I got commercial DVD playback on my computer working. Thanks a lot! Although I must mention that I also had to use” sudo /usr/share/doc/libdvdread3/install-css.sh” instead, to get things working.

  11. Chris says:
    February 15, 2009 at 10:50 am

    Didn’t work for me. Still can’t watch my family guy!

  12. Chris says:
    February 15, 2009 at 11:34 am

    This guide didn’t work for me, but I tried , which told me to install

    Turns out I was missing these: ubuntu-restricted-extras gstreamer0.10-esd gstreamer0.10-fluendo-mp3 gstreamer0.10-fluendo-mpegdemux

    I installed those, rebooted, and magic! I can watch DVDs now!

  13. Chris says:
    February 15, 2009 at 11:59 am

    Remember to restart after doing this guide! It won’t work until you do so!

  14. grptrk says:
    March 16, 2009 at 10:39 am

    Thanks, worked fine for me 4 years after the post 🙂

  15. Mark says:
    June 21, 2009 at 7:28 pm

    This doesn’t work for me (Ubuntu 9.04). I just discovered the new version (libdvdread4) is in the Restricted Extras package, which means from this release on you should tell your terminal to do THIS:

    sudo /usr/share/doc/libdvdread4/install-css.sh

  16. anonymous says:
    July 11, 2009 at 10:59 am

    Ubuntu 9.04 does work w/ decrypted dvd w/ that installation. “./install-css.sh” go to that dir. and exec. it. goodluck!

  17. doc says:
    August 21, 2011 at 3:48 pm

    This works, the case if it doesn’t work is that now there is libdvdread4 instead libdvdread3. so please use sudo /usr/share/doc/libdvdread4/install-css.sh
    instead. It worked for me.
    I’m using Ubuntu 11

  18. kika says:
    January 6, 2012 at 4:02 pm

    hello 🙂 …i am beginner in using terminal …and i need help… when i wrote sudo apt-get install libdvdread3 …then it wrote me unable to locate…so what to do for it????

  19. Lee says:
    May 4, 2012 at 3:37 am

    Thank you doc. newer ubuntu os has libdvdread4. Now I can watch Star Trek!

  20. Sam says:
    May 25, 2012 at 7:55 pm

    Thanks a lot man frkin love you, lol your the best works well on newest ubuntu

    thanks also to the site makers

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