.dat woes! dvds wont play in my lynx :(

can someone tell me what do i do to play .dat files in ubuntu. i have vlc installed, but it doesn't seem to work! it keeps telling me "Your input can't be opened:
VLC is unable to open the MRL 'dvd:///media/VolumeLabel'. Check the log for details."

neither can bro play his gre prep disc!

what's wrong with it? I have all the restricted extras loaded too!

 

help please!!! someone????

 

I don't think you are supposed to open the .dat file directly. If this is for a dvd video file, I believe you're supposed to open another file which is smaller in size. That file then will make/guide/direct vlc or any other dvd movie program to read the .dat file. Try opening the .vob file with vlc maybe?

On the other hand, don't you have a way to set up the default dvd player? I assume you're using Ubuntu? Surely there's a way to do that in Ubuntu.

On your bro's gre prep disc, I believe the disc is supposed to install something, and that program is for Windows only as far as I know.

 

You can't play DVDs in a text-only browser?

.dat is not DVD, it's VCD (MPEG-1). Mplayer or VLC should play them without any problems. If it chokes for some reason, try renaming it from .dat to .mpg.

 

it doesn;t work that way it keeps telling me that i might not have permission to open the files, although i'm using an admin account! neither mplayer nor vlc helps!

 

what way r u referring to? as for the gre disc being win only, i tried running it with wine, without any success!

 

With DVD's .vob is the extension you want to look for (if looking). When you open VLC, you can't click "Media" then click "Open Disc" to play a DVD?

 

I'm referring to your .dat woes. If it's a dvd movie disc, I don't think the .dat file is what you should be looking for. I still think it'd be wise for you to install the default player so that when you insert your dvd disc in, ubuntu will automatically play the movie.

About your gre prep disc, well, that's a problem between wine and what ever windows program the disc is supposed to install.

 

thanks! how do you install this 'default' player? i suppose you are referring to the movie player? that doesn't work.

 

nope tells me i might not have permission to access the file" although i'm in the admin account

 

ok guys!!!! thanks a lot. just managed to configure the default player, and now the dvd s seem to work fine. however, cd s with .dat format are still a problem, and somehow now autorun wont work with the software discs that I get with a linux mag....


also, i decided to upgrade to Ubuntu studio ..... currently on it! will let ya paople know if the cd problem still persists ....


thanks a lot for the suggestions guys keep them coming!