VLC media player crashing during DVD playback

[Peter John Robinson]

Last year I helped a friend set up a desktop (purchased from pbtech)
running ubuntu 10.04 amd64. I understand it's generally going well.

We ran through the routine at
https://help.ubuntu.com/community/RestrictedFormats/PlayingDVDs for
playing commercial DVDs... straight forward. VLC played DVDs fine for
first few months, then after a software update (I think), started
crashing. Sometimes it would play a few minutes of video before the
crash, other times it wouldn't play at all.

As an alternative Totem works fine on my desktop here, although doesn't
navigate through menus as well as VLC (according to the above link).

The lines from /var/log/syslog below correspond to the time of today's
error (which was failing to start playback at all). Do they offer some
clues? Could it be a DVD region related problem? Should I be looking
in another log?

Thanks
Peter

[ 203.010216] ata4.00: revalidation failed (errno=-19)
[ 203.010231] ata4: soft resetting link
[ 203.171421] ata4.01: NODEV after polling detection
[ 203.240970] ata4.00: failed to IDENTIFY (I/O error, err_mask=0x2)
[ 203.240976] ata4.00: revalidation failed (errno=-5)
[ 203.240983] ata4.00: disabled
[ 208.170042] ata4: soft resetting link
[ 208.331419] ata4.01: NODEV after polling detection
[ 208.350217] ata4.00: ATAPI: HL-DT-ST DVDRAM GH22NS50, TN02, max UDMA/100
[ 208.390265] ata4.00: configured for UDMA/100
[ 208.392388] sr 3:0:0:0: [sr0] Unhandled sense code
[ 208.392393] sr 3:0:0:0: [sr0] Result: hostbyte=DID_OK
driverbyte=DRIVER_SENSE
[ 208.392399] sr 3:0:0:0: [sr0] Sense Key : Hardware Error [current]
[ 208.392406] sr 3:0:0:0: [sr0] Add. Sense: Logical unit communication
CRC error (Ultra-DMA/32)
[ 208.392413] sr 3:0:0:0: [sr0] CDB: Read(10): 28 00 00 00 46 28 00 00
40 00
[ 208.392427] end_request: I/O error, dev sr0, sector 71840
[ 208.392433] __ratelimit: 118 callbacks suppressed
[ 208.392438] Buffer I/O error on device sr0, logical block 17960
[ 208.392444] Buffer I/O error on device sr0, logical block 17961
[ 208.392448] Buffer I/O error on device sr0, logical block 17962
[ 208.392452] Buffer I/O error on device sr0, logical block 17963
[ 208.392457] Buffer I/O error on device sr0, logical block 17964
[ 208.392462] Buffer I/O error on device sr0, logical block 17965
[ 208.392466] Buffer I/O error on device sr0, logical block 17966
[ 208.392470] Buffer I/O error on device sr0, logical block 17967
[ 208.392474] Buffer I/O error on device sr0, logical block 17968
[ 208.392478] Buffer I/O error on device sr0, logical block 17969
[ 208.392540] sr 3:0:0:0: rejecting I/O to offline device
[ 208.392553] ata4: EH complete
[ 208.392559] ata4.00: detaching (SCSI 3:0:0:0)
[ 208.464851] scsi 3:0:0:0: rejecting I/O to offline device
[ 208.464864] scsi 3:0:0:0: rejecting I/O to offline device
[ 208.465411] VFS: busy inodes on changed media or resized disk sr0
[ 208.470111] scsi 3:0:0:0: CD-ROM HL-DT-ST DVDRAM GH22NS50
TN02 PQ: 0 ANSI: 5
[ 208.474073] sr1: scsi3-mmc drive: 125x/125x writer dvd-ram cd/rw
xa/form2 cdda tray
[ 208.474299] sr 3:0:0:0: Attached scsi CD-ROM sr1
[ 208.474419] sr 3:0:0:0: Attached scsi generic sg1 type 5
[ 210.598795] scsi 3:0:0:0: rejecting I/O to dead device
[ 239.010152] ata4.00: exception Emask 0x0 SAct 0x0 SErr 0x0 action 0x6
frozen
[ 239.010161] sr 3:0:0:0: [sr1] CDB: Read(10): 28 00 00 00 00 12 00 00
02 00
[ 239.010182] ata4.00: cmd a0/01:00:00:00:10/00:00:00:00:00/a0 tag 0
dma 4096 in
[ 239.010184] res 40/00:02:00:0c:00/00:00:00:00:00/a0 Emask
0x4 (timeout)
[ 239.010189] ata4.00: status: { DRDY }
[ 244.061271] ata4: link is slow to respond, please be patient (ready=0)
[ 249.040045] ata4: device not ready (errno=-16), forcing hardreset
[ 249.040056] ata4: soft resetting link
[ 249.200216] ata4.01: NODEV after polling detection
[ 249.270948] ata4.00: failed to IDENTIFY (I/O error, err_mask=0x2)
[ 249.270953] ata4.00: revalidation failed (errno=-5)
[ 254.201281] ata4: soft resetting link
[ 254.361415] ata4.01: NODEV after polling detection
[ 254.420243] ata4.00: configured for UDMA/100
[ 254.422357] ata4: EH complete
[ 255.848423] UDF-fs: Partition marked readonly; forcing readonly mount
[ 255.905731] UDF-fs INFO UDF: Mounting volume '****************',
timestamp 1999/11/02 03:56 (12d0)

note: volume details on last line removed

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[Andrew Simpson]

On Wed, 04 May 2011 18:28:52 +1200

Post by Peter John Robinson
[ 208.470111] scsi 3:0:0:0: CD-ROM HL-DT-ST DVDRAM GH22NS50
TN02 PQ: 0 ANSI: 5
[ 208.474073] sr1: scsi3-mmc drive: 125x/125x writer dvd-ram cd/rw
xa/form2 cdda tray
[ 208.474299] sr 3:0:0:0: Attached scsi CD-ROM sr1
[ 208.474419] sr 3:0:0:0: Attached scsi generic sg1 type 5
[ 210.598795] scsi 3:0:0:0: rejecting I/O to dead device
[ 239.010152] ata4.00: exception Emask 0x0 SAct 0x0 SErr 0x0 action 0x6
frozen
[ 239.010161] sr 3:0:0:0: [sr1] CDB: Read(10): 28 00 00 00 00 12 00 00
02 00
[ 239.010182] ata4.00: cmd a0/01:00:00:00:10/00:00:00:00:00/a0 tag 0
dma 4096 in
[ 239.010184] res 40/00:02:00:0c:00/00:00:00:00:00/a0 Emask
0x4 (timeout)
[ 239.010189] ata4.00: status: { DRDY }
[ 244.061271] ata4: link is slow to respond, please be patient (ready=0)
[ 249.040045] ata4: device not ready (errno=-16), forcing hardreset
[ 249.040056] ata4: soft resetting link
[ 249.200216] ata4.01: NODEV after polling detection
[ 249.270948] ata4.00: failed to IDENTIFY (I/O error, err_mask=0x2)
[ 249.270953] ata4.00: revalidation failed (errno=-5)
[ 254.201281] ata4: soft resetting link
[ 254.361415] ata4.01: NODEV after polling detection
[ 254.420243] ata4.00: configured for UDMA/100
[ 254.422357] ata4: EH complete
[ 255.848423] UDF-fs: Partition marked readonly; forcing readonly mount
[ 255.905731] UDF-fs INFO UDF: Mounting volume '****************',

Looks like a hardware problem. The software sends a command to the hardware and gets no response. After timing
out, the software forces a hard reset. Despite that it still takes two more soft resets to identify the unit again and
then get it reconfigured.

Probably more bad (faulty) hardware than region coding.



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[Nick Rout]

On Wed, May 4, 2011 at 6:28 PM, Peter John Robinson

Last year I helped a friend set up a desktop (purchased from pbtech) running
ubuntu 10.04 amd64.   I understand it's generally going well.
We ran through the routine at
https://help.ubuntu.com/community/RestrictedFormats/PlayingDVDs for playing
commercial DVDs... straight forward.   VLC played DVDs fine for first few
months, then after a software update (I think), started crashing.
Sometimes it would play a few minutes of video before the crash, other times
it wouldn't play at all.
As an alternative Totem works fine on my desktop here, although doesn't
navigate through menus as well as VLC (according to the above link).
The lines from /var/log/syslog below correspond to the time of today's error
(which was failing to start playback at all).   Do they offer some clues?
Could it be a DVD region related problem?

No hardware fault, could be faulty dvd player, faulty disk or funky
new copy protection mechanism.

if the latter, it's not surprising people download movies *sigh*

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[Nick Rout]

Post by Nick Rout
On Wed, May 4, 2011 at 6:28 PM, Peter John Robinson

Last year I helped a friend set up a desktop (purchased from pbtech) running
ubuntu 10.04 amd64.   I understand it's generally going well.
We ran through the routine at
https://help.ubuntu.com/community/RestrictedFormats/PlayingDVDs for playing
commercial DVDs... straight forward.   VLC played DVDs fine for first few
months, then after a software update (I think), started crashing.
Sometimes it would play a few minutes of video before the crash, other times
it wouldn't play at all.
As an alternative Totem works fine on my desktop here, although doesn't
navigate through menus as well as VLC (according to the above link).
The lines from /var/log/syslog below correspond to the time of today's error
(which was failing to start playback at all).   Do they offer some clues?
Could it be a DVD region related problem?

No hardware fault, could be faulty dvd player, faulty disk or funky
new copy protection mechanism.
if the latter, it's not surprising people download movies *sigh*

I mean "no it is not a region fault it is a hardware fault...."

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[Peter Robinson]

Post by Nick Rout

Post by Nick Rout
On Wed, May 4, 2011 at 6:28 PM, Peter John Robinson

Last year I helped a friend set up a desktop (purchased from pbtech) running
ubuntu 10.04 amd64. I understand it's generally going well.
We ran through the routine at
https://help.ubuntu.com/community/RestrictedFormats/PlayingDVDs for playing
commercial DVDs... straight forward. VLC played DVDs fine for first few
months, then after a software update (I think), started crashing.
Sometimes it would play a few minutes of video before the crash, other times
it wouldn't play at all.
As an alternative Totem works fine on my desktop here, although doesn't
navigate through menus as well as VLC (according to the above link).
The lines from /var/log/syslog below correspond to the time of today's error
(which was failing to start playback at all). Do they offer some clues?
Could it be a DVD region related problem?

No hardware fault, could be faulty dvd player, faulty disk or funky
new copy protection mechanism.
if the latter, it's not surprising people download movies *sigh*

I mean "no it is not a region fault it is a hardware fault...."

We sapped this DVD drive for a known good unit of the same model and it
worked ok. However, the original drive was also found to play DVDs ok
after being returned to the box. At that stage we were thinking that
simply re-seating the DVD sata cable had done the trick. The machine was
returned to the supplier who swapped (under warranty) the original very
thin sata cables for heavier ones. Sorted :-)

So you were both right about it being a hardware fault, thanks.

BTW, will be having a look online re: understanding system logging in
linux. No doubt there'll be heaps of info out there, but by all means
recommend any useful resources that come to mind.

Peter

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