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10. Troubleshooting

The following section lists some common problems and their solutions. If you are a regular xine user and feel that there is a common problem not stated here, please e-mail the HOWTO maintainer:

  richwareham@users.sourceforge.net

10.1 I see "tvmode: not connected to nvtvd for switching". What's that ?

xine can use the TV-output features of some video cards to display video on TV screens. If you don't care about this feature or your card is not supported you may safely ignore this message.

10.2 xine keeps complaining about not being able to connect to a socket

If you get errors like the following in xine's output:

xine: could not connect to socket
xine: No such file or directory

They may be safely disregarded. They are due to xine attempting to use a particular program called LIRC to allow control via a Infra-red remote control. If you don't have/wish for this feature, pretend the errors aren't there.

You can stop xine trying to use LIRC by passing it the '-L' command line option.

10.3 I use a kernel between 2.4.10 and 2.4.15 inclusive and xine and am getting strange errors

There is a problem with 2.4.10 and upwards which can somtimes cause xine to pause at odd times. If you suffer from this problem, try downgrading the kernel to 2.4.9 or upgrading to 2.4.16.

10.4 I don't get a DVD button in xine

Make sure that you have the /dev/dvd file setup correctly (see the section on playing DVDs above).

10.5 All seems good but halfway through a DVD the playback stops or loops

There is a bug in the 2.4.1 kernel. You will need to upgrade.

10.6 I get this message: demux error! 00 00 00 (should be 0x000001)

Probably xine can't access your input source. Most commonly this happens when you're trying to play locked/encrypted DVDs. xine can't play such DVDs out-of-the box (for legal reasons).

You could use an css-enabled DVD input plugin to avoid this. More information is available on http://xine.cjb.net/. Note that playing CSS encrypted DVDs is not an official feature of xine.

You may also have mounted your DVD drive. xine tries to bypass the normal Linux filesystem and so wont work if the DVD is mounted. Try unmounting it with the umount command.

Another reason could be that your (RPC-2) DVD drive isn't set up for the right region.

10.7 I get lots of ``200 frames delivered, 200 frames skipped, 0 frames discarded''

You may have selected the wrong audio channel or you're trying to play a stream that uses features xine doesn't support (yet).

10.8 When I play a particular file/stream, xine shows some pictures but there's no audio

Try another audio channel:

  $ xine -a channel stream.vob

some .VOB files have audio on strange channels (e.g. 3, 7, 10). Also make sure you are not using the 'null' audio output pugin. Finally check that the volume slider is fully up :).

10.9 Using Linux, I get an error which contains status=0x51 { DriveReady SeekComplete Error }

To fix this error, try enabling `Use multi-mode by default' in your kernel (re-compile setting ATA/IDE/MFM/RLL support -> IDE, ATA and ATAPI Block devices -> Use multi-mode by default to `Y'). The relevant piece of kernel documentation states:

  CONFIG_IDEDISK_MULTI_MODE:

  If you get this error, try to say Y here:

  hda: set_multmode: status=0x51 { DriveReady SeekComplete Error }
  hda: set_multmode: error=0x04 { DriveStatusError }

  If in doubt, say N.

10.10 I am having trouble playing a SVCD

xine can play SVCDs but you'll have to experiment with the audio channels. Normally, you should find an audio track #8 and, for bilingual SVCDs #9, so

  $ xine -a 8

should allow you to press the ``vcd'' button and play your SVCDs

10.11 xine drops a lot of frames

Your hardware may be too slow for xine. Make sure you turn on all speed optimizing options. See the section entitled Increasing the Performance of xine for more details.

10.12 Fullscreen doesn't work

Check the Xv extenstion is working properly.

10.13 The AC3 via S/PDIF does not work with my soundcard

The AC3 via S/PDIF is supported by ALSA only for some soundcards (mostly those with Trident 4DWaveNX, YMF or Emu10k1 chips). So if you have a suitable soundcard use

  $ xine -S -A alsa 

The -S switch disables the internal AC3 decoder. For very slow machines you could improve video playback (without sound) when you start xine as

  $ xine -S -A null

10.14 Where and how do I get the latest development version?

First a word of warning. The development version is just that. It is meant for developers. It may not even compile and may not function correctly if it does. If you have to be on the bleeding edge of development then check it out of our CVS:

  $ cvs -d :pserver:anonymous@cvs.xine.sourceforge.net:/cvsroot/xine login
  (enter an empty password)
  $ cvs -d :pserver:anonymous@cvs.xine.sourceforge.net:/cvsroot/xine co xine-lib
  $ cvs -d :pserver:anonymous@cvs.xine.sourceforge.net:/cvsroot/xine co xine-ui

10.15 How do I use the dvd plugin and/or dvd:// MRL?

The DVD plugin delivered with xine currently does not support playback of locked and/or encrypted DVDs. Look at the Playing DVDs section for details for obtaining a special xine `plugin' which allows playback of there DVDs. Due to the uncertain legal situation regarding CSS encryption we do not include anything of that nature in the xine distribution, nor do we generally endorse the use of such software (you should check if the use of such software is legal where you live). We hope that this situation will change soon.

For unlocked/unencrypted dvds it is a good idea first to check what files are on the dvd by mounting it. The files are called something like .../VIDEO_TS/VTS_xx_x.VOB, where x are numbers. If you look for the big .VOB files on a dvd these are probably where the movie is in. Currently we don't support seamless playback of complete movies - you will have to play back all of its individual parts.

To play that VOB file use something like

  $ xine dvd://VTS_xx_x.VOB

Make sure you do not supply any path name (no VIDEO_TS/).

xine tries to open the dvd using /dev/dvd. On FreeBSD this will only work if you create a symlink to your dvd-devicenode for the time being.

10.16 I get the message unable to open dvd drive (/dev/dvd) or xine is unable to detect my DVD player

You probably don't have /dev/dvd (check that). If so, simply create a link /dev/dvd that points to your DVD device. Something like

  $ cd /dev
  $ ln -s hdc dvd
should do the job.

10.17 How do I play streams from STDIN?

use something like

  $ cat stream.mpg | xine stdin://mpeg1

or, if you've got an mpeg-2 stream use

  $ cat stream.vob | xine stdin://mpeg2

10.18 How do I change the skin?

xine has the ability to have its user interface customised using `skins'. Eventually you will be able to change skin from the control panel but for now you have to edit a file.

Run xine at least once - it should write it's config file .xine/config to your home directory. Now edit that file and change the line "skin:default" to match the skin you would like to use.

10.19 How can I change color/brightness/contrast?

At the moment this is only supported on some Xv drivers. You'll find three entries like these in our  /.xine/config:

  brightness:0
  saturation:0
  contrast:128

the values and possible ranges depend on your Xv driver so you'll have to experiment a bit to get a good picture.

10.20 Some parts of my X Desktop get transparent when xine plays the video!

Looks like some colours on your GUI match the colourkey Xv uses. You can change the colorkey value to avoid this. There should be a line like

  colorkey:2110

to your ~/.xine/config where you can change the colour that's used by xine for the video overlay.

10.21 I get no sound, but ``audio driver 'oss' failed, using null driver instead.''

First of all, make sure that your OSS Audio drivers are working (ie you can play music with other software).

The most common reason for this is that some other program is accesing your audio device. If you're using linux, the command ``fuser /dev/dsp'' should give you the PID of the process.

10.22 After running xine several times it fail's to allocated shared memory

This should be fixed in xine 0.3.3 or later. However, this can only work if you exit xine the "correct" way (e.g. using the panel or pressing "q"). Do not simply close the video output window using your window manager - xine won't release shared memory in this case (!).

10.23 I have problems when using xine on FreeBSD

Check if you find what you are looking for in the file README.freebsd which is distributed with the xine source code.

10.24 I think I am pronouncing xine wrong

It is pronounced [ksi:n]. ksi like the `ks' in `knocks' and n like the `een' in `been'.

10.25 I think I found a bug!

xine is still in developement. Only the latest version of xine is supported by the mailing-list so if you don't have the latest version, please upgrade and try again. The latest version is always announced on and available from the xine homepage. If you still have problems, please contact us and send us a full bug report. Please include all xine console output and some details about your hardware (CPU, GPU, sound card,...) card and operating system. A bug report of the form `I cant play the x DVD' is not much use.

You can reach us via email:

  xine Mailing List <xine-user@lists.sourceforge.net>


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