Linux Video DVD Players

Linux DVD Players, as other Computer DVD players, aren't as straight forward as any other Linux video or media players. Mainly, contrary to popular belief, is not a result of a technical issue or deficiency, is a result to a LEGAL issue. To be more specific, due to patent emcumbraces and other difficulties, it's very complicated for vendors and open source projects to ship codecs to play DVDs from all regions.

The problem magnifies for vendors outside of the U.S., because the patent and laws are harshly strict. While Microsoft ad Apple can license the technologies and bundle them as part of the overall cost of the operating system, the licensing codecs costs for Linux are prohibitive for vendors giving away the OS for free.

But fortunately, there are tricks and workarounds these limitations for user to really enjoy their video capabilities. Here are some Linux Video DVD Players:

Banshee is a fun and useful Linux Media Player (It is also available in multi-platform versions) critics and other users have called it the free software answer to iTunes. Not only does it provide a great DVD player feature, it is, in fact, an all around great media player.

VLC is a multi-platform video player, available for Linux that can most audio and video formats. It works with DVDs quite nicely. It's user friendly display makes a favorite among most users.

Kaffeine is a KDE Linux video player that also has the capability to play DVDs, as well as support for DVB devices as well, although it is more driven for other type of formats of videos the DVD feature works quite nicely.

MPlayer is also a greatly recommended media player that can work perfectly playing DVDs, again like most of the other Linux applications on this list, it was designed for other functions but it has DVD capabilities and since its a preferred media player many users use it also for DVDs.

Other useful applications that work both as useful media players and Linux Video DVD players are Miro and Boxee, both great applications worth checking out.