... and yet more Good AND Bad news... (:-) For some unknown reason I had never tried to play a DVD with the VLC that I've had on my system forever! When I finally did so just now, it plays that DVD I've been testing with just flawlessly! No freezes, no hooting. (Doesn't read VOB files either, though: "General System Error") So something is lacking in the way (S)MPlayer is handling the data. (It was not playing YouTube very well, either. Though VLC doesn't do that at all, I guess.) -- Pete --