dvd playback problems and questions

[Matthew Weier O'Phinney <matthew@weierophinney.net>]

I'm trying to setup my computer to play DVDs, and I'm trying out a
number of different programs to see which works best. Just for
informational purposes, the machine I'm using is a 1.7GHz (PIV) with
256MB RAM, DVD player but no hardware DVD decoder, and an onboard
GeForce video card (not sure which one -- I'm waiting for the computer
to finish an fsck).

Ogle is nice, and the dvd navigation menus work flawlessly. Audio syncs
fine, but the video is a bit choppy.

I've read somewhere that mplayer has dvdnav of some sort, but I can't
seem to find it; since I primarily wish to view special features off the
dvds, this isn't acceptable.

I've been trying xine, but I have a big problem with it: every time I
try and start it, it locks up the machine (I can't even ssh to it to
kill the xine process!), requiring a reboot (hence the fsck noted
above). So far, I've only tried using the Xv video output; I'm going to
attempt XShm, but I'm doubtful it will work.

What dvd playing software are other debian users using? anybody
encounter any of these problems/deficiences? If so, were you able to
correct them? how?

Thanks much!

-- 
Matthew Weier O'Phinney
matthew@weierophinney.net