i gave up on livid, and installed something called vlc.
was too excited to RTFM, so i just file'd all the files on the dvd, found
one (and only 1) that was an mpeg stream, and bingo, it worked.
mine eyes did behold dvd images on the monitor, and yea, it was good.
no sound, a bit choppy, (and it was actually a promo for future releases,
not 'fast times at ridgemont high' which is what i rented for the
occaision).
so now i've seen my first dvd on linux. now it's time to rtfm and figure
out how to watch the movie and get sound. :)
pete