Hi I can't seem to get this to work.
Insert an Audio CD, it is correctly identified, plays 5-6 s of a minute and then hangs.
Any ideas on what the problem may be ?
That is exactly what use to happen to me when I used alsa - but now, alsa works perfectly for me.
Maybe the alsa driver for your sound card is bad?
Does it play files from HD without issue? (mine - back about a year ago or so - had the same symptom you described but with _any_ audio media - CD or Video file or audio files on HD)