Re: DVD-Rom Drive

[Rob <robert@namodn.com>]

Hiya,


Well, there are hardware decoder boards( DXR2 and
DXR3 ) from creative labs.

( i read something today about DXR3 drivers
being available, but double check that before
you buy anything )
latest model:
http://americas.creative.com/pc-dvd/encore-6x/

Also check out http://opensource.creative.com,
a couple interesting things.

Free software decoders are probabably a ways off, 
because of the current court battle over whether
it is legal to reverse engineer the encryption
scheme. 

This was sparked because of the development
of a program (DeCSS) released under the GPL
that did just that. The UNIX code is called
css-auth-(version).tar.gz, but the legally
tenuous position of this software makes it 
impossible for Debian ( or any other distro )
to carry at this point.

However, there are some proprietary products being
worked on ( they must use the licensed encryption/decryption
algorithm to avoid being prosecuted, and this makes
their software non-free AND requires certain royalties,
making it very very unlikely that anyone will release
an authorized player for no charge ).

http://www.opendvd.org has more info on this.




Rob Helmer
( Namodn )


On Fri, Jul 14, 2000 at 02:27:41PM -0400, Dan Hutchinson wrote:
> Hello Debian-Users,
>   I may have missed the answer to my original question, but I was wondering
> if anyone has a DVD-Rom player working with  Debian.  I look to the Debian
> Support page and they stated that there was a court case from Microsoft/Apple
> with DeCSS and DVD formats.  Also, I talked with a friend stating that
> he had DVD's playing in Mandrake 7.1.  Could someone please clarify what
> the status of Linux support for reading DVD movies is?
> 
> Dan
> 
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