Re: DVD movies?
On Sun, Oct 15, 2000 at 10:51:03PM -0700, Krzys Majewski wrote:
> Anybody play DVD movies on Linux, or know somebody who does?
> Does it work?
Yes it works, but the MPAA would like to stop it. See the links below
for info on getting it to work. (No, I don't have a dvd drive nor can
I afford one nor would I spend my money on that if I did have enough).
> How does it work?
Well, the dvd (the stuff on there is mpeg-2, no?) is encrypted using
weak CSS. MPAA blessed players decrypt this and play it as a mpeg-2?
movie. The legally questionable DeCSS (search for it on any search
engine, especially MPAA member disney's which is http://www.go.com/
according to 2600 magazine) allows non-MPAA blessed software to access
the mpeg-2 file. I'm not sure if you'd have to store the decrypted
file on your disk to view but I'd assume so??
> What's the file size of a typical DVD movie?
IIRC, regular dvd's hold 4.3 gig which is about 2+ hours of video.
> How does the quality compare with TV+VCR? What are the limitations?
Well, it is vastly better, although artifacts can appear (mpeg is
lossy).
> Do I need a hardware decoder? Etc., etc.
Likely, unless you have one blazing system (I've heard of people with
dual P500's complaining about playback). With the Creative Labs
hardware decoders you can playback dvd's in Linux.
> -chris
see http://lurch.ucd.ie/~conormc/linux/dvd.html and
http://www.dvddemystified.com/ for more info.
You also might want to boycott dvd's comptely, but:
1) You don't hurt the dvd sellers/movie industry much by boycotting
(although you would if everyone boycotted...).
2) http://www.opendvd.org/ points people to reel.com where apparently
you can purchase dvd's with 8% going to the eff for their legal
case (the appeal I guess?) against the MPAA. (Actually, I'm
confused on this whole case thing. One was against 2600 magizine
for posting/linking to DeCSS and one was against Jon Johanasen
(sp?) the Johanasen one being funded by the eff right? but I'm
getting off topic here and I don't want to start a slashdot thread
here :)
--
Pat Mahoney <patmahoney@gmx.net>
If puns were deli meat, this would be the wurst.
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