Re: anyone playing DVDs?
>>>>> "Krzys" == Krzys Majewski <majewski@cs.ubc.ca> writes:
Krzys> Is anyone playing DVDs succesfully in linux?
Yes, I am. I just got a brand new ASUS 12x DVD-ROM drive on Thursday. I
used Xine to successfully play the "Gone in 60s" DVD that I rented a
couple of days ago.
Krzys> I've also recently gained access to a dvd-rom. Don't
Krzys> remember the brand, does it matter? Options I'm currently
Krzys> considering are
Krzys>
Krzys> 1) Sigma Hollywood hardware decoder + cheap ATI xpert98 video
Krzys> card - not sure if Linux supports the Sigma decoder - not
Krzys> sure what software to use for playback
Krzys>
Check the Linux hardware database to see which (if any) decoder cards
are supported in Linux. Also check the websites of the various DVD
players (and browse the mailing lists if you need more info).
http://lhd.zdnet.com/
Krzys> 2) Matrox G400 - does this card have a built-in decoder, or
Krzys> some features that make DVD viewing easier? - assuming it
Krzys> doesn't have a built-in decoder, what software to use for
Krzys> playback? - Do I need to upgrade to XFree86 4.x to make it
Krzys> work? Last time I tried X4 it broke a bunch of things
Krzys> (e.g. DPMS).
The G400 has hardware motion compensation (HWMC) support which helps a
lot in video decoding, but it doesn't have an MPEG-2 decoder in. There
are dedicated boards that do MPEG-2 and AC-3 (Dolby) decoding.
Upgrading to XFree86-4 definitely helps because DVD playback software
like Xine uses the XV (XVideo) extensions supported by XFree86-4 to
provide _full-screen_ DVD playback.
I was able to watch "Gone in 60s" on my PIII system with my Matrox G200
card (which also has HWMC support) in full-screen. It was very nice!
Krzys>
Krzys> 3) Software decoder + cheap ATI xpert98 video card - what
Krzys> software to use for playback? - is a PIII/500 fast enough?
Krzys> what about a PIII/333?
Krzys>
Have a look at the webpages for the different players to get an idea for
what types of hardware are supported. I'd say you're better off with at
least the PIII/500.
Xine is an excellent DVD player and I'd suggest you check it out first:
http://xine.sourceforge.net/ (main website)
http://xine.cjb.net/ (Xine resource page)
http://www.nott.ac.uk/~psystrj/XINE-FAQ.html (unofficial FAQ)
I didn't notice any dropped frames or audio/video syncing problems with
xine-0.3.7, which is the current stable release of xine.
VideoLan is another good DVD player, but I found that with VideoLan the
playback would pause for about 1/4 of a second every little while. Not
sure what that was due to.
http://www.videolan.org/
OMS (Open Media System) by the Livid (Linux Video) project is another
DVD player. In comparison to Xine and VideoLan, I found this to be a
very unuseable DVD player. There was very noticeable choppy video
playback and the audio/video syncing was not that good. Also, there
doesn't seem to be any seeking support in it, and I was able to lockup
the omi GUI while trying to skip to different chapters.
I have found Xine to be the best amongst the 3 DVD players I tried. Xine
also lets you toggle the aspect ratio of the video and its full-screen
feature is very nice.
You'll also need a CSS-enabled plugin for Xine to playback encrypted
DVDs, in addition to libcss which is required for OMS.
Also, make sure that you have a good sound card and a decent set of
speakers.
Currently, Linux software DVD players don't seem to be able to access
"other" extra content in the various private streams of a DVD that you
would otherwise be able to access using a Windows SW DVD player (please
correct me if I am wrong - I intend to find out a bit more about this).
Strangely enough, I have been unable to get Windows DVD playback
software to work on my Windows2000 installation (I don't have Win98 or
ME, and I don't intend to install either). I tried uninstalling and
reinstalling the various drivers for my hardware and the DVD playback
software, and after lots of reboots and absolutely no luck in playing
back the same DVD that worked under Linux, I gave up.
Linux rules!
--
Salman Ahmed
ssahmed AT pathcom DOT com
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