Richard Otte wrote:
I recently acquired a DVD player from another Linux machine, and am considering installing it in my Linux machine. I have an IDE CD-RW in the machine, and can hook the Dvd up to the end of the ribbon connected to the CDRW. But I wonder what sort of software modifications I would have to make to use the Dvd player. I assume it wouldn't be as simple as simply making an entry into /etc/fstab. Would I have to make a new Kernal? Anyway, I've never done anything like this, and if anyone has any suggestions I'd like to hear them. I'm trying to decide if it is worth the trouble to hook up. Thanks, Ric
I was in your shoes a few weeks ago; about the same time I was trying to get a TV card to work, which required some difficult work, which may have made it easier to get the DVD working, but I don't think they were related. Just mount the drive (or put an entry in fstab) and install some DVD playing software.
Because most commercial DVDs have that copy protection stuff, the GPL'd players tend to not play them. And even though I am using some of the questionable software available for decryption, my experience overall has been less than wonderful. The players seem to be buggy, or play out of synch, etc. When you get one that plays well, the controls don't work well, or if you get one that has working controls, the playback is jumpy, etc.
The players I've tried are ogle, vlc, and xine.One thing that made a BIG difference in playback was to use hdparm to turn on 32-bit addressing and DMA access to the DVD drive ("sudo hdparm -c1 -d1 -X34 /dev/hdc").
Although it's a hassle opening up the case and installing the drive, you'll forever wonder if you don't, so go ahead and do it and find out for yourself.
Kent