Re: [tlug] Region Free? DVD player

["Jim O'Connell" <oconnell@example.com>]

(Ths post went on a bit - sorry for the lack of brevity. But, hey, it's a slow day...)

On Sun, 19 Jan 2003 15:12:40 +0100
Godwin Stewart <gstewart@example.com> wrote:

> Ogle does a very good job of playing CSS'ed DVD's and it's a lot cheaper
> than that.

Thanks for the tip on Ogle.  *Very* nice little player. I had a look at their FAQ at http://www.dtek.chalmers.se/groups/dvd/faq.shtml and found it extremely helpful.

They recommend using the RPMs for setup on most systems and since I was working with a fresh RedHat 8 system, it was quite easy to get going.  (They had direct links to the DeCSS files, too.)
Still, the video was staggered and crappy, so I looked inside the box and found that at some point, I had stolen the 80 lead IDE cable and put in a 40, which is fine when you just use the drive for installing software or playing music CDs, but cripples your transfer capabilities. (That machine tends to be my "spare parts" box, the first to get pillaged when I need a part for something else. 
Putting in a proper cable solved the problem.)  

MoviX2, however, has support for a couple of DXR/Hollywood-style TV-out cards, so it may be a good choice if you are building something that you are going to plug into a TV or VCR. Of course, those could just be features of MPlayer, which MoviX uses, but I haven't tried that yet on a box that has a traditional Linux  install.  (I also like that MoviX requires no knowledge of Linux, so I can burn a disk for friends who have never used Linux, if they just want to play 'wrong region' disks.)

Looking at the MPlayer site http://www.mplayerhq.hu it also seems to support a *lot* of formats including Real, Windows Media and Quicktime.  It looks like that's what I'll be installing and playing with tonight.  Ultimately, it might be nice to build a HD-Free box that runs nice and quiet and outputs to a TV and works with a remote. 

All-in-all, I'm really pleased with the way DVD movie support has grown.  Obviously a lot of people have put in a lot of effort in this area since the last time I tried to play a movie in Linux.
Now the players have features and conveniences that the mainstream players do not, such as skipping ahead right from the start (past the place where they will eventually start putting advertisements) and navigating as you like, not just chapter-to-chapter, the way the mainstream players do it.  

> Also, bear in mind that the MPA is now producing DVD's which will only play
> on region 1 players, not on region-free players. I don't know how/if ogle
> will play those back, bit I know that your Win3132DH (the name sounds a
> little offensive...) certainly won't.

They are truly a hateful organization.  
When I moved to Japan a few years ago, I gave away about a dozen region 1 disks that I had collected, some of which I have since re-purchased in region 2 format.  When I was back in the states over the holidays, I passed up lots of cheap disks at the stores, thinking I would be unable to play them.  I have no qualms about bypassing that particular 'feature'.  

Cheers,
Jim

-- 

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Jim O'Connell
Global Dining System Support
jim at global-dining dot co dot jp
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