[tlug] Re: MPEG stream analyser?

[Tobias Diedrich <ranma@example.com>]

Josh Glover wrote:

> 2. I need to be able to play my American DVDs in Japan if / when I
> move there (knock on wood, baby, knock on wood!)
> 3. I need to be able to have backup copies of my DVDs, in case the
> original gets scratched (even the smallest of scratches in the TOC
> area can really play hell with DVD players)
> 4. I would like to be able to loan out DVDs to friends, but I have a
> policy of not loaning original media (basically because there seems to
> be a 15-20% chance of never getting said media back!)

Well, AFAIK simply decrypting the DVD with decss and then
regenerating the iso with mkisofs and burning it onto a DVD-R will
defeat the region code scheme, as long as the DVD code doesn't
bother to check the player region (DVDs contain some sort of
bytecode interleaved with the video, which is used for menus among
other interactive DVD-Features.  Since one of the player registers
contains the region code it is possible to check against it and
refuse to play if it doesn't match).  But at least for Backups this
should be a viable way, as long as the DVD-Content fits onto one
DVD, but with the advent of dual-layer DVD-R this shouldn't be a big
problem any longer.

> *5*. (the most important) It pisses me off that the cartels dictate to
> me, the paying consumer of their products, that I must buy the same
> movie over and over again, on different media, just to conform with
> their region scheme

Well, as someone else already said, fortunately it is quite easy to
get a DVD player that does not care about the region code.  Most
players are available in a modded version like that, they usually get
flashed with modified firmware on request AFAIK.

I guess we might not get as lucky with the next-generation video
format (HD-DVD?).  OTOH, since the vast majority of people won't care
about being locked into their region, maybe they won't make it too
difficult for the modders.

-- 
Tobias						PGP: http://9ac7e0bc.uguu.de