What restrictions playing DVD movies?

neok · 2004-08-19 05:14:16

Hi,

I am drooling over the September release of Starwars - the original trilogy but I found out that DVD's will be sold with formats for specific regions, e.g. region 1 for North America, region 2 for Europe etc. This apparently relates to playing DVD movies on a DVD player but what is the situation re: DVD rom/DVD movie players on a desktop computer? Should I pre-order these DVD's?

My thanks in advance!

dp · 2004-08-19 05:27:49

all my dvd's have "2/pal" or "2,4/pal" on them

i don't know the background but as the software is downloadable individually from region, you can play any

(am i wrong?)

neok · 2004-08-19 09:49:54

dp wrote:

all my dvd's have "2/pal" or "2,4/pal" on them
i don't know the background but as the software is downloadable individually from region, you can play any
(am i wrong?)

Hmm, I think I will wait for shops to open next week (almost all are on vacation now) and hire a few different DVDs for a real test.

Thanks!

pablored · 2004-08-19 09:54:50

There is region locking in the firmware of many dvd drives (RPC-2).

Not sure about in linux, but under windows there was a driveinfo program that displays the current status/region.

Some data on RPC-1 and RPC-2:
http://xvi.rpc1.org/rpc1regions.html

dp · 2004-08-19 11:00:40

did some search on the net:

http://www.linuxpowered.com/LDP/HOWTO/D … /prep.html
-> 2.3

http://cse.stanford.edu/class/cs201/pro … vdsteg.htm

http://members.ozemail.com.au/~brierley … .html#1.10

http://www.kalamazoolinux.org/pipermail … 00125.html

http://cyber.law.harvard.edu/openlaw/DV … s-faq.html

-> ok, now i understand why http://developers.videolan.org/libdvdcss/ is needed to play dvd !! :-)

neok · 2004-08-19 12:41:29

dp wrote:

did some search on the net:
http://www.linuxpowered.com/LDP/HOWTO/D … /prep.html
-> 2.3

http://cse.stanford.edu/class/cs201/pro … vdsteg.htm
http://members.ozemail.com.au/~brierley … .html#1.10
http://www.kalamazoolinux.org/pipermail … 00125.html
http://cyber.law.harvard.edu/openlaw/DV … s-faq.html
-> ok, now i understand why http://developers.videolan.org/libdvdcss/ is needed to play dvd !! :-)

Phew! "just" playing a DVD is that complex! I go back to the cinema!

Seriously, at least the conclusion is that I can play DVD's, even if I have to watch regioning. Thanks very much for all this info, I never thought so much of it would be necessary! ;-)

ActionNews · 2004-08-19 13:15:36

It's very Easy :

pacman -S libdvdcss
pacman -S xine-ui

Then watch DVDs and don't worry about Regioncodes .

CU ActionNews

dp · 2004-08-19 13:29:09

ActionNews wrote:

It's very Easy :
pacman -S libdvdcss
pacman -S xine-ui
Then watch DVDs and don't worry about Regioncodes .
CU ActionNews

till today i didn't know what exactly is libdvdcss for - now i know :-)

=> Linux supports all region-codes using libdvdcss

nggalai · 2004-08-19 14:06:38

dp wrote:

ActionNews wrote:
It's very Easy :
pacman -S libdvdcss
pacman -S xine-ui
Then watch DVDs and don't worry about Regioncodes .
CU ActionNews
till today i didn't know what exactly is libdvdcss for - now i know :-)
=> Linux supports all region-codes using libdvdcss

But your DVD drive might still curl up and lock itself. My drive has an internal "4 RC switches max" setting; everytime I put another RC disc in my drive, the counter will, well, count down until it's on 0. Then, the drive will lock to that RC and will refuse to accept any other regions.

Well, it did that until I patched the firmware a while ago.

93,
-Sascha.rb

Xentac · 2004-08-19 15:35:35

<rhetoric>But if you play DVDs outside of the region they were intended for, you're circumventing artificial restrictions on a digital media totally controlled by a group of large corporations. You're taking away their ability to limit our access to the things we purchase ourselves. Without these restrictions, imagine what would happen to the market... I mean, people would be able to buy a movie in one place and play it in another! How can that be allowed? It's not like people can buy books, pictures, VHS and cassette tapes, cell phones, vitamins, laptops, or cars... oh wait...

But, how will the large corporations season us to take crap that we really should stand up for anyway? How else will the corporations find sheep to follow them blindly?</rhetoric>

neok · 2004-08-19 15:52:04

nggalai wrote:

dp wrote:
ActionNews wrote:
It's very Easy :
pacman -S libdvdcss
pacman -S xine-ui
Then watch DVDs and don't worry about Regioncodes .
CU ActionNews
till today i didn't know what exactly is libdvdcss for - now i know :-)
=> Linux supports all region-codes using libdvdcss
But your DVD drive might still curl up and lock itself. My drive has an internal "4 RC switches max" setting; everytime I put another RC disc in my drive, the counter will, well, count down until it's on 0. Then, the drive will lock to that RC and will refuse to accept any other regions.
Well, it did that until I patched the firmware a while ago.
93,
-Sascha.rb

According to /proc/ide my dvdrom is a DDU1621 (Sony), I will also look for an upgrade to firmware but I think you need at least DOS to install it. I wonder can it be done in Linux alone?

Thanks!

dp · 2004-08-19 17:12:59

Xentac wrote:

<rhetoric>But if you play DVDs outside of the region they were intended for, you're circumventing artificial restrictions on a digital media totally controlled by a group of large corporations. You're taking away their ability to limit our access to the things we purchase ourselves. Without these restrictions, imagine what would happen to the market... I mean, people would be able to buy a movie in one place and play it in another! How can that be allowed? It's not like people can buy books, pictures, VHS and cassette tapes, cell phones, vitamins, laptops, or cars... oh wait...
But, how will the large corporations season us to take crap that we really should stand up for anyway? How else will the corporations find sheep to follow them blindly?</rhetoric>

i like your speech :-)

Dusty · 2004-08-19 17:27:54

Most people have probably seen this, but it seems to be on topic.

http://www.gnu.org/philosophy/right-to-read.html

dpb · 2004-08-20 15:04:38

My dvd-rom had 5 region switches when i bought it. I could only watch that regions DVDs in that the dvd-rom had at the moment (this was windows then). I changed it a couple of times, so there's 3 left anymore. After I got GNU/Linux, I've been able to watch any regions dvds and the dvd-roms counter has gone nowhere! IIRC, it will show 3 again *if* I'd stick the drive in a windows machine. Open Source rules!

ActionNews · 2004-08-20 15:37:44

neok wrote:

According to /proc/ide my dvdrom is a DDU1621 (Sony), I will also look for an upgrade to firmware but I think you need at least DOS to install it. I wonder can it be done in Linux alone?
Thanks!

Well if it really depands on DOS, then you can use a dos bootdisk.
Hmm ... i wonder if a DOS emulator like dosbox does it too. But i gess ir wont .

CU ActionNews

dp · 2004-08-20 17:51:19

Dusty wrote:

Most people have probably seen this, but it seems to be on topic.
http://www.gnu.org/philosophy/right-to-read.html

he he ... yes ... and if you like to read philosophy, go there:

http://www.gnu.org/philosophy/

very nice subjects for people with time :-)

neok · 2004-08-22 15:00:35

ActionNews wrote:

neok wrote:
According to /proc/ide my dvdrom is a DDU1621 (Sony), I will also look for an upgrade to firmware but I think you need at least DOS to install it. I wonder can it be done in Linux alone?
Thanks!
Well if it really depands on DOS, then you can use a dos bootdisk.
Hmm ... i wonder if a DOS emulator like dosbox does it too. But i gess ir wont .
CU ActionNews

From what I read on the web it has to be a dos boot disk, FreeDOS or similar should do :-)

Arch Linux

#1 2004-08-19 05:14:16

What restrictions playing DVD movies?

#2 2004-08-19 05:27:49

Re: What restrictions playing DVD movies?

#3 2004-08-19 09:49:54

Re: What restrictions playing DVD movies?

#4 2004-08-19 09:54:50

Re: What restrictions playing DVD movies?

#5 2004-08-19 11:00:40

Re: What restrictions playing DVD movies?

#6 2004-08-19 12:41:29

Re: What restrictions playing DVD movies?

#7 2004-08-19 13:15:36

Re: What restrictions playing DVD movies?

#8 2004-08-19 13:29:09

Re: What restrictions playing DVD movies?

#9 2004-08-19 14:06:38

Re: What restrictions playing DVD movies?

#10 2004-08-19 15:35:35

Re: What restrictions playing DVD movies?

#11 2004-08-19 15:52:04

Re: What restrictions playing DVD movies?

#12 2004-08-19 17:12:59

Re: What restrictions playing DVD movies?

#13 2004-08-19 17:27:54

Re: What restrictions playing DVD movies?

#14 2004-08-20 15:04:38

Re: What restrictions playing DVD movies?

#15 2004-08-20 15:37:44

Re: What restrictions playing DVD movies?

#16 2004-08-20 17:51:19

Re: What restrictions playing DVD movies?

#17 2004-08-22 15:00:35

Re: What restrictions playing DVD movies?

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