Slashdot Mirror

• DVD and Linux Support
• LinuxVideo.org
• OpenDVD.org
• Sigmadesigns Product - they have couple DVD products that you may find interesting. NetStream 2000 has Linux drivers (BETA) available on their FTP site.
• Linux DVD from Liberty Surf.

Hope this help.

In your FAQ, there are several problems: The FAQ claims that a Linux DVD player is available. I have seen many other press releases where the MPAA states that there are many available licensed Linux DVD players. I am a user of Linux and Windows 2000 and am in pursuit of such software, I would like to purchase it immediately if possible.

However, these players do not seem to exist. The FAQ says that Sigma and Intervideo had announced Linux players, but on their pages there is no indication of this (by the way your sigma link is broken, it is missing the ".com" in the href). I have not read about any assertion that Linux players exist or will ever be developed except by the MPAA. The mainstream press does not have any story on it, the press releases on these sites do not contain any such announcement. In fact, as you may see from the following links, they announce the opposite:

== From Sigma Designs (hollywood plus page): Supports Windows 95, 98, NT 4.0 and Windows 2000 ==

From the Intervideo FAQ: == WinDVD currently supports Windows 95, Windows 98 (original and Second Edition versions), Windows NT4 and the upcoming Windows 2000. For further details on how to install WinDVD into the operating system of your choice, and Operating System specific issues follow the below links: Windows 95 Windows 98 Windows NT 4 Windows 2000 There have been many requests for a Mac, Linux, and Windows CE version of WinDVD. While none of these can be ruled out in the future, we currently do not support any of these alternative OSs. ==

I should also point out thatyour FAQ claims that the infamous DeCSS program is only used for piracy, and that the CSS encryption algorithm prevents copies from being made. However the CSS encryption algorithm never prevented copies from being made, it only prevents viewing the content. As your site admits, piracy would not require circumventing the CSS algorithm. In fact there is far more value to pirates in circumventing regional encoding. A pirated DVD MUST RETAIN the CSS encryption if it were to retain its value, since the DVD players would expect that.

The only value in circumventing CSS stems from the ability to create players. DeCSS was only created after the basic refusal to create Linux players by manufacturers of current DVD players, and the refusal of the MPAA to allow Linux coders the licensing/information they needed to do so themselves. The fact that DeCSS is for windows is a non-issue. DeCSS was developed in windows because the players the authors reverse-engineered ONLY RUN ON WINDOWS. To say this is a proof of its nefariousness is at best a circular argument.

The authors released the code so that people could quickly port this to Linux should they fail to do so. And as a result of their incarceration, they have failed to do so, the MPAA being responsible for said incarceration and the ensuing lawsuit which has scared Linux developers off from creating any players based on this code.

It goes without saying that Linux users would pay for a program that allowed them to play DVD's. However that brings up another sore point. Even the players available for Windows are incredibly clunky and buggy, and incredibly sensitive to corruption. It is clear that limiting the number fo developers who are allowed to make this software is not a good thing.

I imagine that this letter will be ignored, as will the facts, as they have been for some time. nevertheless I feel it is my duty to inform you in good faith that you are mistaken, and hope that the situation will be rectified in a civil manner, rather than becoming mired in all this inflammatory rhetoric and sabre-rattling, which is doing no one any good. For the first time in 70 years, America is taking a second look at the MPAA, and its value. This scrutiny cannot be doing your organization or the interests it represents any good. The opportunity yet exists for the MPAA to make this right.

I've read (on the Sigma Designs site) that there is a digital set-top box reference design based on Linux and the Intel Celeron processor. You can check the full press release here.

I can only hope that the drivers created for this device would be released to the public in at least binary form. Unfortunately, I doubt that the greedy company (Sigma Designs) will be so generous. I'm sure they view this as a proprietary trade secret which could generate serious revenue for their company.

PSiLiCON

• Help the cause for producing a 100% free open-source DVD playback solution: ac3play
  
• Buy a copy of LinDVD. I'll wait and see WHAT and HOW it does its stuff. Is it distribution agnostic? Non-x86 users probably want support for their CPU, etc.
  
• Buy a hardware DVD decoder board. SigmaDesigns new Netstream 2000 comes to mind.
  
• Burn all my DVD's and go back to VHS.
  

Sigma Designs has plans to release a dvd player for linux. you can find info on the product here

i found this after seeing a posting from Jack Valenti at TheStandard.com in which he said:

Linux users are not being barred from playing DVD movies on their systems. The professor obviously is not aware that all Linux users have available to them a licensed application to do precisely that.

hope this helps.
----------------
"All the things I really like to do are either immoral, illegal, or fattening."

It's discussed, somewhat, in the Linux newsgroup on their NNTP server.

A poster earlier said that Sigma Designs is working on a player, but that it's not available yet. I don't know of any others.

The whole thing makes me wish I lived in DC.. err.. maybe just within driving distance. :)

I'm curious though. How does one "make material relevant to the legislative process?" How do you figure out what the individuals' interests, sympathies, etc are?

I talked to Rich Taylor, the VO of PR for the MPAA (say that fast!), and he said that there is a "correctly" licensed DVD player for Linux from Sigma.

He seemed unsure about availability, though, and promised to send me more information. He forwarded to me a press release, which can be found on the Web at:

It says, in part:Sigma Designs, Inc. (Nasdaq: SIGM), a recognized leader in digital video solutions, announced today that it will
add Linux support to its new REALmagicâ NetStreamÔ 2000 card and EM8400 progressive MPEG-2/DVD decoder chip."

The Sigma Website, however, still says such support is coming "soon."

The company, and their plans to release a Linux DVD player, have been discussed here on slashdot before.

Sadly, this is a card that costs $200, as it's more of an industrial-strength info-kiosk/server type device than a consumer DVD decoder card. And they're still refusing to do even binary drivers or an unencrypted Linux file player for the Hollywood Plus out of fear that it would break their agreement with DVDCCA or be used to play deCSS'd DVDs, respectively.

Also somewhat annoying is the fact that when someone asked about BeOS drivers in the Linux group (a perfectly legitimate question, IMO), Marshall Goldberg, their marketing director, replied, "I'm sorry, but this is the Linux area, not the BeOS area." (And there isn't a BeOS area on their server.)

In the modern "sue-happy" world, you're free to sue whomever you please, but I would ask that you leave Zoran out of the cross-hairs. They have put up no roadblocks to supporting their hardware -- they gave LiVid the specs to the Vaddis III (zr36710) chip. Every other vendor [*] (that I know of) has refused to release anything. [The dxr2 driver was reverse engineered before Creative branded it theirs.]

Despite the unwillingness of Matrox to say anything about their DVD add-on (which uses the Vaddis III), significant progress has been made in supporting it. (That's all I've done on the weekends for last month or so.) There's still alot of work to be done, tho'. At this point, I'm not concerned with CSS as I'm working with unencrypted VOBs from a "DVD" screen saver that came with the drive -- "tiny", simple, and self-contained.

Eventually, DVD CCA will have to come to some agreement towards (non-windows) licensing of CSS. Should they refuse to allow non-windows (non-x86) playback, then there certainly will be a legal backlash -- anti-competitive, monopolistic, etc. I hope they are thinking about these things. Personally, I'd much rather the decoder hardware handle the CSS crap (read: waste of time.) As I understand, RPC-2 allows for CSS key transfers directly between the decoder and the drive so CSS then becomes almost nothing at all. (Of course, that maybe in reference to set-top hardware.)

The region-changing is part of the spec.. you can do it five times. And then you have to send your hardware back to the retailer and get them to reset it, which they can do five times. In theory, this is so you can transport your computer/player/card to a different region and still be able to take advantage of the local DVD selection.

The question arises however, what happens when you have a large collection of DVDs from two regions? Sigma Designs (makers of the Hollywood+) reccomend buying two cards and swapping them. I'm not lying. See for yourself. (Their page is brain-dead.. look for 'I need to switch between two regions')

I want a rock.

Ever heard of Nist/Livid ?

No DVD under Linux, huh? Well than don't look at this sample , it might confince you otherwise... Also, never heard about the DXR2 drivers on the Creative Opensource site? Or that Sigma Designs is planning on giving their next Hollywood chip native Linux support?!

With those Windoze players, I always have to mess around with my display settings, if I want to watch DVD.. with Nist I just compiled it in.. no need to mess with that anymore..