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Linux Supported DVD-RW Coming Soon
Obiwan Kenobi (you're our only hope!) writes: "This article located at Business Wire tells about how the second generation Panasonic DVD-RW's are going to be supported in Unix and Linux by Tracer Technologies software." 9.4 gigs baby, yeah!
I imagine that many copies of DeCSS will be deleted voluntary if the court so orders.
Well, except for one anyways. There is a copy of the DeCSS code actually entered into the court record (some idiot lawyer for MPAA made this mistake). That is a public document and is not going to go anywhere soon. I can go dredge up court records from the 19th century if I was so inclined. DeCSS has, in essence, been immortalized by the very people that were moving to kill it. At any rate, it's time to shift your frame of mind. Previously (pre-Internet, that is) you would be right - just because it was out there doesn't mean they can't legislate against it. Now, though, you're wrong. The Internet is making legislation a moot point for many things that the government held a tight legal grip on for years: gambling, encryption, copyrights, and, yes, fair use, just to name a few.
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I think there is a world market for maybe five personal web logs.
As long as your main bus is fast enough and you have memory, you could always buffer a *whole* lot of data and be fine, but that's not a very pretty solution.
Plextor now has cd writers (and I assume rw) which stop writing when they hit about 10% of their buffer and can go back and start back form where they stopped within spec limits. Very cool.
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On the surface, this looks like the perfect backup tool - lots of storage space, and nice and easy to access and store, unlike tapes which have done nasty things to me in the past.
But are there nasties about using this for backup? Any projected lifespans for these tools? Are there content encryption restrictions as well - could we encrypt our own movies to be played in a normal DVD player? Make a movie of that Quake FragFest for exmple?
Cheers,
Toby Haynes
Anything I post is strictly my own thoughts and doesn't necessarily have anything to do with the opinions of IBM.
Currently the DVD-RW media's costs a LOT - something like 50$ and more. An avrage DVD movie will cost you something like 20-30$ (depends where you look)...
So whats the point or piracy with those crazy prices?
Hetz (Heunique)
This is incorrect. DeCSS is a WINDOWS PROGRAM to descramble and copy the files from a DVD to the hard drive. Once it's on the drive then it can be played back by just about anything (including linux, SCO, Solaris, etc.)
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This is correct. DeCSS was written before the UDF filesystem existed for Linux. It was used in conjunction with WINE/Windows, to get access to a decrypted VOB file so that work on the Linux DVD player software could continue, and not be held up by the lack of native UDF support.
DeCSS was never intended, nor ever used, to pirate DVDs. The MPAA has even admitted as much - their argument is that it violates the DMCA because it gets around their encryption, and the innocence of the software's purpose and use is irrelevant. The MPAA will certainly win this round, with a corrupt judge presiding over the case despite numerous conflicts of interest, and they might possibly win the appeal as well (based on how the law is written). Of course, we're all hoping the appeals process overturns that portion of the law, but who can tell? The only forgone conclusion is that they will lose the current trial, primarilly because of a corrupt and ethically bankrupt judge.
Now Linux supports UDF just fine, and the linux version of DeCSS, css-auth, allows Linux users to decrypt and watch their DVDs. The players are maturing rapidly as well (if you've got a dual P3/600 they are arguably already there).
See the LiViD mailing list for more info
The Future of Human Evolution: Autonomy
I've been people talking about DVD-RAM in this thread who've never seen a drive nor the media (so I explain it below). Also, there is this "mis-nomer" that Windows actually has built-in writable UDF support -- NOT!!!
The DVD-RAM drive loading mechanism is quite ingenous as it supports both cartridge and plain disc! It has a spring-loaded tabs on the ends with slits so plain disc media (like single-sided DVD-RAM disks) slide in much like a slot CD/DVD drive (although much more nicely), and the tabs move back when the cartridges are used. BTW, the cartridge format is mechanically exact to the old CD caddy form-factor, but it is keyed so you cannot use a caddy (only half of my old CD caddy from my Plextor 6Plex will insert before the key hits).
This "unified media" tray only comes out about 1.5" (4cm) so it won't break off either (at least not easily), and it does an excellent job of autoclosing when you've "push the disc/cartridge in enough" (a very nice touch that still works after 18 months of hard use as my main CD drive as well). Personally, I'd like to see this type of mechanism adopted in all CD/DVD drives (at least in the standard 1U/half-heigh drives on desktops). You have to see this in action to appreciate the elegant design.
Not even Windows 98 SE has writable/re-writable UDF support, only read-only UDF support (and apparently limited at that?). You must use additional software from Software Architects to get UDF support in Windows 95/98, or use another program like Adaptec DirectCD to write directly to CD-RW drives (not sure if Adaptec supports DVD-RAM yet). This is an important consideration if you want to buy a DVD-RAM drive for use with Windows 9x, because SAI's UDF will cost you $79 if you buy the bare drive without it (whereas some kits like Creative's bundles SAI's UDF for Windows 9x). Also understand that SAI sells Windows 9x drivers separate from the Windows NT/2000, so it'll cost you double for both Windows 9x and NT/2000 support ($79/each). Makes you appreciate Ben's open source UDF driver for Linux even more! ;->
BTW, I have heard that Windows 2000 does not even have read-only UDF support so it will NOT read regular DVD-ROM data disks? (someone please confirm?)
-- Bryan "TheBS" Smith
-- Bryan "TheBS" Smith
Independent Author, Consultant and Trainer
trye .cgi?day1/201992048&ticker=mc|bk bof|bkb.
http://sf-web1.businesswire.com/cgi-bin/f_headlin
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www.blackant.net
[ Please moderate this up because I am using it right now on Linux, and have been for almost 6 months! ]
I have been using my Panasonic/Creative DVD-RAM drive for almost 6 months now under Linux (and have had the drive for ~18 months). RedHat kernels since 2.2.12 have detected it and installed a SCSI generic disk driver (as /dev/sda since I have IDE drives). The reason why DVD-RAM was supported so quickly in Linux is because much of the firmware is similar to the old Panasonic PD drives (remember, rewritable CD before CD-RW? ;-).
Ext2 works fine on it if you decide to format it. Otherwise, a simple download and compile of Ben Fennema's UDF driver (no complicated kernel patch necessary, just ./config, make, make install installs the VFS module necessary) and you're cooking with an OS independent filesystem on media that lasts 30+ years! 2.6GB per side (with newer 4.7GB drives/media as the above pointed out). Again, it's simple. Just put the "/dev/sda" line in your /etc/fstab as normal with "udf" as the filesystem (assuming you've done the above). I assume you can do similar with CD-RW drives and the UDF driver as well (SCSI CD-RW drives at least).
For those of you not familiar with rewritable DVD, there are various formats. DVD-RAM was supposed to be the "standard." Of course that didn't stop Sony, Philips and others from breaking away from Panasonic, Creative, Matsushita, Pioneer and others to create their own, proprietary standards. The reason I choose DVD-RAM is because unlike most other DVD drives (most of the DVD-ROM drives of the time, fall 1998) is because they had trouble reading CD-RW media, and even some 2nd generation drives had trouble reading CD-R media (DVD-RAM reads all media: CD-ROM, CD-R, CD-RW and CD-various formats). But understand that no rewritable DVD-RAM I know of allows you to burn DVD-R, nor even CD-R/RW (although it was rumored that Philips had a proprietary 3/6GB DVD-rewritable that could also CD burn/re-write as well? But I never saw it myself). Another reason why I went with DVD-RAM is because some 2nd and most 3rd generation DVD-ROM drives could read it physically (at least the non-cartridge, single-sided version) and non-Panasonic/Creative/Matsushuita/Pioneer drives only needed a firmware upgrade to do so. And DVD-RAM is rewritable at 1,350KBps (1x DVD, 9x CD) whereas many CD-RW (and even some other DVD-rewritable formats) are a measly 300-600KBps (2/4x CD).
Anyhoo, while other vendors talk about rewritable DVD sizes and capabilities, Panasonic delivered a long time ago. And now they are boosting the size to 4.7GB/side with the possibility of CD-RW compatibilty. You can get Panasonic 5.2GB DVD-RAM drives for $200-250 nowdays (and I only paid $500 for mine in fall of 1998), with the 2.6/5.2 single/double-sided media for $20/30, respectively. It's not hard disk speeds, but it is massive storage at cheap prices. With Pioneer and others finally giving Panasonic/DVD-RAM a boost in portable video equipment within the last 12 months, I'd say DVD-RAM will become the standard that it was originally spec'ed to be. With a 30+ year shelf life, it's a great archiving format for 10+ years where magnetic tape is not. And unlike other optical formats, DVD-RAM is an open standard which means that future drives should be able to read it -- a very important factor when considering long-term archiving because who cares if it lasts if you won't have a drive that can read it!
DVD-RAM is great for video editing systems, for which, I bought my DVD-RAM drive to complement my brand new Matrox Marvel G200-TV at the time. Again, much, much cheaper than magnetic disks per MB/GB.
-- Bryan "TheBS" Smith
-- Bryan "TheBS" Smith
Independent Author, Consultant and Trainer
It seems the article and the /. summary may be a bit confused here about DVD standards and formats. In fact, there are 4 DVD formatting types and they should not be confused:
DVD-R developed by Pioneer sells for about $16,000 and produces near-perfect DVDs compatible with 95%+ of the current DVD players out there. I am unclear whether this can only write 9.4 GB HD/DS Discs or also supports DD/DS 17 GB discs as well. Lord knows my DVD-ROM drive doesn't so I can't imagine who would be using those mega Double-Density Discs.
DVD-RAM developed by Panisonic, Toshiba used to store 2.6 GB (LD/SS) and 5.2 GB (LD/DS) but the article is now reporting the development of middle-tier DVD-RAM discs of 4.7 GB (HD/SS) and 9.4 GB (HD/DS) by Panisonic. These discs use a Magneto-Optical system similar to the PD devices of old, not a pure optical system like DVD-ROM. Thus, compatibility would require a major firmware change in all DVD players to support the cartrages. Also note that the DVD-RAM drives are Cartrage-based and the 5.2 GB discs at least cannot be removed from their casing, or at least so I've read. Remember those bloody caddies you had to use for CDs way back when? Well it seems Panisonic and Toshiba liked them so much they wouldn't let them die. They walked out of the DVD consortium for development of writable DVD and came to market with the YEARS before the other players. MSR (as in the article) is about $500 - $600.
DVD-RW developed by Pioneer is the logical follow up to their DVD-R technology and follows exactly analagous to the difference between CD-R and CD-RW. Although it is not clear whether current drives would support this format, it is the most similar of the rewritables to current hardware and the easiest to upgrade Firmware for. Status unknown, MSR expected to be $2000 - $6000.
DVD+RW developed by Philips, Sony [VAPOURWARE!?!!] is another optical disc which does not require a caddy. The first generation should have something like 3.7 GB LD/SS discs, but they expect to have 4.7 GM discs a year after launch. However, they have been saying this for almost 2 years and still I have seen no firm product schedule. I am in fact dubious as to whether these guys can get their act together and put the DVD+RW out. On the plus side [no pun intended], as the DVD+RW discs are optical, it is likely only a minor firmware change would be required to make them compatible with current DVD players. MSR is suggested at $500 - $600 and they are intended to compete directly for the DVD-RAM market.
There used to be a great page explaining all this stuff in great detail, but it's gone so perhaps I should write a new one...
Be Seeing You,
Jeffrey.
Time Lord, Dark Horse: The Techno Mage of Gallifrey