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Linux DVD Players Reviewed
Anonymous Coward writes "Linux Journal have posted a review of DVD players on their site. Interesting review, that covers most of the main players, although there are a few minor errors." I've
settled on Xine since it does most of the divx, wmv, and mpegs I want to see. If
it just did Sorenson QT, it'd be perfect.
Since the review is allready dead to the world, I tought I'd ask the people here if htey knew of any Linux based DVD players with support for hardware decoders such as those by Creative Labs and Real Magic.
"Have you ever thought about just turning off the TV, sitting down with your kids, and hitting them?"
this may seem a little off topic, but does anyone have an idea of how these two compare?
Xine however has possilby the worst interface I have ever had the misfortune to use.
Someone decided that it would be a good idea to implement their own file open dialog and playlist and design in a way that bears no resemblance to any other interface i have ever used. Using, or at least trying to use Xine is cruel and unusual punishment.
I suggested it to a friend who wanted to watch some DivX files and the interface was so bad it mad him laugh (then cry).
And to add even more potential for confusion it uses its own skinning system.
Gnome Xine will hopefully be a vast improvement and have the sense to bear at least some resemblence to quicktime/microsoft mediaplayer/realplayer.
Where do the DVD API's for Linux stand? These days it's becoming relatively simple under Windows thanks to DirectShow. Anybody can write a DVD player as they don't need to do any low-level stuff: it's just a matter of making API calls to the navigator. Can the same be said for Linux? E.g. what would it take to write a Mozilla plug-in so that I could display a training movie within a web page - a plug-in that would work for most DVD players/decoders without having to write custom code for each?
They should have mentioned that VideoLan also works just fine on Win32 as well, though I know the focus of this review is Linux.
"We apologize for the inconvenience."
Does anyone know of a way to get a SB Live card to output 5.1ch surround sound out of the built in speaker jacks? I've seen stuff regarding the spdif connection but i can only get standard stereo sound.
Later,
Phil
If you can decrypt CSS yourself, are you still affected by regions? Does the DVD player deny the whole disk or just access to the deecryption keys?
Just because it CAN be done, doesn't mean it should!
You know...
I have a pretty decent 17" monitor and a pretty nice but not stellar 20" TV.
I have a very good desk, but the chair really isn't good for sitting all through the movie. The monitor isn't really good for watching stuff from far away. TV, on the other hand, looks just nice from my couch or bed.
Also, the fact that television looks like shit is a good thing. No, it may not be always desired with DVDs. But for video tapes, VideoCDs, or DivX-recorded clips, the TV viewed from far away, or even about one meter, is much better than computer screen - because on the monitor I can see the artifacts and the horror that is VHS. Somewhat softer image is sometimes a very good thing =)
From the xine hacker's guide:
when in doubt, use lower case. BTW: This thing is called xine, never Xine.
time is a funny concept