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Consumer Friendly (or Disney Hostile) DVD Players?
solli asks: "After 13 years of relatively faithful service my Mitsubishi(!) VCR has finally kicked the bucket, and I am now thinking of moving on to DVDs. One of the only things preventing me from buying a DVD is the fact that some media companies like to make you watch FBI warnings, trailers, and ads before allowing you to view the actual movie (like Disney's Tarzan). Of course, there is such a large demand for region free players and other specialized needs that niche markets have developed to fill that demand. However, I have seen nothing about players that give you the freedom to navigate through the disk the way you want to, instead of how the content producer wants you to. What DVD players exist that let the viewer take full advantage of the nonlinear properties of the DVD media? Can any of the available players ignore the directives embedded on-disk to disable certain controls at particular times?"
I have heard people bitch about this all the time but the dvd player on my pc never makes me watch trailers and i just hit the skip ahead 5 seconds thingy for the fbi warning...
Some software players, particularly non-commerical ones like IFOEDIT, or some of the open-source players that have appeared, let you toggle ignoring the bits that prohibit user operations (like FF/skip) at places like the FBI warning. Yeah, it's a slight hassle having to hook your PC up to a TV, but I don't know of any standalone units that have this feature.
There's 10 types of people in this world, those who understand binary and those who don't.
Just about all PC Based DVD players (such as WinDVD) let you navigate scene by scene.
Don't know about hardware stand alone versions tho.
those 10 seconds of fbi warnings are so costly aren't they. and as for Trailers the only one who does that is the disney companies and even then just hit the next button 2-3 times. besides there really isn't any "better" way to access content on a dvd.
While this may not be a standalone DVD player {though with the remote it's pretty close.
.. can also select different soundtracks and such.
But the ATI DVD player lets you go to a particular track without messing with the currently playing video.
Seems organized by track and index -- those two sets of numbers on most DVD players
For those times when the DVD authoring shop chose to lock soundtracks into those selected at the menu. -My Sony DVP-530A does this sometimes-
Go here: Videolan Client.
:-) format videos, and is just, in general, a great moving-video playback device.
Works under MacOS X, Windows, and Linux. Does DeCSS automagically. Somehow always starts playing the movie immediately, skipping over the annoying FBI commercials and lame pre-movie commercials.
Does subtitling, plays flawlessly under Linux, is GPL, plays DivX
As another poster pointed out, hardware players are a crapshoot, but VLC is just about guaranteed.
fifth sigma, inc.
The DVDCCA license states that for region-coded disks, there must be one track that cannot be skipped. Most DVD publishers use that track for "required" legal verbage. Some place this chapter at the end of a movie, and use it to display the DVD authoring houses information. Some, like Disney, used it for advertising, and got quite a PR backlash for it. Newer Disney DVD's still have the ads, but have it as a seperate chapter so that you can skip them.
That information about which track is which is stored as a script file on the DVD. The players simply read and execute that script.
While it would be possible to do something like that (code something to skip required tracks), that same hack would break several of the fancier menu systems (Harry Potter extended DVD, etc.)
Just remember that changes always have consequences you may not be aware of. (The tester's motto)
RomSteady - I came, I saw, I tested. GamerTag: RomSteady / http://www.romsteady.net
Wow. I feel spoiled. I haven't seen an FBI warning for so long because the only movies I watch are on DVD using ogle. Come to think of it, I don't really miss those warnings ...
The Sampo 631CF is easily made region-free and macrovision/GCMS-free. The problem you mention about navigating past or skipping the warnings etc. is generally called UOP for User OPerations. The Sampo can be easily patched to allow full user navigation control even when the dvd requests a UOP lock.
Plus, the Sampo has many other great features such as the ability to play PAL and NTSC discs to EITHER a PAL or NTSC TV. It can play CDs full of MP3 or jpegs. In fact you can even easily hook up a spare hard disk to store and play your entire CD collection (as MP3s or WAVs). Or just put your jpeg pr0n collection on it. And it even has a compact flash slot on the front so you can pop in your latest photos or MP3s without having to burn a CD. You can also easily replace the default background screens as well.
If you can burn a CDR, then you can hack the Sampo. The Sampo has a small but growing and enthusiastic user group. Everything you need can be found at, or linked from, area450.
It would be an interesting experiment... but would also be a very difficult one to end, once the system had its talons in me.
Information wants to be anthropomorphized.
I purchased a Daewoo 5800 from Sam's Club for a whopping $89! Then I went to Nerd-out.com to get the iso file necessary to make it both Region Free and turn off Macrovision. It does indeed turn off Macrovision, but I haven't tested the Region Free. For what it's worth, some DVDs reject Region Free players, but this one doesn't allow that. Some other benefits: -A very nice mp3 player screen -Component and composit outputs -Coaxial digital out -Nice silver finish despite its cheap price Now, some people sell them on Ebay, after doubling the price, but really it is easy. The only negative on this player is the remote doesn't work unless it is aimed directly at the player. A simple fix is a good learning remote.
It's even worse now that some region-coded disks are querying the box as to which region they are in, and if they are reporting region 0 (unlocked boxes), they're refusing to play.
As I said, everything has consequences...usually unintended.
RomSteady - I came, I saw, I tested. GamerTag: RomSteady / http://www.romsteady.net
You can try some of the pro level DVD players. ... blah)
Pioneer makes an industrial DVD-player DVD-V7400 that sells for about $800-900.
It's badass in all the ways that it's almost wrong to have that much control and robustness.
It plays back both NTSC and PAL disks (region 1 only
Has PS/2 port so you can used keyboard/ mouse for player control.
RS-232C terminal connection for deck control. (yeah hook it up to your computer, write a control program, forget just skipping the fbi warnings. Watch movies in a totally different way.)
Video black board support, with mouse connected, so you can draw on your movies.
It has S video, YC component, coaxial Digital and Composit BNC or RCA out.
Touch screen support.
Hell, it even tracks and stores user selections!
We have a few of them at work, I've never used any player that badass before, I'm thinking about buying one soon for an video installation project, where I am hoping to write a program that will do some fun random access video playback through deck control.
But then again all that just to skip 12 seconds of FBI warning is a little bit on the over kill side, but you asked, and here's an option.
Actually, forcing you to watch trailers is an abuse of the must watch bit, which was supposed to be limited to the FBI notice. However, you put the ability in there, and the next thing ya know, some marketdroid exec decides that it should be set on ALL of the promo material before the movie...
My ATI All in WOnder on Linux plugs into my TV..I use Ogle to watch DVD's..works great
If you're not a Liberal in your 20's, then you have no heart.If you're still a Liberal in your 30's you have no brain.
I've also been meaning to replace my DVD player with a code-free player, but in doing the research I found out that they're planning to release future DVDs with some kind of protection scheme that prevents them from being played on code-free players. The new protection scheme is called REA
Does anyone know about this? Why would anyone buy a code-free player knowing that it won't be able to play future DVDs?
region coding was a bad idea... should a person be kept from watching a foreign movie that may never come to their country because of this damned region-coding?
c'mon studios would actually make MORE money without the region coding. I buy Korean DVDs and have to hack my laptop just to view it! And they're movies that are not coming to the US!!! So the studios would clearly make more money by making it easier for me to obtain and watch their movies!
Just swap cards with your friends once in a while. That happens at cypherpunk meetings. Everyone throws their card in a hat, then the cards get stirred around in the hat, then everyone takes out a card.
I find the difference between Europe and the US a little amusing. Over here, I would say that atleast 60% of sold DVD-players are regionfree. It is completly legal, and most big chains sell all their players regionfree.
Even if you manage to pick up a player that is not, then making it region free is something most stores will do.
"Google is your friend."
how long before Google is sued for providing, (giving results on a 'howto hack dvd regions'-query), ways to circumvent copyrights...
The Awful Truth
I am baffled by the DVD complaints on slashdot.
/dev/kids. . . get the point?. It really is that simple - and that difficult.
(Before you claim I'm a studio exec - you should know that I'm a [Li|U]nix SA in a different industry)
Do people really think that if you pay a measly 18 bucks for a DVD that you own the unlimited usage rights to a $50million movie? You don't, you only own the right to look at it in a really limited way (hence the discount).
Do you know why they include all the forced-usage and adverts on the DVD? BECAUSE YOU STILL BUY IT. Do you remember how much movies used to cost before DVD? A LOT MORE THAN THEY DO NOW. Why? The advertisements you say you don't want but buy anyway. When you buy a DVD folks, you enter into a bad, limited deal. Enter into a deal, live with the deal. (remember Micro$oft?)
Let me recap:
1) The ads serve to make buying the movies cheap enough that you can rewatch them over and over to save from reading books or spending time with your kids.
2) You oppose the ads and the format but lack any real willpower to NOT make this complete leisure purchase.
3) Because of #1 and #2 you are in a really tough spot because you are too cheap and/or lazy to really do anything but whine.
4) The MPAA execs can't hear your whining over the din of your living-room TV and the constant clanging of the Blockbuster cash-registers.
Translation: Until you make the tough decisions to live without constant video-entertainment the MPAA is a 10t more l33t than you and 0wns your fr33 t1me, d011ars, and your
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