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Consumer Friendly (or Disney Hostile) DVD Players?

Posted by Cliff on from the we've-seen-that-FBI-warning-enough-times-to-have-it-memorized dept.

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?"

5 of 583 comments (clear)

  1. Videolan Client by philovivero · · Score: 5, Interesting

    Go here: Videolan Client.

    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 :-) format videos, and is just, in general, a great moving-video playback device.

    As another poster pointed out, hardware players are a crapshoot, but VLC is just about guaranteed.

    --
    fifth sigma, inc.
    1. Re:Videolan Client by Eil · · Score: 5, Interesting


      I just went to the VideoLAN page (this is the first I've heard of it) and noticed this in the ChangeLog:

      "This release fixes a bug preventing to read DVDs when the disc's region didn't match the drive's."

      Now, I happen to know of one media cartel^H^H^H^H^H^H association that would insist that that was a feature, not a bug. :P

  2. DVDCCA Licensing by RomSteady · · Score: 5, Interesting
    Unfortunately, there are licensing issues involved here on the media side.

    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
  3. Abuse of the must watch bit... by silentbozo · · Score: 5, Interesting

    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...

  4. You bought the restrictions, suckers by puppetluva · · Score: 5, Interesting

    I am baffled by the DVD complaints on slashdot.
    (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 /dev/kids. . . get the point?. It really is that simple - and that difficult.

    [This space intentionally left burning]