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Commercial DVD Software Comes to Linux
timekillerj writes "Turbolinux launched a new version of it's Linux distribution today. The key feature is the first commercial DVD player, provided by Cyberlink. PowerDVD for Linux supports menu navigation, Dolby Digital sound, subtitles, and more."
I think I'd prefer non-commercial software, please...
Cyberlink PowerDVD is a large, steaming pile of offal. I rely on Xine, which is thousands of times more functional.
Having said that, I am glad Cyberlink bothered with a Linux version of their software. No matter how crappy the product (as far as one anonymous poster goes), committing your coders to a porting effort like this takes guts.
Well, judging from the first few comments, this is a good thing and a bad thing. A good thing because a commercial company is bothering to support Linux in the first place - forget about the quality of the player (e.g. lack of DeCSS, etc.) but focus on the statement this makes. But it's of course a bad thing as well because this might be the beginning of a trend of having commercial software being stuffed down our throats with each distro. But you know guys - you can't have it both ways: Either Linux remains a 'geek OS' or we'll have to deal with the Macromedia's and RealPlayer's of this world. Always be careful what you wish for ;-)
69.00 dollars? No source code?
Plonk!
In plain English, that's Samba.
So are Slashdotters going to thank the MPAA for addressing one of the Linux community's concerns? Nope, they're going to piss and moan about what's wrong with this particular piece of software.
I'd submit that this is a big reason why software companies don't want to embrace the Linux market. No matter how good the software they produce is, Linux users aren't going to be happy unless it's free (speech) and free (beer).
"Ask not what your country can do for you." --John F. Kennedy
Can I just get the DVD software from CyberLink? I can't find a thing on their site on Linux PowerDVD. I don't really want a new OS, though I wouldn't mind having the legal DVD player.
Mathematics is made of 50 percent formulas, 50 percent proofs, and 50 percent imagination.
Linux users aren't going to be happy unless it's free (speech) and free (beer).
You're making no sense. Linux users don't want everything free, they just don't want to pay twice over.
I bought my DVDs, with hard-earned cash, and they most definitely weren't free. I'll be blowed if I'm going to pay again, just to be "allowed" to play them on my own computer.
"The question of whether machines can think is no more interesting than [] whether submarines can swim" - Dijkstra
I've used PowerDVD on Windows. I hate its interface, it is feature-impaired, and unstable. With Xine + libdvd*, I have SO MANY MORE FUNCTIONS. I can take screenshots of a movie without getting just a black screen; I can navigate the film in any direction and speed, and I can use key commands for just about all of that. It's faster, too, and far easier to acquire. Sorry CyberLink. This is far too little; way too late. I wouldn't condone purchasing a commercial DVD player anyway.
They're trying to show support for Linux, but for some reason I still see them and most other proprietary software vendors as ignorant, crapware-distributing bastards. We don't want/need anything from people like CyberLink. They are wasting their time on a product that WILL fail--and probably make the "Linux market" look non-existant.
Perhaps the most important thing is that DVD drives that come with PowerDVD will probably have the Windows AND Linux version. In such a case, it looks to me like another baby step in getting the support of hardware manufacturers.
KDE 3.2 has not been localized for Japanese yet, and that's where 75% of their customers are based.
They wouldn't get licensed with such features. They don't ship with them on Windows, why do you expect them to do so on Linux?
Don't worry, I'm sure someone will come up with a small layer between your DVD drive and any software which silently strips region codes, PUO's (Prohibited User Operations) and CSS.
Most people don't buy their DVD software anyways, well, not directly at least. They get it from the OEM when they order a PC or DVD drive.
Cyberlink is (IMO) trying to position itself as the only choice for legitimate dvd software for those OEMs now offering Linux PCs. If they find this move profitable it could encourage other companies to produce linux software as well.
Once upon a time, a gallant InterVideo boasted a proposition to release LinDVD. LinDVD, being a port of their WinDVD software for Linux, during a time when the legalities were clouded and MPAA stomped through the land.
If there was a time, to justify a commerical DVD player for the OpenSource community, InterVideo dropped the ball years ago. Why buy PowerDVD? Some might take this and use it as an example, right or wrong, to prove a point of how inefficient, slow, backwards and ignorant todays management techniques are. I firmly believe Xine is just as good as any of the highest priced DVD players for Windows/Mac. Why isn't it? It navigates DVD menus, it plays the movies well. For such a software package, that's it everything else will just sit infront of the movie and be annoying, like some child in the back seat asking "are we there yet?" over and over again.
All the money companies spend. It's a waste, they spend billions trying to keep up with social trends, billions trying to predict market progress, all down the toilet.
If you really think it's such a bad thing to have to pay for a commercial dvd player.
No, you're totally missing the point here. All the linux users I know can and do pay, gladly, for good stuff. What we aren't eager to is to pay for a closed source program that's not as good as the open source ones we already have...
I haven't seen this DVD software yet, and I'll reserve judgment about it until I see it in action - but, as I'd have to switch to turbo linux in order to use it, the chances are slim that I'll see it in action any time soon.
*Cough*CrossoverOffice*Cough*...
The wide availability of free open source software has spoiled a lot of us. I mean...when it comes down to it, I don't LIKE to pay for software, because I don't have a lot of money. However, if I see a product that I like, and also works well, I don't mind paying for it.
Case in point: I use FreeBSD, and I have a SBLive 5.1 sound card, with a SPDIF output. If I were in Windows, Creative's drivers allow me to use the SPDIF output without any trouble. However, FreeBSD's stock pcm driver, while adequate, doesn't support SPDIF output on the 4-STABLE kernel tree. I routinely had to switch between analog and digital output for sound.
I'd used oss in Linux a while back, so I downloaded the FreeBSD build and gave it a whirl. The trial copy worked great, so I bought a license.
Granted, I didn't want to spend any money, but it did exactly what I wanted it to do, and some. So I consider that a worthwhile investment.
I think it's understandable to have reservations about paying money for software owned by Big Evil Corporations(tm), because you don't want to feed the beast. However, when it comes to development on open source and free open source platforms, if the developers aren't getting paid, new features aren't going to be appearing magically. Having software that's free (in terms of beer and speech) may mean that you don't have to pay MONEY for it, but you still should be contributing something.
For my part, I can't write code for crap. I've made several attempts to learn C, but they generally result in disaster. Since I can't contribute patches back to developers, I don't mind buying boxed copies of the software, or books, to help pay for development.
Nope, they will pay for stuff-hardware, tangible stuff, same as anyone else. And the linux coders will give it back 10 fold over to the hardware vendors by doing their work for them if they would just open it up a scosh. And the linux users who aren't coders will submit bug reports, and also pay for the hardware.
Saying linux users won't pay for anything is not true, they don't want to pay for intangibles,they think "owning" an intangible thought is nuts, and counter productive and bad for business and society, so they have developed and offer a new way to do things. They are willing to trade back and contribute actual effort to the hardware vendors as long as they stop being dicks about it. The ball is in the hardware vendors court, along with the "obscene profits from intangible copies" lobby, who need to get a clue or three as well.
You would have a valid point if the linux "movement" wasn't offering anything back, but they are, in spades, and they keep getting shat upon and told they are cheap, when they are the most giving and sharing folks out there. They keep going "HERE, take all this free stuff we developed, all we ask is access to a few devices specs, and make it legal to make them work better FOR YOU AND FOR US". And that is supposed to prove that "linux" is greedy? huh? Is that really so much for them to ask?
Noppe, try another argument, because that dog surely don't hunt.
Anyone else notice the OS requirements? Seems like bloated software to me.
Operating System hardware requirements:
PC/AT Compatible hardware
CPU: Pentium III, 1.0Ghz or greater recommended
Memory: 512MB recommended
Hard Drive: IDE / SCSI HDD (5GB available space (recommended)
Video Card: VGA or greater
Mouse: USB, PS/2 mouse
Misc: 3.5" floppy drive, CD-ROM drive (IDE ATAPI/SCSI), Ethernet card
Looks like my old PIII @ 500 Mhz and 512MB RAM might not be able to run this.
"# of useful proprietary apps on Linux: still zero"
I wonder what that makes Oracle...
I use Gentoo GNU/Linux, but on PPC. I'm guessing I still don't have a legal way of playing DVDs on Linux.
I think its a good thing that more commercial software is starting to become availible on Linux. Who cares if it doesn't have source code. I think one of the reasons companies are reluctant to release applications on Linux is that perception that all Linux apps have to be free and have source code included. Linux may be open source, but that doesn't mean all Linux apps have to be. If Linux users actually start paying for software, and stop bitching about source code, you might actually see some major titles being ported.
Apparently, he knows more than you