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Jon Bringing WMV9 to Linux
julie-h writes "DVD Jon has done it again. This time it wasn't Apple the target, but Microsoft's WMV9 video format. There is as always a working Proof of Concept program with screenshots."
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first post.
post first
sit in his chair with those two big brass ones?
This
Finally I can view all the new porn I've been collecting.
wohoo first post
Just not legally.
Of course, noone in the linux community give a ripe fuck about whether or not the code they run is legal.
Thanksgiving night, and there's still enough of us sitting around doing nothing better than looking at /. that the pictures are already down.
already down?
already?
Loser #1
jock strap
The critical question is: why? There's no legitimate reason to want WMV.
Server dead after 5 comments?
Is this a record?
not thanksgiving and its daytime where I am.
http://www.google.com/search?q=cache:DgkoyrLRgNUJ: www.nanocrew.net/blog/+&hl=en
wmv9 and a slashdotted site?
One's a sick duck... I can't remember how it ends but your (you slashdotters) mother's a whore.
./ 'd already !
It that a record ?..hehehe
Or were Bills lawyers watching ?
When will people learn not to get links to their blogs on the main page of /. ?
Here's the Google Cache link.
Is it going to support those annoying-as-piss instructions in some files that open IE and point it to random websites?
Job? I don't have time to get a job! Who will sit around and bitch about being broke and unemployed then?
It's people like DVD Jon who make me feel like a total sham everytime someone calls me a "computer genius". What's he got for us next?
CAn'T CompreHend SARcaSm?
I suppose I'm pleased that this will give me access to a wider range of material playable on my Linux boxen. On the other hand, I feel uneasy, knowning almost certainly that this isn't legal (C'mon, this is DVD Jon!). While I might disagree with the law, isn't Linux still trying to regain respectability after the SCO accusations? They may have been false, but claims of pirated software in Linux wrt this are almost certainly true.
- Story
- Screenshot 1
- Screenshot 2
--J.Flanders: It's like I'm wearing nothing at all... nothing at all... nothing at all...
Heh, DVD Jon uses gnome and fedora! Noob! ... no wait...
DVD Jon belongs in Gitmo for committing crimes against American businesses.
Nerd: Derogatory term typically directed at anybody with a lower Slashdot ID than you.
From the article linked to the blog post, it seems that he got the reference decoder for the VC-1 standard, which is compatible with WMP9, to work in VLC. The headline makes it look like there was some sort of reverse engineering done here, but after actually reading the article (gasp), it doesn't seem like that's the case.
Portugal is the best country in the world. Jon is not portuguese, neither is WMV 9. This is irrelevant.
All hail Portugal.
As you prepare to insult my post, remember: would you ever say that to a portuguese man's face? Of course not. You would get your ass kicked because you are a faceless, cowardly nerd with thick glasses and a big nose.
The other option would be that you are such the beaten up nerd that you took some martial art and kick ass. Well... deep down you are still an insecure nerd trying to get approval from the world.
Approval denied.
Portugal... the country will balls. We fucking rule!
Voces sao uns filhos da puta de merda com a mania que mandam no mundo. Caralhos.
Since VC-1 is based on WMV 9 is it really a big deal getting the VC-1 codec to play a basic WMV 9 stream ?
not sure this is the same, but i've been playing wmv/wma under linux with xine for over a year now..all i did was download the full codec pack from mplayers site, install them, and go..it has ma9dmod.dll wmadmod.dll wmspdmod.dll wmv8ds32.ax wmv9dmod.dll wmvdmod.dll wmvds32.ax as far as wm* codecs go, which have played any wmv/wma i've thrown at it, and with a small plugin 75% of the vids on sites will play without no intervention, the other 25% just require saving the vid first, then opening the player, and playing..
Just one other example of why serious computer professionals will always prefer FreeBSD to this time-sapping, law-breaking, illegal tinkerer's pseudo-OS. Long live BSD, a UNIX variant for serious professionals, not kiddie crackers.
I would like to thank you, oh yet again, for "DVD Jon".
He bring us all free code goodness and has ruined many-a-day for uptight corporate executives.
Your humble servant.
LK
"Hi. This is my friend, Jack Shit, and you don't know him." - Lord Kano
Because we invented the Internet we get to have all the best sites, and our Mars probes don't always crash too.
So it is running in a GPL program (VLC) using an open (VC1) standard. Details? Anyone? Link to the source? Hello?
Take me to your source.... :)
So I can make tee-shirts out of it....
Then make a song, poem and even a music video from the same code...
This guy should be given knighthood. Fucking genius.
According to the blog, it seems it uses VC-1 reference decoder to play WMV9 on Linux. IIRC VC-1 is open source now after it was submit to SMPTE for the review. Is there any difference between VC-1 and WMV9 except for four CC code and other trivial things?
Also, at the first glance at the headline of this story, I'd thought DVD Jon cracked DRM on WMV9 and delighted, but he didn't apparently, so non-Linux people don't have much to rejoice about this story anyway. If I'm mistaken and this story can be related to Windows Media DRM somehow, please point it to me as I'm happy if that's true.
The worst thing about this is that if software companies actually *supported* Linux, they would never have to deal with any of this. They are forcing people to crack copy protection so they can view media that they purchased online. I don't really understand it. There's Windows Media Player for Mac OS X and its market share is roughly equal to that of Linux. It really wouldn't be that hard for Microsoft to release a generic codec pack for Linux.
Hasn't this been possible all along, with MPlayer? Their codec status table lists "Windows Media Video 9 DMO" as working. Is that not the same thing as the WMV9 referred to here?
-- If no truths are spoken then no lies can hide --
This guy never ceases to amaze me. I wouldn't even know where to begin deciphering a codec. If I accomplished it at all, it would be only once. And then it would be blind luck.
My hat's off to Jon.
People people.... Jon just has access (legally this time) to the VC1 reference codec and sources. He simply decided to look at how easy it was to use this in VLC. From what i remember (this was more than 6 weeks ago or something) it was half a days work. Mind you that he didn't release anything. He doesn't need to. He said that the VC1 licensing terms are less strict than MPEG4 and Jon can just use the sources after the VC1 codec is 100% final, which isn't too far off. (btw. MPEG group should really get their act together, cause VC1 truly has better licensing atm and people are getting fed up with the MPEG mess).
... I want to know, how to get those girls in the screenshots! =)
It does not seem that DVD Jon has completely released his project yet, so if you are want to play WMVs in linux now, try using xine. Quote from the xine site: "...It also decodes multimedia files like AVI, MOV, WMV, and MP3 from local disk drives...". With the small collection of trailers and a few movies from lmule (it's like emule), I have not experienced one problem with xine.
I can get WMV9 video screenpcaps on linux too.....well, ok, its with photoshop but still.
If Microsoft could allow images to run code when viewed, I guess video files are no different. Watch out all you porn viewers using Windows Media Player.
Your modem is about to disconnect and dial The Czech Republic.
Job? I don't have time to get a job! Who will sit around and bitch about being broke and unemployed then?
George Washington, America's first president, signed Thanksgiving Day into existence...he made it obviously a Christian day of thanking God..it originally was NOT the "yay settlers!" day it has become
i think the most relevant statement in his 1789 Thanksgiving Proclamation when he created Thanksgiving Day is:
"And also that we may then unite in most humbly offering our prayers and supplications to the great Lord and Ruler of Nations and beseech Him to pardon our national and other transgressions"
there is literally NOTHING in his proclamation of thanksgiving about the Pilgrims, or any other settler group...TAKE THAT MY ELEMENTARY SCHOOL TEACHER!!
if you don't get to do stuff like that
This is the format that Windows Media Center records it's shows in, I'd love to watch recorded shows on my iBook.
At least not how you are thinking of open source. It's an open standard, controlled by SMPTE, that you can license. Thus it's probabaly illegal to use this without paying the license fee. So it's open in that anyone can get it, it's controlled by a standards body, not MS, but it's not OSS.
Now VC-1 and WM-9 are pretty much the same, and at this point it's not a huge streatch to take the VC-1 code and develop it to a full blown WM-9 player (which he seems to have done). However MS could chanve the WMV format at any time they like, and break compatibility. VC-1 will remain what ti is and they can't change it without SMPTE's approval (which makes the changes available to everyone), however WMV isn't necessiarly going to be the same thing.
I am a bit confused by the status of WMV ...
I thought WMV and H.264 were supposed to be standards for the next generation of High Definition DVD video and that the specs for WMV had been released out in the open no? If the specs are out there, why hasn't somebody written the codec for it?
S.r.
The president is not appointed by god, and just because the president says stuff about god doesn't make it true...
I'm too tired for real examples, but think of how often Dubya invokes God - very unsavory, if I should say so (see sig)
WMV9 (a.k.a. VC-1) and H.264 are not yet in the standard for the HD-DVDs. They were sent to SMPTE for approval as standards in the HD-DVD standard. Microsoft apparently did some futzing and might have WMV9 disqualified due to some fibs told to SMPTE.
Currently there is a codec for WMV9, Microsoft owns it. Some other companies have liscensed it. The standard might be available but it takes a long time to work out an efficient codec that gives a good picture. In a few years it may be at a quality where TV stations will use it for interstation to air broadcast. But that is whith proffesional coders working on it.
Fly me to the moon Let me sing among those stars Let me see what spring is like On jupiter and mars
WVU/PITT - not much of a brawl this year.
Pitt just can't seem to get a drive together this year, but at least they're still in the game after 3 quarters. I hope it goes to overtime.
The date for Christmas was chosen to be in late December to not differ too much from existing pagan solstice rituals and help win more converts. But most Christians believe it's just to celebrate the birth of Christ even though he probably was not born in December. Nobody's seriously suggested changing the date.
There's a few possible alternative reasons why the Thanksgiving Proclamation may have focused on religious aspects.
a) a number of indian tribes sided with the British during the War of Independence, so maybe it wasn't as politically popular at the time to focus on the indian contribution to the formation of european settlements,
b) maybe he and key supporters had a personal religious agenda and his proclamation differs from the actual bill, or
c) maybe there was a political compromise to get the bill passed, whereby it was agreed to provide that official justification even though some other supporting groups preferred a different interpretation,
d) all of the above
In the end, you live in a country where you can interpret it your way and let others interpret it in their own ways, all of them positive. That's truly something to be thankful for.
Laissez lire, et laissez danser; ces deux amusements ne feront jamais de mal au monde. - Voltaire
...note that this type of work may become illegal if the EU embraces software patents.
As you're in the one region of the world that seems to not be bowing down to corporate interests at every opportunity, please do what you can to ensure it doesn't happen.
I *want* to watch video on my Linux box; I don't want to have to buy MS product just so my kids can watch movies that we've paid for.
Incase you are wondering, why port WM9 to linux?
Some HDTV quality video is only in WM9, and some HDTV-DVD's also. Also for those pay music services that only use WM9.
http://www.wmvhd.com/
I was plesantly suprised to find that iTunes (at least with 4.7) has ogg vorbis support. I don't know when that happened. I wonder if there is support coming in the iPod?
I wonder what Microsoft is gonna have Jon charged with?
Free Software: Like love, it grows best when given away.
Could somebody who actually made it to these web pages post their content so that the rest of us can read them.
Free Software: Like love, it grows best when given away.
I know this is going to be modded as flamebait or whatever... ...but...
Who cares?
First, don't FOSS alternatives exist?
Second, from personal experience lavc's mpeg4 is good enough even at relatively low rates [sub 1 mbps].
Third, I'm tired of one person getting credit for shit. I'm sure it wasn't just Jon sitting at his puter typing away to make this happen.
Tom
Someday, I'll have a real sig.
The group of hackers that uses DVD Jon as their scapegoat has hacked WMV?
This seems incredibly important, since it appears the first time that WMV9 can be decoded without using a windows DLL.
Perhaps now i'll be able to use WMV9 without using M$'s player on my Mac.
--- Kicking the Cheat since late 2002
He's actually correct, unlike half of the people commenting on this story.
is smelly.
The answer for a video decoder is 10 cents per unit with a $40,000 cap. Windows Media Licensing Fees and Royalties (September 2004)
You want to see Linux on every desktop? Would it kill you to admit that shelling out the bucks to license proprietary technologies that might actually get you there makes some sense?
None of the commercial Linux distros are going to touch a decoder that has "lawsuit" written all over it.
Cut-n-pasted from http://snltranscripts.jt.org/96/96jstarwars1.phtml
.wmv though ;)
Voice of Director: Christopher Walken, Han Solo screen test. Okay, Chris, whenever you're ready.
Christopher Walken: "I'm Captain of.. the Millenium.. Falcon. Chewie here.. tells me.. you're looking for passage.. to the.. alderaan system."
Voice of Director: "Yes, indeed, It's a fast ship."
Christopher Walken: "Fast.. ship? You've never heard.. of the.. millenium falcon? It's the ship.. that made the kessel run.. in less than.. 12 parsecs. She's.. fast enough.. for you.. old man.." That sucked! I'm sorry.. [ turns and walks away ] You know.. I had it..
Cheers
Stor
p.s. If you haven't seen this skit, try googling for it. It may only be available in
"Yeah well there's a lot of stuff that should be, but isn't"
I find pissing to be a thoroughly relaxing and enjoyable activity.
Maybe you should see a doctor.
Most of the hard work is in the encoder, which has to recognize frame-to-frame motion and make hard decisions. The decoder just does what the data stream says to do.
Maybe someone can explain this to me. It would seem to me that there's no encryption being broken here. But let's say we wanted to play a WMV9 -drm'd movie in linux using this code. We would have to decrypt the DRMd content somehow no? So now I assume that this is where the whole downloadable license thing comes into play. So let's say DVD-John 's algorithm downloads a license to play the drm'd file. What's to stop a rogue programmer from outputting the decrypted video stream to file ? I would have assumed the protection previosuly lied in Windows Media Player and its closed sourcebase preventing this option from becoming practical to a user. Now if we have the ability to play back DRM'd files as easily as I outlined it above, doesn't that completely destroy the ability of content producers to provide DRM'd content? Or is that exactly what RMS' point has been the last few years.
All this time I've assumed there was something big that I was missing in this whole DRM scheme . It seems totally inconceivable to me that Microsoft/Apple/Real/etc honestly believes that they can coax all content players to respect the content provider's wishes.
I guess this gives Norway, whose court's have decided this to be legal, another push on George WW3 Bush's list of terrorist countries. Our brave norwegians have even resisted the pressure to join the european union. Remember that small village in Gaul? ;-)
Ah, to be swashbuckling out there, as opposed to sitting behind a desk here, wrestling with old VB6 code.
If only the links weren't Slashdotted and I could waste more time revelling in someone else's success.
*sigh*
Not once millions of files are encoded, they can't. Joe User wouldn't be happy if suddenly windows auto-update meant his kids' birthday videos don't work anymore.
Oh, I hope we're a step closer to freeing up DRM restricted WMV files and here's why...
I bought (as in I paid for) WMV files from MLB.com of this year's baseball playoffs because I didn't save my TiVo'd copies and wanted to have the games in my personal archive. At MLB.com, they used advertising verbiage like "watch them whenever you want!" and "burn them to CD!". Apparantly I didn't read the fine print close enough (or maybe it wasn't in the fine print), but those files are heavily DRM restricted. I have to be connected to the internet and log onto MLB.com to watch them. And even then, I can't even fast forward. Pathetic.
All I wanted to do was to convert them DVD-compatible MPEG2 for MY USE. I want to watch them on my TV instead of my computer. I paid for them and I should be able to view them somewhere other than my PC. I searched high and low and couldn't find a way to break the DRM. Sheesh, it's not like I'm trying to do anything that could be construed as illegal, at least by any rational person. Really frustrating.
If Jon's thing helps free these files in a way that will allow me to media-shift them, then I'm all for it! Even if it's not so I can watch them on Linux. Heck, I've had to use DeCSS to extract MPEG files from DVDs of MY OWN HOME VIDEOS because the original tapes were damaged. How pathetic is it that I needed a tool like that in order to view files that I and I alone own copyright on?
-S
--- What parts of "shall make no law", "shall not be infringed", and "shall not be violated" don't you understand?
Washington is not an exception.
Google reveals that this has been done already before. Check out http://www.amigaforever.com/kb/5-105.html, for example.
Some creative googling turns this page up: http://www.amigaforever.com/kb/5-105.html
Q: How can I play back videos encoded with the VC-1 codec? Can I also play them back on a Mac or other system?
A: In order to save disk space while trying to preserve as much quality as possible, Amiga Forever contains videos which are "encoded" (compressed) using the VC-1 codec, originally developed by Microsoft as part of its Windows Media 9 (WM9) technology (where it was known as "VC-9" before being released as the "VC-1" standard by the Society of Motion Picture and Television Engineers). The videos on the Amiga Forever 6.0 CD-ROM are stored in the "VIDEO" directory, and have names ending in ".WMV".
The video files can be played back with Windows Media Player 7.1 or higher on Windows, or with Windows Media Player 9 or higher on Mac OS X. VC-1-compatible players for Linux include Turbo Media Player by Turbolinux and Xine (which requires some original Microsoft DLLs).
So there you have it. If anything, JJ only got some native linux code to work, since he could have used a DLL to play it in Xine and probably MPlayer too.
Use it like this: like this
More about Coral: http://www.scs.cs.nyu.edu/coral/.
Simpy
If you're worried that owners of the linked sites won't get usage statistics, the cache could be set up to count how many times it was accessed, and the statistics could be emailed to the site owner. The email would look something like this:
You get the idea.IIRC VC-1 is open source now after it was submit to SMPTE for the review
VC1 is an open standard, meaning that anyone can re-implement it from the hardcopy speficification (subject to royalties of course). However Microsoft's particular implementation of the standard (the WMV9 code) is anything but open source. It will cost you $5000 (could be $10000, I forget) plus a hefty confidentiality agreement from Microsoft - so I doubt we'll be seeing it in the mplayer/VLC CVS anytime soon. It looks like it was thrown together by chimps, by the way.
As mentioned in the article, the VC1 standard is technically inferior to H.264 anyway (which does have open source reference software).
Hmm, according to those screen shots he doesn't want to play wmv9 media, he just wants to look at hot chicks! Also, his up2date isn't!! Yum update! Quick! Waagh!
way to go, mods
The Video Codec is WMV3, the whole shebang together with the new audio Codec and lots of DRM is just called Windows Media 9!
;-) I've been waiting for that for a long time, and the WMV3-videos that wouldn't run with Mplayer and VLC REALLY started to piss me off...
Thank you, Jon!
Another website downed by slashdot.
someone who did it and now we have the source for the codec. Sure. You say it way easy. But I didn't see YOU doing this. Everybody just said "oh, well, we'll use the dll".
Native-ian.
That Apple could be mentioned in an article and there not be a reference to "iPod" or "iPod killers"?!?
My world has turned upside down.
Bad analogies are like waxing a monkey with a rainbow.
While using WMV on Linux will probably break the end user license, lets not forget that Microsoft have been found to be breaking laws with their anti-competitive practises.
So such licenses are questionable. You have a computer hardware to run it, you have the software required to decode the files. Why should you be forced to buy and use a specific operating system to do the job? especially if there's a free alternative that is better.
It's politics like this that make me think about taking up another interest.
Motherfucker that put your little pusssy, cuntass sack of tits you call a face. Suck it, bitch.
Finally, I think, he has done something with a good purpose (I am really addicted to this word today).
Cracking CSS was good, because it allows for us to back-up our movies, which sure is fair-use... It also allows us to share these copies, but that's another story.
Cracking Apple's FairPlay "technology" was not that important. Was it meant for "playing our AAC's on any device"? I doubt it! I haven't seen that many non-Apple players that support the format, even if unprotected. Apple tries to tie the consumer into their products, but I don't see people buying music from the iTMS for playinh iy in other players, and the restrictions are pretty loose. You can have your files authorized for 3 different computers and 2 iPods (I am not sure here)... I think it's prety good for me and for most people and that creates a good relationship between Apple and the record labels, be it good or not. I, personally, think that $0.99 for song is a good price point for what you can do with the music.
But, for his last feat, that's really good! Linux needs the more compatibility with "3rd-party standards" it can get if it is to be on the desktop any time in the future.
Now, if someone could reverse engineer all those QuickTime codecs and get QuickTime on Linux decently!
it's in the google cache
1. We get to pay our huge (non-)member fee
2. We get to have our fresh meat look like stone (gray) since we can't continue using harmless methods for keeping it red looking. (New EU rule - USA just accepted this method, we've used it since the sixties, but no more)
3. We get to obey a lot of other freaky EU rules, packing our lives with bureaucracy.
4. We don't have to bother what the EU decides, we don't have a voice anyway.
5. Even if we had a voice, we wouldn't have to care at all as we're just 4 million people against Germany's 82 million, so we don't even have to sit in the EU parlament.
6. We get to PAY, and PAY, and PAY and don't have to do nothing but OBEY THE RULES, that noone in southern Europe cares about! No stress!
Man! I'm sick of EU. Gimme my country back.
here is white, what about you?
I know people have paid for WMV9 files but why in gods name does everyone use them? Is DivX and quicktime just that bad?
Everytime I look at a WMV file it doesn't seem to be as good of quality as Divx or an MPEG4 file.
Could just be me though.
That license is indeed liberal ,but if users exceeded it like he does with companies, would he care?
Why does yahoo do this
"...Xine (which requires some original Microsoft DLLs)."
This apparently does not.
He is I guess what you would call a "PR guy" for a group of talented individuals (hackers) who do the work. It didn't even have to be anyone at nanocrew, it could have been someone else who was too shy or afraid to release this stuff herself. (Big bad microsoft and all)
THIS THING CAN TURN ON A DIME, MACROSSZERO STYLE ALSO FUCK BETA, ~NYORON
I mean, is the whole stream encrypted or is there a content-control header that DirectShow marshals that you can ignore?
THIS THING CAN TURN ON A DIME, MACROSSZERO STYLE ALSO FUCK BETA, ~NYORON
Sorry to burst your bubble but WMV has been approved.
Seems like MS we will be seeing a lot of VC1 in the future....
First it must be fun for them.
/.) - but at the time it would have saved me much grief. Wine Windows Player will not play DRM video. Eventually I remember I had a Win4Lin demo in a disc.
:)
Even if they hack something that many would deem useless - I can see it's their hobby. You can only excel more and more.
Now concerning WMV9 - many Linux fans would want people to give up their Windows. Then they are sent some proprietory file (unreadable) - and the nagging start again.
Now about DRM. Yeah it should be avoided at all costs. But I had a deadline and knew f** all about Actionscript. Having learnt (ages ago) C# from the LearnVisualStudio.NET series - I've visited a brother site that did Flash script and paid some $15? and download some vids to quickly learn my way into Flash MX/ActionScript (before the client found someone else more proficient in poop technologies).
And guess what - those bastard had the video DRMed! Now I don't know if Jon cracked DRM also (site's been
When people go: "What is the point?" - As long as they are having fun - if they are hacking some code with good intent - it is bound to help someone somewhere someday
Oh, I don't know, what do you think?
THIS THING CAN TURN ON A DIME, MACROSSZERO STYLE ALSO FUCK BETA, ~NYORON
No text was inserted during the manufacture of this posting.
Got time? Spend some of it coding or testing
....mod that man through the floor. (-:
Got time? Spend some of it coding or testing
Your statement assumes that all lawmakers are sane, reasonable and unbiassed. The odds against that are incredible.
Got time? Spend some of it coding or testing
Elephants and whales have cows and calves too, y'now.
Got time? Spend some of it coding or testing
Jon repackages existing, available stuff, and likes to take a bit of credit for that.
THIS THING CAN TURN ON A DIME, MACROSSZERO STYLE ALSO FUCK BETA, ~NYORON
and people who claim that are either lying or making assumptions.