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Is Playing a DVD Harder Than Rocket Science?
dacut writes "After successfully repairing the Hubble Space Telescope, astronauts aboard the shuttle Atlantis found themselves with a free day due to thunderstorms which delayed their return. They attempted to pass the time by watching movies, only to find that their laptops did not have the proper software, and Houston was unable to help. No word, alas, on what software was involved, though we can assume that software/codec updates are a tad difficult when you're orbiting the planet at 17,200MPH."
Brian [on phone with Jillian]: Uh huh. Uh huh. Uh, you gotta hit, uh, "DVD" and then "menu" and then "select." Yeah... Yeah, the DVD needs to be face-up when you put it in. Uh huh. You should be able to see the words "Mr. 3000" Yeah... Still nothing? Is it plugged in? Okay, so, plug it in...
~Philly
So they bought DVDs without verifying that they could be played?
Completely waste of fuel...
Any idea how hard it is to get DVDs in the "Outer Space" region encoding?
Because DVD Playback requires a basic $5~ codec (for all the patent holders etc) some versions of Windows do not ship with it and thus without third party applications like PowerDVD or WinDVD that supply a codec, DVD Playback is "impossible."
Pirates! Theives! No one sold them a license to play the DVD in space! Unless it's region 0 it must be illegal. Either that or your software would have to play one DVD per region in the Shuttle's orbit (and of synchronise switching between players while switching other players off to avoid licensing violations). No the lag they'd experience with playback is not an excuse!
These posts express my own personal views, not those of my employer
does drm cover space shuttles? i'd think they'd need some kinda special license for that. there's probably a nominal fee - maybe proportional to the velocity at time of viewing. or maybe someone had already watched the copy before launch so it had expired. there must be a patent on watching movies in 0g so someone needs to be paid.
maybe they will plan on pre-ripping their porn videos to .wmv?
no one can hear you scream "AAARRRGGGHHHHHHHHHH" !
Its not the years, its the mileage
Hubble is not in the normal space shuttle/ISS orbit, which made getting an Internet connection more difficult than usual. In their normal orbit, they just time their Internet downloads for when they are passing over Cringely's Pringles can WiFi antenna...
Then again, if they ripped the dvds, the MPAA would probably sue nasa or some shit.
You find plenty to do on Earth. Now lock yourself in a small room with a few other people for a few weeks, and see if you never get bored.
Oh, wait, Slashdot... being locked in a small room with a few people is probably more stimulating than normal.
Did I hear that right? They are the first Space Pirates ever? AWSOME!
Life is not for the lazy.
No wonder they didn't make it through the "Thy shall not copy this DVD" part.
echo '[q]sa[ln0=aln80~Psnlbx]16isb572CCB9AE9DB03273snlbxq' |dc
Don't they know, outer space is region 8 (*laid down sideways). MPAA is still working on the technology to allow playback there.
Probably not Apollo 13...
From TFA, they worked with tech support for "More than an hour".
Astronauts must go through some seriously painful training if they can spend that much time on the phone with IT
Uhh...Did you try restarting the computer?
Zero-G sex is still sex. When the novelty has worn off sex, that's when you're ready to die.
So what you're saying is "If you stare too long into the abyss, you get bored and wanna watch DVDs"?
Rampant carbon sequestration destroyed the Dinosaurs' tropical paradise. I'm here to help repair the damage.
Yes, but I wish I had said it like you did.
"I'm currently orbiting the Earth for an extra 24 hours because of weather delays and trying to watch a DVD..."
Hey astronauts, maybe you should not have set a new country code every 15 minutes while passing over the next continent....
Yes, you are right there. -- Another glass of champagne?
Unless it's region 0 it must be illegal.
Not at all. That's specifically what region 8 is for.
Oh My God! Stupid lawyers always a step ahead!
Yeah! Have sex! even gay sex! anything is better than the latest crap you would have gotten at the nearest blockbuster back home.
Starbucks, Harbuckle of Breath.
what the hell are they doing with a DVD player!?!
Watch latest sequels of "Earthlight -- Breathtaking pictures of Earth from Space" in HD?
It's suggest they stream the movie to them but you know what they say... In space, no one can hear your stream.
Play me online? Well you know that I'll beat you. If I ever meet you I'll "/sbin/shutdown -h now" you. -Weird Al, kinda.
After sticking the DVDs into a pressurized glass vessel with pitot tubes to measure air movement, there was no difference between DRM and control.
Therefore, DRM doesn't suck. It is ridiculous, however. We ridicule it on a daily basis.
It's been a long time.
If NASA can get internet, and NASA communicates with the space station... What era is NASA living in, if the space station can't get an internet connection. The internet solves all problems, especially missing codec problems.
I'm scratching "Be an Astronaut" off my life goals list. Seriously, stuck in a room for months and months on end with OUT an internet connection?!
No pizza, and no internet make homer... something, something.
You obviously haven't been on a vacation with my wife, her goal is exactly that (much to my frustration).
"Get a bicycle. You will not regret it, if you live." - Mark Twain, "Taming the Bicycle"
Isn't there a small issue with this being a government-funded space mission, and VLC being somewhat in breach of the DMCA or software patents or something due to its inclusion of a not-paid-up DVD decoder? I may be out of date on this issue, but I'm pretty sure they wouldn't have VLC for the same reason they wouldn't encode mp3s with LAME.
Well, we (~50,000 user enterprise) had that discussion with Microsoft ...
"We have 50k desks with XP and an enterprise license that says we're entitled to Vista, right?"
"Yes."
"But XP doesn't have MPEG2 codecs, does it?"
"No, but Vista does! You should upgrade. Urgently."
"Vista smells funny, so we won't be upgrading. But why don't you let us have the Vista MPEG2 codecs that we're entitled to, and we'll install them under XP." .. eh, support .. that configuration, you need to migrate to Vista!"
"Em, no. We don't
"Well, why don't we go ahead an install VLC codecs and call it even?"
"Aha! Because, per the Wikipedia page on MPEG2, you will need to pay the Motion Picture people a license for every desktop! You should install Vista, because it is fully licensed with the Motion Picture people, on your behalf - which makes it, like, free!"
"I see, so if you've paid the Motion Picture people for MPEG2 licensing on our behalf, but you won't provide us with the MPEG2 codecs, then we should be legally entitled to use the VLC win32 MPEG2 codecs, right?" .. ehhh .. "
"Ahh
lol.
Don't be so hasty. I'd personally switch teams for a day just for a chance to try it in zero G. Go ahead and troll me, haters!