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DVD-RAM Support
Nathan Laredo (the A/V guru from the expo who had 4 MPEG decoders in his machine
running simultaneously) wrote in to say that he's "hacked out" full
read/write/rewrite functionality for the Panasonic LF-D100 series of
Panasonic DVD-RAM drives under Linux, and the diff is available at OPN.
He says he's used the driver to copy three unencrypted DVDs, and that you probably don't want
to use ext2 on the drive (though it can be done "painfully").
The poster who asked who to thank at Panasonic has a good point!
This (hopefully) is a good way to both foster goodwill by saying "Thanks, guys, we appreciate the gift!" and to let them know how many people would like to use a DVD (/RAM) drive with a Free OS.
I bet they don't get a lot of "thank you"s when they release a new driver for the Windows family of OSes, in part because most users view it as a default, just an integral part of their machine. Sort of like those who are not into automobiles (I'm not) don't care so much about some new engine part.
But those who appreciate the fact that a lot of uncredited hours go into every free / Free program can be more appreciative. It would be great to let Panasonic know they've pleased a lot of people by contributing one of their drives and more important the documentation for it.
So if anyone from Panasonic is reading this, WOOHOO! Thanks!
And again, if we know where to direct better thank yous, I'm sure people will send some.
timothy
jrnl: http://tinyurl.com/c2l8yr / foes: http://tinyurl.com/ckjno5
DVD-RAM drives write DVD-RAM discs only, not CD-Rs. Those discs have a hard case rather like a 3 1/2" floppy. (Apparently you can remove the case and some DVD-ROMs will read it.) If you need permanent archival storage of files that will fit on a CD-R, they still win on price and flexibility (since almost anyone can read them.) DVD-RW drives, with caseless DVDs, are anticipated for later this year or early next.
My recommendation, if you're buying for personal use, is to get a cheapish CD-R now. I got one for $100 after a $50 rebate from Staples; at 2x/6x it's slow, but perfectly usable. Save the money and upgrade to writable DVDs once the technology has stabilized.
Ooh, a sarcasm detector. Oh, that's a real useful invention.
The drive is packaged by Acer, and was on the Linux compatibility lists. I haven't tried it with Linux yet, just (yeah, I know) Windows. It's IDE, and puts me up to the 4 device limit.
If you go SCSI, the Yamaha 4x/4x/16x drives look fairly appealing.
Ooh, a sarcasm detector. Oh, that's a real useful invention.
This is a bit off-topic, but has anyone heard of drivers for DV capture cards? ie so you can get video digitally off your DV camcorder or whatever. I was looking the other day and didn't find anything at the time...
Is there any work being done on consumer level support for DVD-ROM? A Toshiba DVD-ROM and MPEG decoder card came with my laptop and I'd prefer not having to reboot into Windows to use the DVD features of my drive. Thanks in advance for any information.
Does this meant that it can copy an .mpg on a DVD video disk to a hard drive? I'm assuming not, but the wording on the post was pretty unclear. How is DVD video encryption done?
David E. Weekly (dew, Think)
David E. Weekly
Code / Think / Teach / Learn
h4x0r for
I don't suppose you realize these are two different standards with similar names...
DVD-R : write-once version of DVD-ROM...
DVD-RAM : low capacity, older format
DVD+RW : HP/Philips/Sony (most similar to DVD-ROM)
DVD-RW : Pioneer (fading fast)
These days, all bets seem to be leaning to DVD+RW... (probably because '+' is better than '-')
For discussion about playing DVD video on linux, check out the linuxdvd mailing list archives at http://linuxdvd.corepower.com/
we especially need input from lawyers about some of the legal aspects of licensing. So if you have that law degree and feel like doing something useful with it, please join the list and help tackle some of these annoying problems.
-jeff
DVD-ROM drives have been supported under Linux for a while now (since they first appeared?) as really big CD drives. Note that I said drives - though we can read DVD-ROM and DVD-Video media, Linux software doesn't exist yet to playback DVD-Video movies under Linux.
This driver is for a DVD-RAM drive, a rewriteable DVD format. I guess the driver handles the writing part of the process.
Posted by Ungrounded Lightning Rod:
IBM's first (?) movable-head disk was called a RAMAC.
Six feet tall, bunch of platters (40?) about six feet across. Hydraulic head drive (rumored to have cut the fingers off a CE who bumped the interlock while the plexiglass cover was off and his fingers in). Motor in the hub (with spare windings so a burnout wouldn't force a disk replacement, which required a second story of clearance and a crane.) Magnetic spots big enough to read with the naked eye (which you could if the heads crashed, filling the enclosure with ground-off iron oxide which then "developed" the medium.
Those were the days.
Found the link that explains why you can't record video DVDs yet. It can explain things better than I can. Check it.
Editor Emeritus and Senior Writer, TeleRead.org
Actually he has a very good point!
Check out the driver....There are only 3-4 lines of code! It basically recognizes that the drive is a Panasonic DVD-RAM, and marks it removable.
What if we started a campaign to encourage independent film makers and regular people making copies of thier own movies, to use a different standard of encoding, while still using the DVD disc size. Of course we would have to use the basic MPEG movie encoding, but the encryption could be something else, something open but secure against piracy. Is there anything like that out there? Would such a campain be possible. I think if we could develop such a system and convense that movie industry that our system is not only cheaper (free???) but just as secure they might move to such a format themselves? And everybody could use them. Is such a thing possible. Any comments suggestions ideas? The MP3 campaign is going strong, but I believe we could take on another, though this one may be even more difficult.
Don't expect Linux Software for DVD Playback. It is very very unlikely that their will ever be software playback under Linux (maybe as a commercial product).
MPEG2 (the video) and AC3 (the audio), as well as CSS (the scrambling) are subject to licensing issues, which are rather expensive, for example AC3 licensing will range at about 20000 US-$,
and MPEG licensing is based on a per-player-fee.
There are two types of media used for DVD-RAM, type 1 and type 2.
Type 1 is a special double-sided disk in a cartridge that cannot be removed from the drive without data loss.
Type 2 are single-sided disks that can be removed from the cartridge and read in some normal DVD-ROM drives.
More info here: http://www.cdpage.com/DVD/dvdram.html
-LjM
When I wrote to the fellow in charge of hiring the guy who wrote Linux drivers for the SBLive!, he said:
As for DVD, we are working on a prototype right now. Unfortunately we are a very small team and it may take us a while. I have no estimate right now because we are also fighting a legal issue with the DVD Consortium, that may end
up holding us up indefinitely. If we can get the legal stuff taken care of then there may be a beta this summer. Stay tuned...
So I guess you never know...
I've also heard that Sigma Designs will be doing Linux drivers for their next generation of decoder card; they can't do it for the H+ because the H+ actually does its decoding in on-card software.
Editor Emeritus and Senior Writer, TeleRead.org