On Tue, 3 Aug 2004, KR'sListMail wrote:
> > A Java/Mac user in Atlanta found a player he likes: > > > > http://jason.blog-city.com/read/542165.htm > > > > which is available at: > > > > http://www.220-electronics.com/dvd/jvc40.htm > > > > An important part is that not only must it be region-less, it has to > > talk > > PAL/NTSC (or you have to attach something that does). Again, because of > > the lack of demand, TVs in the US are not dual-mode (as far as I know). > > > That is a pretty good price on that JVC, although I don't know the > vendor. They also don't list a physical address either--only a phone > number. Personally, I would be VERY wary of giving some online company, > with no address, a credit card number. Be careful, some of these sites, > have people that post notes about their products on mailing lists, in > order to get sales, or scam you of your card numbers. Yep, though it's nice to know of a successful customer (for me anyway; Jason is a trusted source, however he would be less so for members here and there's nothing to say we'd have the same success with them that he had). > This JVC product--it appears to me, it is a modified, grey market item Anything solving this problem tends to be a grey market item I think. Hardware companies are not allowed to sell such things openly. > legitimate online vendor, and if it is safe to buy from them. (I > personally would not buy anything from this vendor--they look shady to > me) Not a lot of choice in this area. Some of the sites selling such things are a lot worse (people mainly buy such things for hardcore Japanese Anime and rather 'arty' French films). > technology for all these region-based players. This consortium has made > copying dvd a "hassle" for you on purpose, and intentionally so, to cut > down on internationally bootlegging of software and movies. Have you ever seen any proof that this is correct? Initially Regions were created to match the fact that they already existed with non-digital Movie systems. Film used to be shipped from the US, to Europe, to Asia etc etc. Now that things are digital, such a process is not needed; but the MPAA used it as their reason for Regionalization. Nowadays they may claim it's to cut down on bootlegging, but that wasn't their original point. Personally I think it's to stop non-US movie industries from being able to easily compete with them. The US market is effectively cut off from non-Hollywood movies. > When you play a DVD, your player "unpacks" it, from the highly > compressed state it was set to, by a secret formula when it was burned. Are you saying that the DVD contains an algorithm on it for unpacking it? Nothing is really secret in a public media like this. > On an Apple computer, dvd playback is actually held in RAM memory, then > into Virtual memory onto your drive, which in this suspended state > temporarily removes the geo-zoning code from it, when it is converted > to zeros and ones. When you try to reburn this movie content to the > same type of media format (DVD)? you won't be able to fit this data on > to a single dvd like it came from. The multimedia data, is now > unpacked and in fat binary, and it can't be re-compressed again without > the software and passkeys it originated from. In order to fit this data > on the DVD disk ? Software exists to do this. The MPAA just doesn't like it. Maybe you can't re-compress to the same thing without their passkeys, but you can happily make up your own. The real trick is not putting the data on the DVD, but getting it off the DVD. Doing this is potentially breaking the DMCA. > The software consortium uses proprietary algorithms, > in fractal geometry (endless numbers, which are harder to crack). This > kind of code is the kind of information, they do not want you to know > how to do this... DeCSS has existed since 1999 or something. This stuff long ago stopped being proprietary. > This is why you see unprofessional teenager bootlegs on eBay that are > on two cds. Obvious sign it is a bootleg! Or a bootleg that is created > from a camera recording a movie shown in a movie theater. Both methods > make for poor copies... This is actually just amateurism. There's only one reason you can't copy a DVD and maintain quality. While movies are sold to us on 8 Gigabyte DVDs, we consumers are only sold 6 Gigabyte DVD media. This means that things have to be compressed to copy them, which either means chucking out some of the extra features, or losing quality. You could maintain quality by putting it on 2 DVDs, and the 8 Gigabyte DVDs are allegedly going to be on the market soon. > So, When you start talking about wanting to copy copyrighted DVD movies > on your computer? This is not a simple question for any Developer to > answer--especially since you are asking questions that are essentially > are about "how to break the law". Copying DVD media, is not a "right" Not true. Copying media is your right, upheld by the supreme court etc etc doodah doodah. However, the creators of the media have the right to make copying as painful as possible, and the DMCA says you are not allowed to get around things they have put in place. This basically creats a loophole: You have the right to copy. They have the right to stop you. You don't have the right to counter their stop. > that Studios feel you have the freedom to have to their copyrighted > Material, nor Computer Vendors, like Apple, being partner to them, want > you be able to do either.... They want this property to stay within > their control--not yours. Yep. They want you to rent their property and not buy it. Buying the Wizard of Oz every 10 years amounts to a nice long term rent. > Since the older DVD movie protections, for both compression codes and > geo player codes, have been hacked, pretty well now, things like this > Panasonic player above, which was modified to play zone-free? These > type of solutions are becoming very out-dated. There are some new > piracy protective technologies in the works now. So, You may want to > forget about buying any zone-less DVD players like this, for your > geo-zone problem since many of those workaround methods are becoming > obsolete anyway. Your article below suggests this is a future thing. This is no reason not to buy a region-less dvd players as the AACS system they're talking about creating would not work on people's DVD players anyway and we'll all need to upgrade. DVD has been around for a decade now, so you'd get at least 5 years play out of the old standard. > You can a little more about this work in this article here: > http://zdnet.com.com/2100-1104_2-5269286.html Hen | The next meeting of the Louisville Computer Society will | be July 27. The LCS Web page is <http://www.kymac.org>. | List posting address: <mailto:macgroup at erdos.math.louisville.edu> | List Web page: <http://erdos.math.louisville.edu/macgroup>
