Uiler Posted October 2, 2004 Report Share Posted October 2, 2004 I finally got my first DVD drive (I didn't actually mean to get it but - well, it's a long story). Anyway installed the windows software. The usual regions apply blah blah blah. However in Linux, xine totally ignores regions! I've tried Region 1,2 and 4 DVDs and they all work fine. Is this something common with playing DVDs in Linux? I'm not complaining (I think it's great!). I thought that the region coding was set into the hardware of the DVD drive and was expecting to have to flash it to make it multiregion. So is region coding set in the software of the DVD player? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
devries Posted October 2, 2004 Report Share Posted October 2, 2004 http://xinehq.de/index.php/faq Some drives come with a factory setting of region 0 so they can play back any DVD until a region code is set :) Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Uiler Posted October 2, 2004 Author Report Share Posted October 2, 2004 I don't think this is it. After reading your message I panicked as when I tried PowerDVD in Windows it forced me to choose a region setting before letting me play the DVD. Did this screw up the multiregion capabilities in Linux? Apparently not as I just tried and can still play my region 1,2 and 4 DVDs. Maybe I just have a strange (in a good way) DVD drive? EDIT: The xine webpage you pointed me too also said that some drives refuse to play unless you set a region first. This is not the case with this drive as I tested it in Linux first before trying in Windows and it played w/o problems in Linux. EDIT: Oh yeah and this is a new DVD drive. On the box it says things about some late 2003 awards from PC magazines so I guess that's when it first came out. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
devries Posted October 2, 2004 Report Share Posted October 2, 2004 As far as I know you can change the region maximum of 5 times (RPC 2). After that you need to change the firmware. http://www.doom9.org/index.html?/rpc1.htm Have fun Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Uiler Posted October 2, 2004 Author Report Share Posted October 2, 2004 No. It's definitely not this either. I've every swapped in and out DVDs of different regions half a dozen times at least and nothing failed - but just to prove this, I did the following sequence (note I use a different DVD each time - yeah I have a decent number of DVDs and they are legitimate DVDs bought in department stores/Amazon/EB etc. eg. X-men, Walking with Dinosaurs, Ever After, Star Trek, and are region encoded according to the cases): Region 4 Region 1 Region 4 Region 1 Region 4 Region 2 Region 4 Region 1 More than 5 changes and it still has no problems with different regions. Combine with my previous experimentation and we have around 15 different changes of regions. Of course this is in Linux (Windows, yeah, as soon as you start up PowerDVD for the first time it goes, select a region, you can change the region 5 times etc.). This (combo with CD-RW) drive definitely does not have any region coding in the hardware. Can't find any information on this Liteon (the brand name) drive on the internet though...well, at least pertaining its region capabilities. EDIT: If I try to do this in Windows, yeah, it gives me the old, Change Region, you have X number of changes left. But in Linux it really does seem you can change regions any number of times. So people are saying this is not normal in Linux? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
devries Posted October 2, 2004 Report Share Posted October 2, 2004 You probably have installed libdvdcss (if you're in the USA that is illegal btw and I believe it's even illegal to have dvd player software installed on your Linux computer). This software is able to crack most DVDs. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Uiler Posted October 2, 2004 Author Report Share Posted October 2, 2004 Well, yes I did install libdvdcss. But you need that to even read the DVD (well any css encoded DVD i.e. practically everything!). But: 1) CSS has nothing to do with region coding. Region coding is just a single bit on the DVD saying what region it is. CSS is actually encrypting the content on the DVDs. Two totally different things. 2) I thought all DVD drives in the last couple of years were supposed to have region coding in the hardware (i.e. automatic checking in the hardware) to stop the old programs that used to get around region coding. Libdvdcss is software only. I'm not disappointed. In fact I am very happy! But I just thought it was really weird and was wondering if 2) was incorrect and Linux in general just ignored region coding. EDIT: Googled for more info. It does seem as if libdvdcss can bypass region coding afterall. Well I guess it teaches me to talk about things I know nothing about. So 1) Does this work for all DVD drives? 2) How on earth DOES it work if the region coding is built into the hardware? 3) How are you supposed to play CSS encrypted DVDs in Linux w/o libdvdcss? Is going illegal the only way? (Not that I mind about legality, just curious) Well, I guess it's lucky for me that it does work! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
devries Posted October 2, 2004 Report Share Posted October 2, 2004 1: http://developers.videolan.org/libdvdcss/libdvdcss/doc/html/ It says here it doesn't rely on DVD drives. 2: I've no idea. I just use this stuff :D 3: You can't. Because it isn't legal it doesn't come with Mandrake and that's why it is in PLF. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
a13x Posted October 3, 2004 Report Share Posted October 3, 2004 As far as I know, there is no way you can hack a DVD drive to get around that stupid region bla bla bla using software. However you must do some hardware hacking ;) which is a little harder ... I found a tutorial on how to do this while searching for dvd ripping guides but I can't find it no more.... :( so you'll have to google for this .... if you want to do the hack. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
paleo Posted October 4, 2004 Report Share Posted October 4, 2004 I have no idea what is going but I can confirm that my DVD drive also seems to ignore region settings when running in Linux. It's a DVD/CD-RW combo drive on a Toshiba satelite 1805 laptop. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest anon Posted October 4, 2004 Report Share Posted October 4, 2004 (edited) * Freedom. libdvdcss is released under the General Public License, ensuring it will stay free, and used only for free software products. * Unlike most similar projects, libdvdcss doesn't require the region of your drive to be set. Edited October 4, 2004 by anon Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
adamw Posted October 4, 2004 Report Share Posted October 4, 2004 Yup. Linux, with libdvdcss, completely ignores region coding. I haven't tried it with an RPC-1 disc (to my knowledge, anyway) but region coding is a complete non-issue. Don't know the technicalities, but them's the facts. :) (this is great for Linux-based HTPC boxes, of course. This combined with the fact that a computer acts as a *great* NTSC <-> PAL convertor means a Linux box is pretty much the best DVD player money can buy - play any DVD from anywhere and it'll look great, no region problems, none of the choppiness you get with so-so NTSC / PAL conversion done by DVD players). Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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