On Mon, 4 Jun 2001, Arnd Bergmann wrote:
> On Sun, 3 Jun 2001, Vincent Meyer wrote:
>
> > Currently running a Gateway Solo 9100 laptop with a Matshita SR-8171, and
> > I'm currently haveing problems reading DVD data with it.
>
> Some DVDs are protected with an evil mechanism called content scambling system
> (CSS) and you can not read the files using normal file system tools.
> Instead, you have to get the package libcss from http://linuxvideo.org/
> and then use the css_cat program to read a file.
> Cheap DVDs often come without CSS and country code protection, so you were
> probably using an unprotected disc before.
Even with that library, you will run into problems with some drives.
Some drives have another bit of evil to enforce region codes. Region
codes are there so the movie industry can maximize profits based on parts
of the world. (For example, people in India are not going to be able to
pay what someone in the US will. They don't want people from the US being
able to order cheaper discs from other parts of the world and ruining
their profit margin.
RPC-2 drive are the most common. They are set in hardware. There are ways
to get around them, like patching firmware. The biggest problem is if the
drive has not had the code set. The current Linux players do not check
these settings and it causes problems. (From what I can tell, if the
player does not have a region code set, the player will not return the
keys for CSS.) You can set the code only a certain number of times. For
most people, that is not a big deal, as they probably do not have
off-region discs anyways... (But it is a big hastle when you want
something that is either not available and/or censored in your local
area.)
There is a program to set theose codes under Linux, but I have not tried
it yet. (I have not had the bandwidth to do it...)
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