Wouldn't we have to then wait for the files to be processed before we
downloaded them? I know some sites let you download zip files of things you
have in a cue, but it starts right away even though they're not zipping as
you add stuff.
----- Original Message -----
From: "Jacob Schmude" <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>
To: "General discussions on all topics relating to the use of Mac OS X by
theblind" <[email protected]>
Sent: Wednesday, December 10, 2008 7:40 AM
Subject: music formats (was Re: bluera)
No thanks, ogg/Vorbis isn't natively supported by enough devices. Best
bets at this point would be MP3 or AAC for compatibility with the largest
possible subset of devices, with WMA unfortunately coming in a close
third. There might be motivation to support ogg if enough music stores
started supporting it, but the ecosystem generally works the other way
around--the devices have to support it first or there'd be no guaranteed
proffit for the stores. There are a few devices that support ogg, but not
nearly enough--the iRiver line comes to mind, as well as the stream, and
some of the Rio players (now defunct).
Perhaps a better solution would be to allow you to pick your format/
bitrate at download time, and the store would have a cluster of servers
performing audio encodes. This would actually be quite feasible, and
would satisfy everyone equally. Further, this could be expanded. If you
buy music, you buy the right to download that music. Need it in ogg, but
you bought in mp3? No problem, just redownload it, since you didn't
actually buy the files, you bought access to the music. This is similar
to what Audible does already, DRM aside, you can redownload any book you
bought any number of times and in any of their formats. I think this
would really work, but who knows if the major labels or music stores
would consider such an idea.
On Dec 10, 2008, at 08:24, David Poehlman wrote:
ogg!
On Dec 9, 2008, at 11:12 PM, Chris Blouch wrote:
Now if the studios would just do MP3s for all music from all download
services.
CB
Dan wrote:
Hello,
Also, in the US, Walmart has MP3 music at 256 bit with no DRM and it's
really nice.
Dan
On Dec 9, 2008, at 3:01 PM, Jacob Schmude wrote:
Of course, that's ridiculous. Basically, I'm breaking the law by
turning my own, legally purchased, DVD disks into iPod-format files.
Well, I've only got this to say to that: too darn bad :). I bought
them, I'm not going to buy it again just to have it in another format.
Of course that's just one of the ridiculous cases for the DMCA.
As far as HDCP goes, you won't escape it for long. Even on iTunes,
some of the HD video already has a similar scheme known as DPCP. This
only affects newer Macbooks and Macbook Pros at the moment, as this is
an encryption method for the new display port (DVI and Mini DVI aren't
affected). Basically, both the display port and your monitor need to
support DPCP, it is similar in concept to HDCP. Failure to support
DPCP on your monitor gives an error message, saying this display is
not authorized to play this content. Completely ridiculous, naturally,
how many people are going to want to buy a new monitor just to watch
their movies--
movies, I might add, that they have already purchased before this
display port was introduced?
I don't get it, I really don't. The only thing these restrictive DRM
schemes do is drive customers away, in many cases to pirated versions
that have been cleaned of these restrictions. They are penalizing
those who are legally buying content, and letting the piraters off the
hook. It seems the movie industry wants to take up where the music
industry left off, most record labels have gotten it into their heads
that DRM causes more problems than it solves, and we now have stores
like Amazon MP3 and iTunes Plus is growing as well. I don't mind basic
DRM, iTunes's fair play is fair enough: up to five machines authorized
to play the content, and you have control over those authorizations at
any time. This digital signal encryption for video, I think, is going
to push a lot of people over the edge--I do understand what they're
attempting to do, but I think in trying to close one hole they're
ripping an even larger one. That, plus Blue Ray's capability to phone
home and lock the disk to one player only will hopefully cause an
anti-DRM backlash if this "feature" actually goes into widespread use.
Fortunately as of yet it doesn't seem to have done so.
Ok, done ranting :).
On Dec 9, 2008, at 17:39, Chris Blouch wrote:
From what I've read there is a whole encryption chain from the player
up to and including the output device (known as HDCP). So if your TV
doesn't support DRM or your player software or whatever you get a
downsampled version of the video or no video at all. This is rather
onerous and Apple has rejected the scheme so far. Windows Vista has
embraced it so it must be bad. I've also read that the BlueRay
encryption, like DVD encryption, was very weak and is already
cracked. Also like DVDs, in the US at least, the mere act of breaking
the encryption is illegal so avoiding all the silliness is not
possible without breaking the law. Apple is probably banking that
digital download via iTunes (or NetFlix or BlockBuster) will be the
new delivery platform of choice and this whole bits on a disk with
DRM distribution channel can just die under the weight of its own
torturous red tape. Some links for your enjoyment:
http://www.theregister.co.uk/2007/01/23/blu-ray_drm_cracked/
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/HDCP
http://techdirt.com/articles/20081030/1954252694.shtml
CB
Jacob Schmude wrote:
Not as stock, and I'm not sure if there are any blue ray players for
OS X at the moment. You could use an external drive, but you'd still
need a program capable of decrypting and playing the video. Apple
isn't embrasing blue ray yet, and I don't blame them for holding out
at the moment. You're not going to find any open source blue ray
movie players yet either, as the DRM and encryption hasn't yet been
cracked... and blue ray sure has a lot of DRM, I'd venture to say a
ridiculous amount though not all movies use all of it.
There are some blue ray burners that are OS X compatible though
they're not cheap, but as far as I know there's no way to actually
play a blue ray movie.
On Dec 5, 2008, at 18:13, Will Lomas wrote:
hi can the macbooks play blueray dvd's
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