Here is the tool: http://web.Ivy.NET/~carton/oneNightOfWork/rpcmgr13.c
the code is a bit silly because it's based on an old Linux tool.
If you read or play DVD movies in Solaris, you probably need this
tool. The only way you wouldn't need it is if you also play movies in
Windows on the same DVD drive.
type of drive | how you get it | good/bad
---------------+-----------------------+--------
RPC1 | raid from a peecee |
| bought 1999 or *|
| earlier |
| |
| flash hacked | Good.
| firmware from |
| rpc1.org (if *|
| available) |
| |
| buy LiteON drive |
| and use this tool *|
---------------+-----------------------+---------
RPC2 set to | buy brand new |
same region | drive. use to watch |
as your movie | movies in Windows. |
| then start Solaris. |
| |
| buy brand new drive. | Good.
| use this tool to |
| set the drive's |
| region |
---------------+-----------------------+---------
RPC2 with | buy brand new drive. | Bad.
unset region | install in solaris. *|
---------------+-----------------------+---------
RPC2 set to | try to watch movies |
region not in | from different regions| Bad.
movie's | in any OS---Solaris, |
regionmask | Windows, Linux, Mac OS|
| |
* == tested by me.
Testing is trickier than it seems. Something like 'rpcmgr -i
/dev/rdsk/c0t2d0s2' will show what regions are allowed by a movie.
Often this does not match the globe-icon on the case---my copy of _The
Adventures of Baron Munchausen_ allows regions 1, 3, 4. But the globe
just says [1].
The usual way to play or read DVD movies in unix is using libdvdcss.
In the ``Bad'' case, libdvdcss _will still work_, sometimes. But it
won't work with all DVD's. I found it worked with about 2/3 of what I
rented, and for months I couldn't figure out why Linux could play the
DVD's and Solaris couldn't. You can recognize the Bad case by
starting your movie player like this:
$ DVDCSS_VERBOSE=2 mplayer dvd://1
that is, set the environment variable DVDCSS_VERBOSE=2. Look for a
line in the output like this:
libdvdcss debug: ioctl ReadTitleKey failed (region mismatch?)
libdvdcss debug: GetASF not authenticated, ASF=0
libdvdcss debug: lost ASF requesting title key
libdvdcss debug: resetting drive and cracking title key
If you are seeing this, it could explain why you can't play certain
DVD's. Follow one of the steps in the table above.
* if you only want to watch Region <n> movies, use my tool to set
your drive to region <n>. This should work with any drive. but
you can only change the region a few times before the drive zaps
itself.
* if you want region-free moviewatching, buy a Lite-ON drive, and use
the -d switch of the tool to set RPC1 and make it act like a
pre-1999 DVD-ROM. This is best for Solaris (and other Unix), but
might not work with some Windows movieplayers. The change is
reversible.
sorry for the manual effort involved here, as opposed to something
that can be changed in a driver and suddenly movies ``just play.'' At
least the tool is very simple.
I don't know if this is on-topic, but I thought since it's related to
different brands of hardware, changes in hardware over the years, the
Solaris DVD stack which is quite complicated now, and Solaris uscsi,
it was vaguely related. if not sorry for the noise. Maybe I'm
overexcited to kill a strange months-old and annoying problem.
pgpTXKawQjkUL.pgp
Description: PGP signature
_______________________________________________ driver-discuss mailing list [email protected] http://mail.opensolaris.org/mailman/listinfo/driver-discuss
