Hi, Just got back from DC. It was a nice vacation trip until the security frights on Sunday kicked, and they starting blocking off all the streets around all the Fed buildings. :-( I didn't get to be a tourist around the Capital, as I had originally planned, with cop cars on every corner blocking off all the streets. So, I ended up spending the day in Annapolis instead.
I missed the mac club presentation this week, but it sounded like alot of fun! Just reading the this thread- > Date: Sat, 31 Jul 2004 13:23:34 -0400 (EDT) > From: Henri Yandell <bayard at generationjava.com> > Subject: Re: MacGroup: Region free internal DVD? > > I'm not very clueful in this area, but very few seem to be. There > seems to > be little demand in the US to view non Region 1 DVDs. Japanese Anime > seems > the biggest area of demand, so it's not been that easy to find > region-free > players. > > 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. This JVC product--it appears to me, it is a modified, grey market item (either build for export, or not meant to be imported here for use in the USA). If you buy grey market electronics, they may work for you here, but I do know, that factory warranties become invalid here in the states. If you want to be sure about an online sale like this? If possible, get a serial number of the actual product for sale from the Vendor, and then call the Manuf to see if the item will be covered under warranty here in the USA. Be sure to ask them if it is a 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) The shuttle astronauts used a Sony DVD player that was modified by a "third-party consultant" to NASA, to become region-less --obviously something a space travelor would need in a around the world DVD player and/or satellite connection! This player is not grey market--since essentially it is sold here in the USA. Plus, how could something that was built by Sony and then modified by government paid, NASA astronauts be "illegal"??? ;-D Ha! Talk about bending the law? In regards to some of the other posts in this thread? Apple is member of the Computer Vendor and Hollywood technical consortium on protecting DVD software and film media, and thus has helped to create the 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. So asking Apple to create DVD players that works without Region-based technology? This request, will fall on deaf ears. In regards to actually copying DVDs- In order to create movie DVDs, for use, from within or across geo-zones, it is not the same process at all as using a VCR burner to copy a movie from a player, which was an analog process, not digital. 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. This is a engineering recipe mix-depending on screen or audio qualities each studio uses dicated in part by their primary computer vendor partnership. (Warner (Microsoft/Apple) vs Columbia(Sony) VS Disney(Apple/Sun) VS Paramount (Microsoft) VS Universal(Microsoft) etc) 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 ? 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... 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... All of these blocks you are having with region-based movies? Is just one of the blocks created to keep consumers from being able to make copies of both Computer maker and studio intellectual property. Of course --this doesn't keep oversea black marketers from getting to it, but they usually own their own systems. to hack it. 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" 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. 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. You can a little more about this work in this article here: http://zdnet.com.com/2100-1104_2-5269286.html Hope this helps to shed some light on this entire DVD publishing subject. :-) Yours, Kay | 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>
