Thanks for your responses, most of it actually made sense & should be very helpful in my future decision-making! Cathy > ---------- > From: Henri Yandell > Reply To: macgroup at erdos.math.louisville.edu > Sent: Tuesday, August 3, 2004 8:23 AM > To: macgroup at erdos.math.louisville.edu > Subject: Re: MacGroup: Region free internal DVD? [faked-from] > > > > On Tue, 3 Aug 2004, KR'sListMail wrote: > > > > 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. > > Yep, though it's nice to know of a successful customer (for me anyway; > Jason is a trusted source, however he would be less so for members here > and there's nothing to say we'd have the same success with them that he > had). > > > This JVC product--it appears to me, it is a modified, grey market item > > Anything solving this problem tends to be a grey market item I think. > Hardware companies are not allowed to sell such things openly. > > > 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) > > Not a lot of choice in this area. Some of the sites selling such things > are a lot worse (people mainly buy such things for hardcore Japanese Anime > and rather 'arty' French films). > > > 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. > > Have you ever seen any proof that this is correct? Initially Regions were > created to match the fact that they already existed with non-digital Movie > systems. Film used to be shipped from the US, to Europe, to Asia etc etc. > Now that things are digital, such a process is not needed; but the MPAA > used it as their reason for Regionalization. > > Nowadays they may claim it's to cut down on bootlegging, but that wasn't > their original point. Personally I think it's to stop non-US movie > industries from being able to easily compete with them. The US market is > effectively cut off from non-Hollywood movies. > > > 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. > > Are you saying that the DVD contains an algorithm on it for unpacking it? > Nothing is really secret in a public media like this. > > > 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 ? > > Software exists to do this. The MPAA just doesn't like it. Maybe you can't > re-compress to the same thing without their passkeys, but you can happily > make up your own. > > The real trick is not putting the data on the DVD, but getting it off the > DVD. Doing this is potentially breaking the DMCA. > > > 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... > > DeCSS has existed since 1999 or something. This stuff long ago stopped > being proprietary. > > > 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... > > This is actually just amateurism. There's only one reason you can't copy a > DVD and maintain quality. While movies are sold to us on 8 Gigabyte DVDs, > we consumers are only sold 6 Gigabyte DVD media. This means that things > have to be compressed to copy them, which either means chucking out some > of the extra features, or losing quality. > > You could maintain quality by putting it on 2 DVDs, and the 8 Gigabyte > DVDs are allegedly going to be on the market soon. > > > 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" > > Not true. Copying media is your right, upheld by the supreme court etc > etc doodah doodah. > > However, the creators of the media have the right to make copying as > painful as possible, and the DMCA says you are not allowed to get around > things they have put in place. > > This basically creats a loophole: You have the right to copy. They have > the right to stop you. You don't have the right to counter their stop. > > > 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. > > Yep. They want you to rent their property and not buy it. Buying the > Wizard of Oz every 10 years amounts to a nice long term rent. > > > 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. > > Your article below suggests this is a future thing. This is no reason not > to buy a region-less dvd players as the AACS system they're talking about > creating would not work on people's DVD players anyway and we'll all need > to upgrade. > > DVD has been around for a decade now, so you'd get at least 5 years play > out of the old standard. > > > You can a little more about this work in this article here: > > http://zdnet.com.com/2100-1104_2-5269286.html > > Hen > > > > | 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> > > -------------- next part -------------- A non-text attachment was scrubbed... Name: not available Type: application/ms-tnef Size: 6101 bytes Desc: not available Url : http://www.math.louisville.edu/pipermail/macgroup/attachments/20040803/b7b51178/attachment.bin
