On Monday 21 May 2007 11:03, David SMITH wrote:

On Mon, May 21, 2007 at 10:39:42AM +0200, Primm wrote:

...

I've read the google articles filled with command line kernel jargon which I simply don't understand.

All I want to do is convert my ntsc DVD's to pal so that I can watch them in Spain. Can SuSE 10.2 do that?

OK, stupid question first - have you actually tried to play them on a DVD player in Spain? Most TVs nowadays take both NTSC and PAL. Your main problem is likely to be region coding rather than NTSC vs PAL. Get yourself a multiregion DVD player in Spain, and you'll probably be fine.

HTH...

Hi. Yeah of course. Tried to play it but no go. I just thought that somehow SuSE would let me play the ntsc DVD's on my PC. Region coding is another new to me too. I can see the dvd as vob, bup and ifo files. The vob seems to be mpeg but mplayer gives me 'Seek failed'. Maybe it's not possible under SuSE. Meanwhile I shall visit my local electodomseticos (shops where they sell video, fridges and televisions?) store and go to buy yet another dvd player! Thanks for your advice. Lynn -- To unsubscribe, e-mail: opensuse+unsubscribe@opensuse.org For additional commands, e-mail: opensuse+help@opensuse.org

-----BEGIN PGP SIGNED MESSAGE----- Hash: SHA1 The Monday 2007-05-21 at 11:34 +0100, David SMITH wrote:

AFAIK, there should be no reason why a PC shouldn't be able to play NTSC DVDs. PC DVD drives are, however, region locked. You can usually change the region a fixed number of times (e.g. 8), before you then can't change them at all. It is possible to download replacement firmware for some PC DVD drives which overrides this. However, if anything goes wrong, you may make your DVD drive completely unusable. i.e. do it at your own risk!

However, region enconding is ignored by linux players; the reason is that they have to break the encryption anyway using the "libdvdcss" library. Once broken, why should they care about one more impediment? Now, Primm, have you installed "libdvdcss"? Without it, any linux player will fail. Plus, you can not use the players that come with the distro: either compile them yourself, or use those repackaged by some one like packman (try xine or mplayer). Also, don't try to play the vob files directly, that doesn't work. - -- Cheers, Carlos E. R. -----BEGIN PGP SIGNATURE----- Version: GnuPG v1.4.5 (GNU/Linux) Comment: Made with pgp4pine 1.76 iD8DBQFGUX2gtTMYHG2NR9URAgEaAJ9qnDR/XmIMEiWlWeAcnrlQ9GCD/ACfcZQN kS2+VeWTBB7YrBAbboUst1E= =ZlpR -----END PGP SIGNATURE----- -- To unsubscribe, e-mail: opensuse+unsubscribe@opensuse.org For additional commands, e-mail: opensuse+help@opensuse.org

-----BEGIN PGP SIGNED MESSAGE----- Hash: SHA1 The Monday 2007-05-21 at 12:29 +0100, David SMITH wrote:

On Mon, May 21, 2007 at 01:08:15PM +0200, Carlos E. R. wrote:

...

However, region enconding is ignored by linux players; the reason is that they have to break the encryption anyway using the "libdvdcss" library. Once broken, why should they care about one more impediment?

I assumed that Linux DVD players were still bound by the region encoding on the drive, but ICBW; I don't bother playing DVDs on my PC as I've got a "proper" DVD player downstairs.

My case is the reverse, but the number of DVDs I own is less than my fingers (in one hand), so I have little justification to buy a unit, even if they are cheap. There is almost no room near the TV set... I have heard of region issues, but I'm not clear on it. The dvd readers are installed without region code selected. If used on windows, the software will activate one region, but not in Linux. If you only use it in Linux no region is selected at all and it works. However, it has been said that once a region is selected, it will refuse to play dvds from other regions, in linux - this I can not verify nor certify. It's just a posibility, but I don't think it is true.

Of course, the next question for the OP is - Can you play PAL (region 2) DVDs on your PC? Is it just the "NTSC" ones that you can't play, or is it all commercial DVDs?

That's a good question. :-) - -- Cheers, Carlos E. R. -----BEGIN PGP SIGNATURE----- Version: GnuPG v1.4.5 (GNU/Linux) Comment: Made with pgp4pine 1.76 iD8DBQFGUYmUtTMYHG2NR9URArf+AJ0bC6whPRepryisSwefuL21L02CzwCeLcuk MLiV1exuGuAVBkn7Hr4LYD0= =Rirt -----END PGP SIGNATURE----- -- To unsubscribe, e-mail: opensuse+unsubscribe@opensuse.org For additional commands, e-mail: opensuse+help@opensuse.org

Billie Erin Walsh wrote:

I really believe it's a software issue rather than a hardware one. When I bought my first DVD drive the software that came with it [ Windows Power DVD ] said it would play any region DVD, but after five of any one region it would lock to that region. I only have one non-USA region DVD and I've only tried to watch it in Linux so.............

No, this is a dvd firmware problem. The first version of the region locking was removable and resettable by software, the second version which is employed for some years now will allow five changes of the region code and then lock. -- Sandy List replies only please! Please address PMs to: news-reply2 (@) japantest (.) homelinux (.) com -- To unsubscribe, e-mail: opensuse+unsubscribe@opensuse.org For additional commands, e-mail: opensuse+help@opensuse.org

Carlos E. R. wrote:

The Monday 2007-05-21 at 10:39 +0200, Primm wrote:

...

All I want to do is convert my ntsc DVD's to pal so that I can watch them in Spain. Can SuSE 10.2 do that?

AFAIK, DVD media are neither NTSC nor PAL.

I'm afraid that there are differences in format. I googled a bit and found this page: http://www.michaeldvd.com.au/Articles/PALvsNTSC/PALvsNTSC.asp The problem here is DVD region though. I'm sorry to say that it's American invention aimed to bother honest people. There is quite a chance that you won't be able to play the DVD just because of different DVD region (USA being 1 and Europe 2). For such tasks I use combination of Wine (sort of Windows runtime environment in Linux) and DVDShrink (freeware windows tool). On my old Athlon XP2100+ it takes close to 45minutes to create region-free DVD. Cheers, Tosuja -- Petr "Tosuja" Klíma Mail: tosuja@tosuja.info Web: www.tosuja.info ICQ: 52057532 -- To unsubscribe, e-mail: opensuse+unsubscribe@opensuse.org For additional commands, e-mail: opensuse+help@opensuse.org