Blu-Ray and Linux

Sun Jun 30 23:57:46 IDT 2013

Also it's worth mentioning that with streaming services you are getting a
sub-par quality encode compared to Blu-Ray or properly made re-encodes from
torrent trackers.
I suspect this due to using the same default encoding settings for all the
content and ignoring the actual footage nuances.
While for most movies the differences are not that noticeable, there is an
occasional color distortion, smoothed grain, or bit-rate starvation, which
can deteriorate the quality to near dvd levels at times.
But that's nitpicking. Just because of the DRM alone I would avoid any
streaming services.

On Sun, Jun 30, 2013 at 10:32 PM, Beni Cherniavsky-Paskin <cben at users.sf.net
> wrote:

> On Jun 27, 2013 11:48 AM, "E.S. Rosenberg" <esr+linux-il at g.jct.ac.il>
> wrote:
> >
> > 2013/6/27 Omer Zak <w1 at zak.co.il>:
> > > On Thu, 2013-06-27 at 10:14 +0300, Nadav Har'El wrote:
> > >> On Wed, Jun 12, 2013, Omer Zak wrote about "Re: Blu-Ray and Linux":
> > >> > So the only reason to buy a Blu-Ray drive would be to view Blu-Ray
> > >> > movies and TV series (such as Dr. Who).
> > >>
> > >> Or look those up in bittorrent ;-)
> > >
> > > Are there any legal means, available to <oxymoron_alert>frayer
> > > Israelis</oxymoron_alert>, who wish to buy such content and download it
> > > via Internet, without bothering with physical media?
> >
> > Downloading is legal (at least in a lot of countries), uploading is
> > generally considered problematic.
> >
> Do you have a reference?  Uploading to N peers lets them claim you
> facilitated N infringements => absurdly high royalties, so that's what they
> sue for.  But I always thought downloading from ftp is still infringement.
>
> > But if you insist on overpaying (I am all for paying for content you
> > like to support the artist but generally the prices asked are way to
> > high, though with digital media it is improving) I am pretty sure
> > every cell provider/ISP has online stores these days have online
> > stores, amazon, itunes all do business here.
> >
> TLDR: http://xkcd.com/488/
> Before you pay for any steaming/download, check for subtitle support and
> HDCP enforcement.  /TLDR
>
> Not all who do business in Israel have licenses to sell all content;
> selection varies by country and is much better in USA than elsewhere.
> http://canistream.it will tell you the options for a given movie/series,
> at least for USA.
> (There are many grey market services proxying you to appear in USA...)
>
> I've spent a week recently looking for a legal way to buy The Hobbit (in
> California) online (trying to go paper-less & disk-less) with best Linux &
> Android support, resulting in VUDU -- and another week cursing the
> experience :-(
>
> The worst news is that all legal streaming/downloads come with DRM.
> (Except some indie movies that offer DRM free downloads, especially if you
> kickstarted them.)
>
> Most if not all use Adobe Flash for DRM, whose Linux support is
> deteriorating - Adobe no longer updates Flash for Linux, and Chrome has
> it's own fork...
>
> There is a very annoying tendency to limit resolution by platform.  Many
> only allow DVD quality on PCs and restrict HD quality to "locked down"
> devices such as roku box/stick, xbox, Android/iOS etc...
> VUDU were one of the few to offer 1080p to PCs.  However, IIRC I only got
> 480p quality on Linux because HD is also conditioned on the OS reporting
> end-to-end HDCP to the monitor, which AFAIK Linux doesn't even have an API
> for :-(  I don't remember for sure if this happened to me on VUDU or I read
> about it wrt. other services but in any case HDCP enforcement is a crucial
> point to check before paying for HD on Linux!
> [
> http://blog.linuxacademy.com/linux/unplugged-replace-your-cable-provider-with-linux-enabled-media/reports HDCP does exist on Linux, but only with binary bulk nvidia/ATI
> drivers, to WINE apps.  I don't call that Linux...]
>
> Aside: Netflix also limit by ISP: the highest quality is reserved to ISPs
> that peer with them.  Not sure if they're the good or evil guys here, but
> smells suspicious on net neutrality grounds...  (they're also annoying in
> limiting by bandwidth - no (reliable) support for pre-buffering the whole
> movie in HD on a slow connection, AFAIK).
>
> In any case I ended up in windows because I sentimentally felt I want to
> "own" the whole movie on hard disk, and VUDU only offer a downloading app
> for windows.
> Mind you, it's still DRM'd, keyed per machine, stored in some opaque cache
> folder (which I find offensive for 9GB, on general principles).  The player
> is as limited as the in-browser streaming player.  And it kept
> stucking/crashing at a particular spot - I guess the download was corrupted
> (and there is no Verify Data like with torrents - you can only delete and
> re-download the whole file).
> Streaming OTOH was flawless (15Mbps cable)!
> The only annoyance with streaming is re-buffering after seeking, even 10
> seconds back (dear Adobe, or whoever I should hate for this: I have enough
> RAM to retain the last hour of the movie).
>
> So the only reasons to download are slow connection and watching offline.
> "Keeping" the movie forever isn't, as once bought you can stream it
> forever, no restrictions, and download forever on up to 5 or 10 machines.
> There is a scheme called Ultraviolet to formalize this proof of purchase
> => online access arrangement, across providers.
> *Most recent disks also come with an Ultraviolet code, letting you
> re-downloaded/stream them.*
> This makes excellent sense!
> But the implementation so far is bad [
> http://m.networkworld.com/community/blog/ultraviolet-another-drm-dead-end-internet-video,
> http://m.ign.com/articles/2012/03/14/opinion-why-ultraviolet-is-frustrating].
> Most notably, access is only guaranteed for one year?!  More functionality
> and interoperability is promised once they agree on a downloadable format
> (CFF).
>
> VUDU also have streaming & downloading app for Android, which works well
> subject to HDCP.  As it happens, my 1080p monitors report (EDID) max
> resolution of 720p when I enable HDCP; It was easy to force X and Windows
> to use 1080p but not Android.
>
> All of the above, even when working perfectly, requires using VUDU's
> player.
> - I had a fancy to watch the two angles of the 3D version on my dual
> monitors.  Forget it, nobody sells 3D streaming/download, only on bluray.
> - OK then, how about stretching the one image across 2 monitors?  Nope,
> Flash only maximizes to one monitor.  (could probably fool it, didn't feel
> like reconfiguring X for it)
> - Most important of all: external subtitles.  Nope, unsupported.  And
> there were no built-in subs either, not even English!  I was watching in
> low volume (sleeping baby), so this was painful.
> I suspect other DRM'd services have similarly limited players...
>
> ---
>
> Are blu-rays better purchase than streaming sites?
> Perhaps, esp. considering the UV code which will let you try both (but
> note UV functionality differs by studio).
>
> I read too little about blu ray on Linux (E.S.Rosenberg's links paint a
> brighter picture than I thought) but from what I gathered encryption is
> partially managed in hardware - merely seeing disks that revoke the drive's
> keys can irreversibly brick the drive.  Even if not a concern in practice,
> the whole idea sounded too draconian for me to pay for such hardware...
> Nevertheless, blu rays are somewhat future-proof: at least on windows
> they're easy to rip & decrypt (if you call 1 or 2 temp. 25GB files "easy"),
> so there is *some* way to obtain a DRM-free version, which can be played
> happily ever after.  Wherever & however you want, with subtitles etc.
>
> Or you know, download the torrent that somebody else ripped ;-)
>
> Personally I'm considering paying for online copies (just to be a freier),
> then downloading the torrents.  I could still be sued - I don't suppose
> paying is a defence for p2p uploading (ianal) - but I'd enjoy the resulting
> headlines.
> What bothers me more is that along with giving money to creators I'll be
> giving it to DRM.  I'll probably limit the paying part to movies I really
> love.
>
> ---
>
> So far I only discussed long-term buying.  If you want to watch it once or
> twice, time-limited streaming is cheaper and viable.  The question how this
> DRM will work forever on free platforms is replaced by much simpler
> question: can you acceptably watch it now?
>
> P.S. On prices: Buying online copies is slightly cheaper than physical,
> which I considered expensive but acceptable -- until I started buying used
> books on Amazon and noticed the paradox that they're several times cheaper
> than kindle editions!
>
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