Re: [TCLUG:12738] DVD/Reverse Engineering/etc.

[Philip C Mendelsohn <mend0070@tc.umn.edu>]

On Sat, 22 Jan 2000, Jon Schewe wrote:

> > Perhaps the question is, when will it be free (or a least cheap) to
> > download/copy/make DVDs?  I suppose there are people out there
> > transferring the datastreams of various movies around already (though I
> > wonder if they used DeCSS or some other method).  The cost of writable
> > DVD media (not to mention the drive)

When we priced them a year and a half ago, the only one available was
$17,000.  I bet that's fallen a little, but, you're right -- the drives
are still probably pricey!

> Well it's already free to get copies of DVD's easily.  Provided you're patient
> enough or have a fast pipe to the internet.  My roommate has found a few
> newsgroups with full DVD rips.  Most of them are in MS asf format, but some
> are in avi.  The asf's are about 600MB perl movie, I think.  

Um, that depends entirely on what they've taken from the movie.  DVD is
really very complex as far as how much of the "bit budget" is allocated to
picture and sound.  But, a first phase DVD holds 4.7 GB of info.  Given
that not all movies use all of it, I still suspect (based on the little I
recall about data rates) that 600MB / feature isn't giving you everything
the disc has on it.

Phil M.


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