Dvd Playback?


beatgeek

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(Searched the forums and got nothing.) I'm planning on using my Pandora as my main/only computer (I'm moving across the country for at least a year and need to fit my life into 3 suitcases). Normally, my desktop computer also functions as my TV and DVD player. I'm wondering if, with a USB DVD player, the Pandora could fulfill that function. Does anyone foresee any "legal hurdles" with including libdvdread in the Pandora software library?
 
This shouldn't be a problem.
Please be aware that most DVD-USB-Drives exceed the 500mA power limit of USB. In most cases, an extra psu will be needed.
I don't know of the legal situation in your country, but ripping the movie to a compressed format and putting it on SD may be the superiour solution.
 
Why not pick up a cheap portable DVD player with onboard TV Tuner?
 
beatgeek said:
Does anyone foresee any "legal hurdles" with including libdvdread in the Pandora software library?
I've totally no clue, but at least libdvdread is in the Angström repo.
http://www.angstrom-distribution.org/repo/
 
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If you've got a few extra quid (and a fair amount of time!) then you'd be better off getting an external 2.5 inch hard drive and ripping all your DVDs to that.
 
Pleng said:
If you've got a few extra quid (and a fair amount of time!) then you'd be better off getting an external 2.5 inch hard drive and ripping all your DVDs to that.
surely a 1.8" like this?
ASUS-01024hand.png
http://www.svp.co.uk/technology/asus-eee-30-gb-18-in-external-hdd-usb-black_asus-01024.html#descriptionTab_513
 
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I'm not sure 30Gb is going to hold an awful lot of DVDs! And if you're going down that route you may as well get 2 16 Gb SD cards for not much more money.

I've noticed that those 16Gb cards have come back down in price recently, and play.com's 32Gb SD Cards have come down my a fiver. COuld this be the start of a downward trend in prices again?
 
And even libdvdcss (needed for the decryption) is in ångström's repo. Practically all linux-video-players can play dvd's if those libraries are installed. So no real problems on the software-side. The only problem I can see is the DVD-player's power usage...
 
Pleng said:
I'm not sure 30Gb is going to hold an awful lot of DVDs!
I'd say around 30-40, seems like plenty to me especially now we can download BBC progs from their iPlayer site using http://linuxcentre.net/get_iplayer/packages/get-iplayer-current.deb . I've been using it on my SmartQ7 and it works fine.
 
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its a LITTLE bigger, and 500 gb
http://www.amazon.com/Samsung-Portable-External-Drive-HXMU050DA/dp/B001IBI0A2/ref=wl_it_dp_o?ie=UTF8&coliid=IAE6KQKBZ7DZ5&colid=1D3WRW1FD62L4
This is going to be for my movie library
 
I probably will get a little external hard drive like Mr.Gonzo mentioned (the Seagate FreeAgent Go is even smaller, and 500Gb for ~$90 is not too bad), since if I were to back up all my data to SD cards, I'd need like 10 32Gb cards, which would cost, what, $800 at least?

However, what about new movies? I'll still need a DVD player, even if I only rip them to the hard drive. The Samsung SE-S084 can power itself on one USB port (assuming the Pandora provides as much current as anything else).

Good to know that the libraries are in the repos. I have a looooong train ride ahead of me. I just hope I get the OP before I leave! *knocks wood*
 
sure, you can connect an external dvd/cd device , as long as it has its own powersupply
there are some new burners that use only usb though! but i assume thay are a whole lot more expensive as well.

other than that, as long as you have mplayer i think your good to go
 
beatgeek said:
I probably will get a little external hard drive like Mr.Gonzo mentioned (the Seagate FreeAgent Go is even smaller, and 500Gb for ~$90 is not too bad), since if I were to back up all my data to SD cards, I'd need like 10 32Gb cards, which would cost, what, $800 at least?

However, what about new movies? I'll still need a DVD player, even if I only rip them to the hard drive. The Samsung SE-S084 can power itself on one USB port (assuming the Pandora provides as much current as anything else).

Good to know that the libraries are in the repos. I have a looooong train ride ahead of me. I just hope I get the OP before I leave! *knocks wood*

The problem is really how much power it needs when first spinning up... it might very well be more that 500mah. I guess will need to test it on the Pandora to be really sure.
 
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Yeah hard drive is the way, mostly if you want to carry your life in 3 suitcases.
Im not sure you want to carry a bunch of Dvd boxes around.

you could always carry around a ripping software inside of the mini Hard drive.
And Run it from other people's computers to rip your movies while on the go.

Or else, just get a small super portable dvd player. You won't have to worry about compatibility, drainage of battery, etc.
And i'm sure you can find some just a wee bit bigger than the actual portable drive.
 
Odds are if you're going to be sitting in one place long enough to rip a DVD on a 600mhz ARM, you're going be next to an outlet. One would think. :)
 
Well, since you're probably going to need a dvd drive anyways, I'd get both the 500GB drive as well as a portable dvd drive, and a usb hub that can power them both at the same time. (I'm pretty sure that the one that I have would do that, as it has a 2.2A power supply.) Then, use handbrake (assuming it gets ported) to rip dvds to your drive. Here's the command I use:

Code:
handbrake -i /dev/DVD_Location -o /place/to/put/film/film_title.mkv -e x264 -q 0.61 -r 23.976 -a 1 -E ac3 -f mkv -p -m -2 -T
-F -x
ref=3:mixed-refs:bframes=6:weightb:direct=auto:b-pyramid:me=umh:subme=9:analyse=all:8x8dct:trellis=1:no-fast-pskip:psy-rd=1,1

This will give you a perfect rip, every time, and you'll preserve surround sound. It's about the highest quality rip you can get from a dvd, so the file will be about 2~2.5GB. The one big problem with trying to run this on a pandora would be that it's likely to take 12~24h. It runs for 2.5h on my quad-core machine, where the first pass is about 30min and the second pass is usually about 2h. This will, however, look awesome when you stream it or plug it into a larger display. I stream these to my HDTV and it usually looks about as good as HDTV does, much better than my old dvd player looks.

As a note, there is a flag in there to do forced subtitles ( -F ) only for scenes that have forced subtitles. If you need to turn on subtitles for the entire film, change "-F" to "-N eng" (or whatever language).
 
I second, third, fourth, or whatever the idea of just buying a USB powered external HD and rip your DVDs to VIDEO_TS folders and playing them off of that. I play VIDEO_TS folders all the time through VLC, just go to 'open disk' and navigate to the folder. In the end you'll end up using a lot less power than you would with an external DVD drive. Also, if the program you use to rip the DVD takes all the protection off, DVDFab does and is my fave, then the requirements to play back the VIDEO_TS folder are a lot lower, I'm sure all the libs are in the repoes.

Then again if you rip the the DVD to a VIDEO_TS folder you might as use Handbrake to encode the movie, will take up a lot less space that way. The funny thing is if the DVD is interlaced, which most DVDs are, then if you use decomb when you encode it actually looks better than playing the DVD. Heck, you could rip a blu-ray and encode it smaller than a VIDEO_TS folder.

EDIT: I'd do this all the ripping on a desktop rather than the Pandora. Also, the newer Handbrake is really easy to use, a little too easy I though until I encoded some DVDs, its fast and looks good so that's all I care about. Also, I'd use the GUI and not worry about the command line on Handbrake, it doesn't seem to be any faster when I use the command line.
 
second exodous said:
I second, third, fourth, or whatever the idea of just buying a USB powered external HD and rip your DVDs to VIDEO_TS folders and playing them off of that. I play VIDEO_TS folders all the time through VLC, just go to 'open disk' and navigate to the folder. In the end you'll end up using a lot less power than you would with an external DVD drive. Also, if the program you use to rip the DVD takes all the protection off, DVDFab does and is my fave, then the requirements to play back the VIDEO_TS folder are a lot lower, I'm sure all the libs are in the repoes.

Then again if you rip the the DVD to a VIDEO_TS folder you might as use Handbrake to encode the movie, will take up a lot less space that way. The funny thing is if the DVD is interlaced, which most DVDs are, then if you use decomb when you encode it actually looks better than playing the DVD. Heck, you could rip a blu-ray and encode it smaller than a VIDEO_TS folder.

EDIT: I'd do this all the ripping on a desktop rather than the Pandora. Also, the newer Handbrake is really easy to use, a little too easy I though until I encoded some DVDs, its fast and looks good so that's all I care about. Also, I'd use the GUI and not worry about the command line on Handbrake, it doesn't seem to be any faster when I use the command line.

+1 on everythaang

Just carry Handbrake and DVDfab installed on the External HD.
So you can rip any movie from anywhere. Its a great way to share movies between buddies whitout having to actually lend the physical thing to your friends ( When you do this there's an high chance of never seeing it again too ).
Im not talking about pirating, just delete the thing once you're finished with it.
Im a big fan of try before you buy 8).

And yes, ripping on the pandora is useless.
 
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VLC supports DVD playback and I'm pretty sure it will be available for the Pandora.
 
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