Hardware DVD decoding.

[raid517]

Hi I wondered (not knowing very much about these things) if it was possible to buy a PCI card that could do hardware decoding of protected DVD movies in Linux? It's just that a bunch of people I know are getting very stressed out over new laws soon to be implimented in the EU that will make playback of DVDs in Linux even more illegal than it is already. So I thought a possible way round this might be to obtain a pCI card that decodes encrypted DVDs the same way my standalone DVD player does now. I don't know how this would fair with developers, as it might still be ilegal to distribute the DVD decoding software, however it might not be quite so illegal if they said they were providing the software only for people who own hardware decoders and who therefore have a defacto licence to decode DVDs anyway.

The only thing is, I'm not sure if add on PCI cards that can decode encrypted DVDs exist, If they did, it might be one way of easing a great many people's concerns (particularly those who do not want to be seen as breaking the law - of which I think there will be a great many).

Does anyone have any ideas on this?

Regards,

Q

[mdwatts]

I'm not sure if the Hollywood+ does decoding or not. You can search G4L for 'Hollywood+' to find out more and there is also apps/libraries for the HW+ available. Something like dr3 or dx3. ??

Try searching freshmeat.net for 'hollywood'.

Actually it's dxr3 (after a quick search).