[Ilugc] [OT] Data backup on DVD

[Sivasankar Chander]

On 8/18/06, Girish Venkatachalam <girish1729 at yahoo.com> wrote:
>
>
> 1) What is the cost of rewritable DVDs?


  Not exactly sure, but it isn't cost-competitive with DVD-R. There are
also readability issues - not all DVD-RW media can be read reliably
in older DVD-ROM drives.

2) What is the capacity? Is it 4.7 GB or are there
> variants?


   I believe it's only 4.7 GB at the moment - dual-layer DVD-RW
either hasn't shown up yet or is too expensive.

3) Do you get the latest Tamil movies on DVDs?


   I haven't looked, but I imagine that they're probably issued after
a 6-9 month delay. However, the Malaysian pirates probably make
counterfeits immediately after the theatre release.


4) If so what is the encryption used? Can I crack them
> to make them viewable on other countries?
>
>
   If it is to remain playable on a retail DVD player, it has to use
standard CSS encryption - and this easily handled by libdvdcss
(which is usually used by Xine, Ogle, Mplayer, etc.)

   However, region-coding is an entirely different issue altogether -
this is drive- and player-specific. Not all drives implement it in
the embedded SW for the drive controller - if it's implemented
in the host-side device-driver, then it's not an issue and all the
Linux DVD players simply ignore the region coding information.
If it's implemented inside the drive, then you'll have to look for
updated flashable firmware that removes region coding - which
may or may not exist for the drive in question.

  Most retail DVD players from China no longer implement region
coding - i.e. they are region-free, so any DVD will play on them.
I recommend a unit called 'Scorpio', which has TOSlink optical
out, Dolby Digital 5.1 decoder with 6-channel preamp outputs,
2-channel stereo power amp built-in (useful if you just want a
tiny player that can be connected to a pair of bookshelf speakers-
I use a pair of tiny JVCs, but anything will work, including
homebuilt stuff), a DB-15 VGA output (great for connecting
to monitors/panels/projectors!!), progressive scan, and the capability
to play most MPEG4 files (YMMV, but it depends on the codec(s)
that are used).

   I opened it up, and the electronics are great except for lousy
electrolytic capacitors on the SMPS/audio board. About an
hour of minor surgery ensued, and it now sports a combination
of professional-grade Nippon Chemicon LXZ, Matsushita FC/FK
and Nichicon P* capacitors - which should be good for about
25 years of service. The durability and AV quality are now
comparable to $2000+ DVD players. It's possible to make it
comparable to $25000 professional DVD players with further
surgery, but the point of dimishing returns has already been
reached. Not too bad for a Rs.2500 player with about Rs.50
worth of capacitor upgrades.

-Siva

P.S. If you plan to go this route and do the capacitor upgrades,
stick with non-aqueous, low-ESR, 105c capacitors from one
of the Japanese majors: Matsushita/Panasonic, Nichicon,
Nippon Chemicon, Elna, Rubycon or Sanyo. Everything else
is crap and will fail in a year or two. Avoid Keltron or any of the
local/Korean/Chinese/Taiwanese brands like the plague - ironically,
some of these are priced higher than their technologically superior
Japanese counterparts.