Encrypted DVD Playback using External Drive

[Efaustus9]

Yea that does sound like a neat set up.

Looking around I found this page which details the dvd ripping capacities of a few linux applications. It seems that Handbreak and VlC have the most versatility. I have tried building handbrake with no success. VLC on the other hand is already installed on my system, not to mention it has a GUI (saves you writing a paragraph of encoding instructions). I did not know it could decrypt disks, but according to this post I guess you can. I'll have to try this out and see how it goes.

[Efaustus9]

UPDATE:

I confirmed it by Installing vlc & libdvdcss you can use this method to rip encrypted dvds with vlc and an external disk drive. Unfortunately many of the codecs shown in the GUI will not work, giving unsupported codec messages in the terminal e.g. unsupported codec div3 in mp4. So far I have testing decrypting/transcoding a disk with x264 which is VERY VERY slow (est. about 15 hours a movie) and MP4V ~ real time (file size about a gig an hour @ 1024 kbps). I would like to figure out how to get divix working with vlc but MP4V does an ok job. Its not going to replace my PC desktop solution but it works. So Mikeg while you wait to get your hands on a PC this method is an option just be sure to have an external Harddrive.

Note:
When using this method you will either have to use video mode 4 (1080i) or use command line because not all the video options are visible using mode 3 or lower.

Question:

For some reason when I plug in my external Harddrive it is read only. It is formatted as FAT32 and mounts fine but I cant write anything to it just read files off of it. This is not an issue with my thumb drive any ideas on how to resolve this?

[billb]

Note:
When using this method you will either have to use video mode 4 (1080i) or use command line because not all the video options are visible using mode 3 or lower.

Don't forget you can always use Alt + Left Click/Drag to move a window around on the screen when portions of it are not visible.

For some reason when I plug in my external Harddrive it is read only. It is formatted as FAT32 and mounts fine but I cant write anything to it just read files off of it. This is not an issue with my thumb drive any ideas on how to resolve this?

I mount my external USB drive(s) like this in /etc/fstab so they're always available and in the same location:

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LABEL=MAXTOR1           /media/maxtor           vfat    rw,uid=500,gid=500     0 0

Where "MAXTOR1" is the filesystem label, /media/maxtor is the mount point, and 500 is my user & group id.

If your FAT32 filesystem doesn't have a label, you can add one:

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su -

<root password>

1. Confirm which device name to use with:

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fdisk -l

For example:

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Disk /dev/sdd: 60.0 GB, 60011642880 bytes
255 heads, 63 sectors/track, 7296 cylinders
Units = cylinders of 16065 * 512 = 8225280 bytes 

Device Boot      Start         End      Blocks   Id  System
/dev/sdd1               1        7296    58605088+   c  W95 FAT32 (LBA)

2. Use dosfslabel to assign a label (assuming drive is FAT32 formatted and there isn’t one already):

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dosfslabel /dev/sdd1 MAXTOR1

Where /dev/sdd1 is the current device name confirmed in Step 1, and MAXTOR1 is the label (this could be anything you want).

3. If you want to set it up to be mounted in /etc/fstab, add the mount point:

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mkdir /media/maxtor

It doesn’t necessarily have to match the label or be located in /media, but it does need to match the mount point you put in /etc/fstab.

4. Check your username’s uid & gid:

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id yourusername

(replace yourusername with your regular username)

If you only have one user on your system this is probably going to be 500 for both.

5. Add the line in /etc/fstab ...

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LABEL=MAXTOR1           /media/maxtor           vfat    rw,uid=500,gid=500     0 0

---

When you reboot, your drive should always be available in the location "media/maxtor" (or whatever mountpoint you decided on) and writable under your username.

The advantage to mounting by filesystem label instead of device name is that if you ever add more drives you don't have to be concerned with the device name changing.

Oops ... this has gotten off-topic ... should split this off into a new one.

[mikeg]

Yea I'll try and post some pics of the van before I hit the road this summer,Theirs still alot to do. I tried VLC and couldn't copy any encrypted discs but was wondering if libdvdcss2 will work any better with VLC on decrypting/transcode.
I would love to compile Thoggen or HandbrakeGTK if possible but I don't fully understand compiling yet so I'll hold off for now. Thanks for the help guys every little bit counts and it all makes the YDL experience better. Maybe one day all this research will payoff. Til then, keep on keeping on.

[Efaustus9]

@billb: thanks again billb I'll give your method a go a bit latter on.

@mikeg: Make sure you installed billbs ps3bodega repos then install libdvdcss from them. after which you will be able to play and rip encrypted dvd disks (make sure you change the drive from scd0 to scd1). If you have a decent internet connection you can probably get a better compressed better quality video faster if you use transmission.

[ppietro]

I use an EZDUB DVD RW R DL as an external burner/dvd drive

Good ... I guess we can assume that external USB DVD drives are generally well supported on YDL / PS3. I believe I recall someone mentioning using their XBox 360 HD-DVD drive on YDL ... yes:

http://www.3sty.com/3sty/2007/10/ps3-linux-360-h.html

Sounds like the way to go if you already have an Xbox 360 HD-DVD drive.

Heh - I just picked up one of these drives really cheap at my local Fry's electronics. I plugged it in the PS3, fired up VLC, put in an encrypted DVD and viola - it worked great.

Seems to work with Mplayer as well. No luck with Totem.

I'm not sure what will happen if I put in an HD-DVD. I'm guessing nothing.

Cheers,
Paul

[ACEFOMIQUZ]

I think this is very useful!Ha Ha!!