Support for HD-DVD and BlueRay disc movies

[heffeque]

The tittle says it all. It would be great if VLC would start giving support to watch movies from HD-DVD discs and BlueRay discs just like there's support right now for DVD movie discs :-)

[VLC_help]

Call DVD John and tell him to crack/hack those copy protection measures. Before that it ain't going to happen on commercial discs. (Unless for some reason companies behind HD DVD or Blu-ray donate free lisence for VLC to open those format and GPL compatible decoder for that copy protection stuff).

Also HD DVD and Blu-ray menu structures would need serial developers dedicated to them (xhtml+css or Java support is also required). All video should be decodable, for audio part DTS and DD are decodable (Dolby True and DTS Masters prolly aren't).

[heffeque]

Hmmm... ok then. Well... let's see when a hack comes out and it would be great to see it implemented in VLC :-)

[DGMurdockIII]

http://wiki.multimedia.cx/index.php?tit ... nding_VC-1
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/VC-1
http://liba52.sourceforge.net/
http://www.ac3filter.net/

[VLC_help]

DGMurdockIII what is the point of your post?

[prologic]

From what I can see, DGMurdockIII posted a couple of links about VC-1, the compression codec the HD-DVDs use. Let's hope they'll be useful!

[heffeque]

From what I can see, DGMurdockIII posted a couple of links about VC-1, the compression codec the HD-DVDs use. Let's hope they'll be useful!

Well... the problem doesn't seem to be the codec. The problem is the copy protection. Without the decoding of the copy protection you can't play it either even if you have the video decoder. You can't access the video if you don't have access to the copy protection decoding (or something like that).

[DGMurdockIII]

It looks like someone finally did it! "BackupHDDVD is a tool to decrypt a AACS protected movie that you own, so you can play it back later using an HDDVD player software

http://forum.doom9.org/showthread.php?t=119871

[heffeque]

Wow! He even posted the source code!
Is VLC planning on doing something with it now?

[DGMurdockIII]

that what I thought and wanted to now

[prologic]

If I'm not mistaken, the only player that supports HD-DVDs is Intervideo WinDVD. But, then again, I don't think the player and the BackupHDDVD tool are enough. We will also need a HD-capable video card, a HD-DVD player/drive, a sound card that supports Dolby Digital Plus, Dolby TrueHD and DTS-HD...

...and a box of pop-corn

[heffeque]

If I'm not mistaken, the only player that supports HD-DVDs is Intervideo WinDVD.

That's what we want to change, we want VLC to support it too!

We will also need a HD-capable video card

Not completely true, some video cards can help de CPU decode h.264, VC-1 or MPEG-2 but it is NOT a requirement.

a HD-DVD player/drive

Why would I want a program that can play HD-DVDs if I don't have an HD-DVD player? LOL. If what you want is HDTV you can currently play h.264, VC-1 and MPEG-2 with VLC, the problem right now is that there wasn't a way of getting those videos out of the HD-DVDs. There's no problem decoding the video itself.

a sound card that supports Dolby Digital Plus, Dolby TrueHD and DTS-HD...

No... that can be done by software. Any sound card that supports multiple speakers can play Dolby Digital Plus, Dolby TrueHD and DTS-HD.

...and a box of pop-corn

Not required either!

[VLC_help]

PowerDVD (PowerDVD Ultra) also supports HD DVD. BackupHDDVD needs keys which aren't public yet. If someone implements lite demuxer playing seems to be possible (for at least video part of movie, special features and menus require serious coding).

[prologic]

That's what we want to change, we want VLC to support it too!

Amen.

Not completely true, some video cards can help de CPU decode h.264, VC-1 or MPEG-2 but it is NOT a requirement.

Really? Great! I am going to buy a better video card soon, though. The one I own now (Radeon X800XL) finds it a bit difficult to play HD content. I mean, it can play them, but there is a bit of "hiccups".

Why would I want a program that can play HD-DVDs if I don't have an HD-DVD player? LOL. If what you want is HDTV you can currently play h.264, VC-1 and MPEG-2 with VLC, the problem right now is that there wasn't a way of getting those videos out of the HD-DVDs. There's no problem decoding the video itself.

Yeah... Sorry, that was a stupid mistake of mine. I just wanted to make it clear for people who don't know that you'll need an HD-DVD drive to play the discs, and that they won't work on regular DVD drives. Again, sorry.

No... that can be done by software. Any sound card that supports multiple speakers can play Dolby Digital Plus, Dolby TrueHD and DTS-HD.

Now, that's a relief!

Not required either!

Did I say "required"? I meant "suggested"

[heffeque]

Really? Great! I am going to buy a better video card soon, though. The one I own now (Radeon X800XL) finds it a bit difficult to play HD content. I mean, it can play them, but there is a bit of "hiccups".

Actually... it helps to have a good video card, but not to a really good extent. If you read this and this article you'll see that a good CPU is needed even if you have a good video card. For now ATi has a better video quality in both MPEG-2 and h.264 formats but it's slower than nVidia decoding h.264. All of this can change because it all has to do with drivers and drivers are updated every month! But either way, as you can see in the second article (the one about h.264 decoding)... it's always necesary a good CPU.

Not required either!

Did I say "required"? I meant "suggested"

I prefer a beer with it! Hehehe

[prologic]

Interesting articles, those two. Thanks!

[vlawillie]

I just want to second the request for HD DVD support... there is a $200 player on the market, and if VLC supports its playback, that means many people will be happy...

Please support HD-DVD!

Do the developers read this forum?

[prologic]

They do. But it's a bit early to support HD-DVDs, because the HD-DVD drives haven't been released yet.

[dionoea]

The xbox hd dvd drive has been released. (you can plug it in your PC using USB i think)

[prologic]

Oh, yeah, that's right. I forgot

However, I still believe it's a bit early for VLC to support HD-DVDs. We should wait for a couple of months.

[heffeque]

Why should they wait? I don't understand. It's never too early to give support for new formats. The sooner they start with it the sooner they'll have a bugless player for when the market is ready for it!

[prologic]

Yeah, that's a thought. Heh, I didn't think about that!

By the way, I've heard that Power DVD 7.2 Ultra Deluxe BD has been released. It can play Blu-Ray Discs, and supports DolbyTrueHD and Dolby Digital Plus. YAY! The future is HD, baby!

[vlawillie]

I know there are other programs that run HD-DVDs, but:

1) I have a non-intel Mac

2) VLC is my favorite player for everything, and they will obviously support HD-DVD playback eventually, but I am trying to make known that people want a Hd-DVD player now

So basically it is VLC or nothing for me, because who else will release a HD-DVD player program for mac??

[heffeque]

So basically it is VLC or nothing for me, because who else will release a HD-DVD player program for mac??

Well... I'd say Quick Time should play whatever format Apple goes for (HD-DVD, BlueRay or both) once it starts including it in their hardware.

[Ayla]

I would like support for HD-DVD in VLC Player too. There's no way to play them on the Mac

The files on the HD-DVD's are .EVO files as far as I know.

Can we use this EVO plugin with Quicktime in any way to play the files maybe?

http://www.apple.com/quicktime/resource ... nents.html

"CEI’s EVO for QuickTime allows you to import�and export EVO files with any Mac application supporting the QuickTime�framework, including Final Cut Pro/Express, iMovie, QuickTime Player/Pro, Finder, Keynote, and more. In addition, EVO for QuickTime supports stereo movie editing and�lossless video compression, useful as a video archiving format."