The VideoLAN Forums

http://www.ratdvd.dk/download.htm#code

This is probably going to start o become big. More info cna be found on their format here http://www.ratdvd.dk/faq.htm

Please work in support.

Thanks VLC owns!

the most important things like the muxing and encoding format are still not public.

Hmm. Did you try emailing the author about that information. He states if you have any questions to just email him. I am hoping this format never becomes big. Mainly because my computer is so slow and it apparently requires a fairly modern PC.

VLC can play dvd, xvid, divx, etc perfectly on my old pc, so I am hoping eventually the same can be done with ratdvd.

His email address is splinter@ratdvd.dk if you want to try to get the needed information to implement support.

I asked here (link) about ratDVD support in VLC/MPlayer/XINE and never got a reply ...the problem is that the filters that the ratDVD developers released is only a (pre-compiled) DirectShow-filter binary, (not the full source code to the codecs nor the muxers/splitters), and VLC, MPlayer, XINE, etc. are not DirectShow-based so do not support DirectShow filters nativly (because DirectShow is Microsoft Windows propriotory and copyrighted). ...so best would be if the ratDVD developers open sourced their codecs and muxer/splitter so that non-DirectShow players can playback ratDVD.

PS! I very much doubt that ratDVD don't use any code at all from GPL/LGPL codecs, (or take advantage of the patents/specifications held in copyright by the MPAA for MPEG-2 and MPEG-4, or Dolby for AC3), but if they don't they don't have to even release the source code of the codecs they have created from scratch, however if they just used a single line of code from a GPL'ed project inside their codec code then they must comply with the GPL license and release the full source code ...they managed to legally workaround the GPL with libdvdnav and imdbexport by encapsulating the code inside a COM server to dynamicly load these when needed (do I don't see any ratDVD headers for them which they technicaly should have released too) however I don't see how they can ever get around it with the GPL and other licenses and copyrights of existing video and audio codecs without violating numerous copyrights and even laws ...I don't know maybe they plan to release the full source code soon in which case I pre-apologize now, I hate to sound like a OSD-zealot but I'm really disappointed that they are still holding on to the should code.

I really dont think they could get in trouble for having one line of code from the GPL. I'm sure a lot of sources have similar codes that require the same line because that is what is required to tell the compiler to perform a specific function. You would probably need a whole batch of code that is similar to GPL code to get in trouble.

I really dont think they could get in trouble for having one line of code from the GPL.

ONE LINE OF CODE?!! They've 'stolen' two whole GPL libraries!, libdvdnav from http://sourceforge.net/projects/dvd and IMDb-scraper from http://sourceforge.net/projects/xbmc, ...though the IMDb-scraper code could be removed and RatDVD would still function but RatDVD can not work without libdvdnav!

Nonsense. Ratdvd uses two GPL libraries (if you chosse so during install) and both were extended with new functions and are available in source code from the ratdvd web site. That is not stolen - that is how GPL works.

@vflashd: That's true but the file-format RatDVD uses and the program itself are proprietary. Therefore, it is really hard to support and the arguable behaviour of the authors concerning the usage of GPL-licensed libraries doesn't enlarge the motivation actually.