From owner-freebsd-multimedia Thu Mar 11 15:37:17 1999 Delivered-To: freebsd-multimedia@freebsd.org Received: from fan.net.au (fan.net.au [203.20.92.1]) by hub.freebsd.org (Postfix) with ESMTP id CDFBD15213 for ; Thu, 11 Mar 1999 15:37:14 -0800 (PST) (envelope-from q@fan.net.au) Received: from gromit.fan.net.au (gromit.fan.net.au [203.23.133.34]) by fan.net.au (8.9.1/8.9.1) with SMTP id JAA20607; Fri, 12 Mar 1999 09:36:37 +1000 (EST) Date: Fri, 12 Mar 1999 09:36:36 +1000 (EST) From: Q To: Tom Pusateri Cc: "Jordan K. Hubbard" , ulf@alameda.net, Ryan Dewalt , freebsd-multimedia@freebsd.org Subject: Re: Creative Labs DVD Dxr2 In-Reply-To: <199903111503.KAA26301@extreme.jcmax.com> Message-ID: MIME-Version: 1.0 Content-Type: TEXT/PLAIN; charset=US-ASCII Sender: owner-freebsd-multimedia@FreeBSD.ORG Precedence: bulk X-Loop: FreeBSD.org On Thu, 11 Mar 1999, Tom Pusateri wrote: > >I have also seen a couple of reports from Linux developers that C-Cube > >have refused to give them programming information because it is > >"proprietry" and not for public distribution. > > I may be way off base here but I would rather see efforts focused > towards products from companies that show more cooperation. If FreeBSD > and Linux users find that certain brands are supported because > the company was cooperative, then this is what the users will buy. I agree with this point, but it would probably only influence a fraction of a percent of their total sales. And while there remains no DVD support for these platforms it doesn't effect their sales at all. I think it is also safe to assume that there are a lot of Linux and FreeBSD users who would prefer to buy the best item from a product line and get it supported than an average product that has Linux/FreeBSD support but only average performance. (I put myself in this category) I would prefer to reboot into Windoze than endure less than perfect picture quality. The creative DVD kit appears to have been the most popular and best reviewed recently. Consiquently this is the one I have. There may be others out there that are better candidates for Linux/FreeBSD support. However, unless Jordan, or someone else interested in seeing DVD support wants to donate a DVD kit that does everything in hardware (including CSS) with readily available programming specs I can't really help here. > If the company doesn't want to cooperate, boycott it and find one > that will cooperate. I think there are enough non-windows users > out there that we can take this attitude. I think the best angle is to have someone (Jordan?) approach C-Cube with a proposal for the FreeBSD team to fund and manage the development of FreeBSD support for ZiVA based DVD products. If it costs them nothing, and has the potential to make their products more appealing they may be more likely to cooperate with an organisation than an individual. Unfortunately C-Cube only make chips, it is up to the board manufactures to decide whether or not to buy them not the end user. Most PC card manufactures will be looking to compete in the windows market with anything else a bonus, so it would be a tough sell. Other companies like panasonic don't even care about windows support because they use the chips to make standalone DVD players. RedHat funded and developed X support for NeoMagic based notebooks with cooperation from whoever manufacturers the chips. So it's not like this is unexplored territory. I have seen details of linux projects for the Creative Dxr2 board and the Matrox G??. But if the board doesn't do CSS in hardware (the ZiVA based boards do) DVD support for it isn't going to happen non commercially for Linux/FreeBSD. Unless something changes you wouldn't be able to open source a CSS implementation without getting sued. Whatever happens, it's just a matter of time before enough people push in the same direction and DVD support for some hardware appears. Well... anyone still interested? :) Seeya...Q -=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=- _____ / Quinton Dolan - q@fan.net.au __ __/ / / __/ / / Systems Administrator / __ / _/ / / Fast Access Network __/ __/ __/ ____/ / - / Gold Coast, QLD, Australia _______ / Ph: +61 7 5574 1050 \_\ SAGE-AU Member To Unsubscribe: send mail to majordomo@FreeBSD.org with "unsubscribe freebsd-multimedia" in the body of the message