Comments on: Media Companies Want to Control Us http://www.alstongrove.com/posts/58 Welcome to the throes of my thoughts Sun, 05 Feb 2012 18:31:56 +0000 http://wordpress.org/?v=2.5.1 By: Joel Wiegman http://www.alstongrove.com/posts/58#comment-58 Joel Wiegman Tue, 30 Nov 1999 00:00:00 +0000 http://maize.dhs.org/wp/?p=58#comment-58 I figure it's only a matter of time until this website takes off and you will commercialize just like everyone else. After that you will talk about how irrational and annoying all of those open source developers are... ;-) I figure it’s only a matter of time until this website takes off and you will commercialize just like everyone else. After that you will talk about how irrational and annoying all of those open source developers are… ;-)

]]> By: Dean http://www.alstongrove.com/posts/58#comment-59 Dean Tue, 30 Nov 1999 00:00:00 +0000 http://maize.dhs.org/wp/?p=58#comment-59 I've been using KMediaGrab on linux to rip DVD's to mpeg files. Seems to work pretty well, you might give it a try... http://sourceforge.net/projects/kmediagrab/ I’ve been using KMediaGrab on linux to rip DVD’s to mpeg files. Seems to work pretty well, you might give it a try…

http://sourceforge.net/projects/kmediagrab/

]]> By: Eric http://www.alstongrove.com/posts/58#comment-60 Eric Tue, 30 Nov 1999 00:00:00 +0000 http://maize.dhs.org/wp/?p=58#comment-60 I agree with Joel that Media Companies are putting ridiculous restraints on us in order to milk as much money as possible. I think it's possible to have a company that treats people fairly and conducts business honestly, and still make money doing it. Someday I hope to prove that by writing commercial software that is also open source. I agree with Joel that Media Companies are putting ridiculous restraints on us in order to milk as much money as possible. I think it’s possible to have a company that treats people fairly and conducts business honestly, and still make money doing it. Someday I hope to prove that by writing commercial software that is also open source.

]]> By: Eric http://www.alstongrove.com/posts/58#comment-61 Eric Tue, 30 Nov 1999 00:00:00 +0000 http://maize.dhs.org/wp/?p=58#comment-61 Dean, thanks for pointing me at KMediaGrab. It looks pretty cool as a frontend to mplayer/mencoder. I love mplayer. It seems to handle every file format I throw at it. I setup a WinXP system for my Dad (hey, you do what you gotta do), and the DVD player did not come with a codec, so I tried installing <a href="http://www.videolan.org/">VideoLAN Client (VLC)</a>. I am really impressed with VLC. It runs on all kinds of OSes. Not only does it play all the video formats, but it can be used as a server to stream video. Dean, thanks for pointing me at KMediaGrab. It looks pretty cool as a frontend to mplayer/mencoder. I love mplayer. It seems to handle every file format I throw at it.

I setup a WinXP system for my Dad (hey, you do what you gotta do), and the DVD player did not come with a codec, so I tried installing VideoLAN Client (VLC). I am really impressed with VLC. It runs on all kinds of OSes. Not only does it play all the video formats, but it can be used as a server to stream video.

]]> By: Rob Stevenson http://www.alstongrove.com/posts/58#comment-62 Rob Stevenson Tue, 30 Nov 1999 00:00:00 +0000 http://maize.dhs.org/wp/?p=58#comment-62 Argh! Nothing irritates me more than having to sit through previews or commercials when I pop in a DVD and see that red circle with a slash that says "You are OWNED!" I can't imagine customers allowing the DVD hardware manufacturers and/or media companies to put more controls on your home theatre system. Thanks for the tip on VLC! I ran into issues running a Xvid encoded AVI file on Mac OSX and had to download DivX with an Xvid decoder. It looks like VLC just might be the answer for all my codec problems! P.S. I definitely reflect the growing trend of people watching less and less TV. Heck, I don't even have cable! (But I do have RoadRunner!!) I just don't watch all that much TV to justify spending $30+ a month on cable. If there is a show that I want to see (ex: Amazing Race), I'll just download it from the BitTorrent network a day or two after the show airs. It's almost like a public TiVo service, really. Now, what I'd LOVE to do is to get a group of people together, have one person get cable and a TiVo and then share that TiVo with a bunch of other people who can initiate certain shows to be recorded and then shared over the 'net (VPN, etc.). I'd gladly pay someone $5-$10/month to get AVI files of a half-dozen shows or so that I can watch on my laptop. Think about it. :-) Argh! Nothing irritates me more than having to sit through previews or commercials when I pop in a DVD and see that red circle with a slash that says “You are OWNED!” I can’t imagine customers allowing the DVD hardware manufacturers and/or media companies to put more controls on your home theatre system.

Thanks for the tip on VLC! I ran into issues running a Xvid encoded AVI file on Mac OSX and had to download DivX with an Xvid decoder. It looks like VLC just might be the answer for all my codec problems!

P.S. I definitely reflect the growing trend of people watching less and less TV. Heck, I don’t even have cable! (But I do have RoadRunner!!) I just don’t watch all that much TV to justify spending $30+ a month on cable. If there is a show that I want to see (ex: Amazing Race), I’ll just download it from the BitTorrent network a day or two after the show airs. It’s almost like a public TiVo service, really. Now, what I’d LOVE to do is to get a group of people together, have one person get cable and a TiVo and then share that TiVo with a bunch of other people who can initiate certain shows to be recorded and then shared over the ‘net (VPN, etc.). I’d gladly pay someone $5-$10/month to get AVI files of a half-dozen shows or so that I can watch on my laptop. Think about it. :-)

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