[PLUG] playing PAL region 2 DVDs with subtitles on Linux

John Jason Jordan johnxj at comcast.net
Sat Dec 8 06:56:53 UTC 2012


On Fri, 7 Dec 2012 22:15:40 -0800
Keith Lofstrom <keithl at gate.kl-ic.com> dijo:

>Will a PAL region 2 disk play using Linux DVD player software?
>Will the English subtitles display?  I'm guessing this can be
>set up with a lot of effort,  but many tweaks may be needed,
>and frame-rate incompatabilities leading to ugly video.

I do not know the answer to this question, but a few years ago when I
bought a DVD player I first searched on the net to find one that I
would be able to reconfigure to play DVDs from anywhere. I cannot
remember the process I went through (hold down <button> while powering
on ... etc.), but the DVD player will now play any DVD from anywhere.
There are region codes. and the DVD players sold in the US will (by
default) play only those that the people behind DRM think you ought to
play. My dim recollection is that 0 is the code for "anywhere,
unrestricted," but don't quote me. Once you know the code then you need
the secret incantations to change the code on your player. Most can be
set to play DVDs from anywhere, but only Mr. Google knows the proper
spell to make a given make and model do so.

As for playing them on a Linux machine, I've never tried it. If I have
a DVD that, for some reason, refuses to play, I convert it to AVI using
Kino or something, and then play the AVI. This is probably a DRM
violation, but I paid for the damn movie, so my conscience is clear.

Note: Kino will take a couple hours to convert a movie to AVI on my
computer. Don't be in a hurry.



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