discuss: DVD HOWTO overhaul
Subject:
DVD HOWTO overhaul
From:
David Jao ####@####.####
Date:
9 Jan 2004 02:02:41 -0000
Message-Id: <20040109020240.GC4246@dominia.org>
Hello,
I emailed this proposal to ####@####.#### yesterday and I was told
that I should post it here.
The LDP's DVD howto at http://www.tldp.org/HOWTO/DVD-HOWTO.html is:
1) outdated (over three years old);
2) unmaintained (the author is listed as http://www.linuxvideo.org/, but
this web site is unaccessible);
3) not really freely licensed: modifications require author approval;
4) no longer even remotely accurate: people now use mplayer, xine, or
ogle, + libdvdcss, to play dvds. No one uses oms/decss anymore. OMS
itself hasn't been maintained in years. Furthermore, the software
referenced in the current DVD HOWTO is hosted at cvs.linuxvideo.org,
which like the web site is unaccessible.
Because of legal barriers (DMCA etc.), no linux distribution works with
DVDs out of the box. A lot of new linux users will look to the internet
for information on how to play DVDs in linux. Many of them will look to
the LDP for this information. The current DVD HOWTO does linux users a
disservice.
I propose that the LDP discard the existing DVD HOWTO entirely and
replace it with a new HOWTO that is relevant to this century. Normally I
would have suggested updating the existing HOWTO instead, but in this
case the existing HOWTO has no usable material and would not be
desirable to keep anyway because of its license restrictions.
I will happily volunteer to write a new (GNU FDL licensed) DVD HOWTO to
replace the existing one. I believe I am reasonably qualified for this
task, since I am the author of the DVD-media-based Linux Digital
Fansubbing Guide (http://dominia.org/djao/dvdsub.html), and I have
published general interest articles before in Linux Gazette
(http://www.linuxgazette.net/issue35/jao.html).
Comments / questions / suggestions / counterproposals welcome,
-David
