Posted by JEDIDIAH on 08/10/06 19:24

On 2006-07-31, Phat Bytestard <phatbytestard@getinmahharddrive.org> wrote:
> On Sun, 18 Jun 2006 00:12:00 -0400, Derek Janssen
><ejanss@nospam.comcast.net> Gave us:
>
>>Er...No, it isn't:
>>You could play the first DVD's on your computer.
>
> Not until the first DVD drives for PCs *with* hardware decoder

Software decoders were available (at least for Windows)
nearly immediately. Even Linux software decoders weren't that
far behind.

> boards came out (the Creative drive comes to mind), which was long
> after the format made its debut. At the time, there were NO DVD
> players that used a software decoder.

The only thing you would need hardware assist with would be
the realtime MPEG2 decoding. Software MPEG2 decoders were certainly
available at the time. Even Linux had them.

--

Nothing today, likely nothing since we tamed fire,
is genuinely new: culture, like science and |||
technology grows by accretion, each new creator / | \
building on the works of those that came before.

Judge Alex Kozinski
US Court of Appeals
9th Circuit

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