Over the past few days I’ve been tinkering with Ubuntu 10.04 (Lucid). I like it enough to seriously consider moving my work Dell laptop running Windows 7 with Blu-Ray reader/burner and dual SLI NVIDIA 9800M GT graphics cards over to it. Especially as I’ve found a good number of articles surrounding how to play Blu-Ray titles. It is still awkward, but then again, Linux is unfortunate that Hollywood doesn’t seem to like it much. I’ve discussed this issue on this very blog time and again, but here it is again for those that may have missed it:
But Hollywood DOES like Linux. Or rather the multitude of post-production and visual effects facilities that rely on Linux to create the gorgeous artwork that we see grace our cinema screens, Blu-Ray discs, or DVD discs. Yes – Linux is used in both big VFX studios and small boutiques. And yet for the artists, producers and engineers that work on these films it’s never easy because Linux has not yet (to the best of my knowledge) received proper licensing from the relevant authorities that control DVD and Blu-Ray specifications. As a result most artists require a standalone DVD player attached to a TV to playback any reference material DVDs/Blu-Rays rather than on their own workstations. And given the complications of region encoding, these facilities have to use multi-region players – mainly those that can use the DVD manufacturer’s control codes to work around the set region which the unit ships with.
So Hollywood loves Linux to create it’s movies (as it’s also free as in beer to them), but HATES anybody wanting to use it on their own home computers to watch the very same movie that Linux helped create in the first place.
