README for libdvdcss, a portable abstraction library for DVD decryption $Id: README 152 2004-02-24 15:47:00Z sam $

Introduction

libdvdcss is part of the VideoLAN project, a full MPEG2 client/server solution. The VideoLAN Client can also be used as a standalone program to play MPEG2 streams from a hard disk or a DVD.

Building and Installing libdvdcss

See the INSTALL or INSTALL.libdvdcss file for this.

Running lidvdcss

The behaviourof the library can be affected by changing two environment variables:
DVDCSS_METHOD={title|disc|key}: method for key decryption title: decrypted title key is guessed from the encrypted sectors of

           the stream. Thus it should work with a file as well as the
           DVD device. But it sometimes takes much time to decrypt a title
           key and may even fail. With this method, the key is only checked
           at the beginning of each title, so it won't work if the key
           changes in the middle of a title.
    disc: the disc key is first cracked ; then all title keys can be
           decrypted instantly, which allows us to check them often,
    key: the same as "disc" if you don't have a file with player keys at
           compilation time. If you do, the decryption of the disc key
           will be faster with this method. It is the one that was used by
           libcss.
           This is the default method,

DVDCSS_VERBOSE={0|1|2}: libdvdcss verbosity 0: no error messages, no debug messages (this is the default)

only error messages
error and debug messages

Troubleshooting

A mailing-list has been set up for support and discussion about libdvdcss. Its address is :

<libdvdcss@videolan.org>

To subscribe, send a mail to <listar@videolan.org> with the following words in the mail body :

subscribe libdvdcss

To unsubscribe, do the same with the words :

unsubscribe libdvdcss

When reporting bugs, try to be as precise as possible (which OS, which distribution, what plugins you were trying, and so on).

Resources

The VideoLAN web site at http://www.videolan.org/ is a good start for information about MPEG and DVD playing. Have a look at the documentation section, as well as the bookmarks.