465 lines
8.2 KiB
HTML
465 lines
8.2 KiB
HTML
<HTML
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><HEAD
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><TITLE
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>System Preparation</TITLE
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><META
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NAME="GENERATOR"
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CONTENT="Modular DocBook HTML Stylesheet Version 1.7"><LINK
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REL="HOME"
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TITLE="DVD Playback HOWTO"
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HREF="index.html"><LINK
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REL="PREVIOUS"
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TITLE="Introduction"
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HREF="intro.html"><LINK
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REL="NEXT"
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TITLE="Software Installation"
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HREF="install.html"></HEAD
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><BODY
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CLASS="sect1"
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BGCOLOR="#FFFFFF"
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TEXT="#000000"
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LINK="#0000FF"
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VLINK="#840084"
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ALINK="#0000FF"
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><DIV
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CLASS="NAVHEADER"
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><TABLE
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SUMMARY="Header navigation table"
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WIDTH="100%"
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BORDER="0"
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CELLPADDING="0"
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CELLSPACING="0"
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><TR
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><TH
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COLSPAN="3"
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ALIGN="center"
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>DVD Playback HOWTO</TH
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></TR
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><TR
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><TD
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WIDTH="10%"
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ALIGN="left"
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VALIGN="bottom"
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><A
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HREF="intro.html"
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ACCESSKEY="P"
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>Prev</A
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></TD
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><TD
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WIDTH="80%"
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ALIGN="center"
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VALIGN="bottom"
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></TD
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><TD
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WIDTH="10%"
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ALIGN="right"
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VALIGN="bottom"
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><A
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HREF="install.html"
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ACCESSKEY="N"
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>Next</A
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></TD
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></TR
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></TABLE
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><HR
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ALIGN="LEFT"
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WIDTH="100%"></DIV
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><DIV
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CLASS="sect1"
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><H1
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CLASS="sect1"
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><A
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NAME="prep"
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></A
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>2. System Preparation</H1
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><DIV
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CLASS="sect2"
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><H2
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CLASS="sect2"
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><A
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NAME="prereqs"
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></A
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>2.1. Hardware Prerequisites</H2
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><P
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> A certain level of processing power is necessary for smooth DVD
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playback. The system requirements in Linux are somewhat higher than in
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Windows, because many of the techniques used for hardware acceleration
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of video playback work only in Windows.
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</P
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><P
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>At a minimum, I recommend the following:
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</P
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><P
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></P
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><UL
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><LI
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><P
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>700 MHz or higher CPU,</P
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></LI
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><LI
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><P
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>video card with <A
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HREF="prep.html#overlay"
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>X Video Overlay</A
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> support</P
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></LI
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><LI
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><P
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>DVD drive with <A
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HREF="prep.html#dma"
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>DMA</A
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> enabled</P
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></LI
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></UL
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></DIV
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><DIV
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CLASS="sect2"
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><H2
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CLASS="sect2"
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><A
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NAME="symlink"
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></A
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>2.2. Creating the /dev/dvd symlink</H2
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><P
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>If you don't already have a <TT
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CLASS="filename"
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>/dev/dvd</TT
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> symbolic
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link, then run (as root) the
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command<TABLE
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BORDER="0"
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BGCOLOR="#E0E0E0"
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WIDTH="100%"
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><TR
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><TD
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><FONT
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COLOR="#000000"
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><PRE
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CLASS="programlisting"
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><TT
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CLASS="prompt"
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># </TT
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><TT
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CLASS="userinput"
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><B
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><B
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CLASS="command"
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>ln -s</B
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> /dev/hdc /dev/dvd</B
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></TT
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>
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</PRE
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></FONT
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></TD
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></TR
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></TABLE
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>
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to create a symbolic link from
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<TT
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CLASS="filename"
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>/dev/dvd</TT
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> to the
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actual hardware device representing your DVD-ROM drive
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(which in this example is <TT
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CLASS="filename"
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>/dev/hdc</TT
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>, but you should
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replace it with the actual device file used by your drive). The
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<TT
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CLASS="filename"
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>/dev/dvd</TT
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> link is not merely a matter of
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convenience; almost all of the player software mentioned in this HOWTO
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assumes that the link is there.</P
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><P
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>If you don't know which device name your DVD-ROM drive uses, you
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can usually find it with the command <B
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CLASS="command"
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>dmesg | grep
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DVD</B
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> in the console or a shell right after booting up the system.</P
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></DIV
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><DIV
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CLASS="sect2"
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><H2
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CLASS="sect2"
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><A
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NAME="region"
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></A
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>2.3. Setting the DVD Region</H2
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><P
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>All DVD drives (except for <A
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HREF="http://www.dvdcca.org/rpc.html"
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TARGET="_top"
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>RPC Phase I drives</A
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> made in
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1999 or before) enforce <A
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HREF="http://www.dvddemystified.com/dvdfaq.html#1.10"
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TARGET="_top"
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>region playback
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restrictions</A
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> in the drive firmware and consequently are supposed to
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be set to a specific region before they can play back discs from that
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region (and only that region). In reality, most Linux DVD playback
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software can bypass the DVD drive's built-in region locks, but it takes
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extra time for the software to break the region lock, and it is better
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to avoid the complications of region locks if you can.</P
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><P
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> For the small minority of readers who own RPC-I drives, you do not need
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to do anything: your drive is already capable of handling DVDs from all
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geographical regions. These drives are old enough by now that everybody
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who has one of them probably knows already that they have one.
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</P
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><P
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> For the majority of readers who have RPC-II drives, there are several
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options available:
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</P
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><P
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></P
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><OL
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TYPE="1"
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><LI
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><P
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>If you only watch discs from one region, the easiest option
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is to use the <A
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HREF="http://linvdr.org/projects/regionset/"
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TARGET="_top"
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>regionset</A
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> program to
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set your DVD drive to the correct region.</P
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></LI
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><LI
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><P
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>If you want to watch discs from multiple regions, you can
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try to find a firmware upgrade for your DVD drive in the <A
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HREF="http://www.firmware-flash.com/"
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TARGET="_top"
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>firmware-flash.com
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collection</A
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> of unofficial firmware files. Note that most of these
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files require you to boot to DOS or Windows to install.
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</P
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></LI
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><LI
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><P
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>You can buy a separate DVD drive for each DVD region that you
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wish to use. The prices for DVD-ROM drives have dropped low enough to make
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this strategy feasible.
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</P
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></LI
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><LI
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><P
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>Of course, you can simply do nothing, and rely on the
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built-in ability of Linux software to bypass the region restrictions.
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Note that even in this case you should use the <A
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HREF="http://linvdr.org/projects/regionset/"
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TARGET="_top"
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>regionset</A
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> program to
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set the drive to the region that you will be using the most, because an
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RPC-II drive without a region setting behaves as if
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<EM
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>all</EM
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> the regions are locked out.
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</P
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></LI
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></OL
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></DIV
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><DIV
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CLASS="sect2"
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><H2
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CLASS="sect2"
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><A
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NAME="overlay"
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></A
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>2.4. X Video Overlay</H2
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><P
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>The XFree86 video overlay extension is a very poorly documented
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standard feature of XFree86 4.x and is <EM
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>absolutely
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essential</EM
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> for high quality video playback under Linux. It is
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the only type of hardware playback acceleration that is widely
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supported in Linux, and it is by far the single most important
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configuration element for DVD playback on a Linux system. </P
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><P
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>To check if you have this extension, type
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<B
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CLASS="command"
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>xvinfo</B
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> in an X terminal. If the command returns
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several screens full of important-looking output, then congratulations,
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you have hardware video overlay and you need not worry about it anymore.
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</P
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><P
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> If, on the other hand, xvinfo returns with a negative answer like:
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<TABLE
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BORDER="0"
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BGCOLOR="#E0E0E0"
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WIDTH="100%"
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><TR
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><TD
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><FONT
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COLOR="#000000"
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><PRE
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CLASS="programlisting"
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><TT
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CLASS="prompt"
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># </TT
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><TT
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CLASS="userinput"
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><B
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><B
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CLASS="command"
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>xvinfo</B
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></B
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></TT
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>
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<TT
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CLASS="computeroutput"
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> X-Video Extension version 2.2
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screen #0
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no adaptors present
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</TT
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>
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</PRE
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></FONT
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></TD
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></TR
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></TABLE
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>
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then that means you don't have hardware overlay support. See <A
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HREF="x383.html#overlaytrouble"
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>Overlay Troubleshooting</A
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> for tips
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on how to get overlay support working.
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</P
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></DIV
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><DIV
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CLASS="sect2"
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><H2
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CLASS="sect2"
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><A
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NAME="dma"
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></A
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>2.5. Enabling DMA</H2
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><P
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>DMA drive access is critical for DVD playback because it lowers
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the CPU overhead of disc reading and leaves more of the CPU free for
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video playback. On most systems, enabling DMA support for the DVD drive
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means the difference between choppy playback and smooth playback.</P
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><P
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>To see if you have DMA enabled, type (as root) the
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command<TABLE
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BORDER="0"
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BGCOLOR="#E0E0E0"
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WIDTH="100%"
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><TR
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><TD
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><FONT
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COLOR="#000000"
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><PRE
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CLASS="programlisting"
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><TT
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CLASS="prompt"
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># </TT
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><TT
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CLASS="userinput"
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><B
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><B
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CLASS="command"
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>hdparm</B
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> -d /dev/hdc</B
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></TT
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>
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</PRE
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></FONT
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></TD
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></TR
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></TABLE
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>(replacing <TT
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CLASS="filename"
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>/dev/hdc</TT
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> with
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your DVD drive's actual device name). If DMA is already on, then you're
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done. Otherwise, you should turn it on by typing <B
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CLASS="command"
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>hdparm -d 1
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/dev/hdc</B
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>. You may want to add this command to a startup
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script such as <TT
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CLASS="filename"
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>/etc/rc.d/rc.local</TT
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> to ensure that
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the DMA support is active every time your computer boots.
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</P
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><P
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>See the <A
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HREF="x383.html#dmatrouble"
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>DMA Troubleshooting</A
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> section
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if DMA won't turn on even after you've typed the command to turn it
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on.</P
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></DIV
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></DIV
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><DIV
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CLASS="NAVFOOTER"
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><HR
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ALIGN="LEFT"
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WIDTH="100%"><TABLE
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SUMMARY="Footer navigation table"
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WIDTH="100%"
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BORDER="0"
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CELLPADDING="0"
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CELLSPACING="0"
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><TR
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><TD
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WIDTH="33%"
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ALIGN="left"
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VALIGN="top"
|
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><A
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HREF="intro.html"
|
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ACCESSKEY="P"
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>Prev</A
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></TD
|
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><TD
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WIDTH="34%"
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ALIGN="center"
|
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VALIGN="top"
|
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><A
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HREF="index.html"
|
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ACCESSKEY="H"
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>Home</A
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></TD
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><TD
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WIDTH="33%"
|
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ALIGN="right"
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VALIGN="top"
|
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><A
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HREF="install.html"
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ACCESSKEY="N"
|
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>Next</A
|
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></TD
|
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></TR
|
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><TR
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><TD
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WIDTH="33%"
|
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ALIGN="left"
|
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VALIGN="top"
|
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>Introduction</TD
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><TD
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WIDTH="34%"
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ALIGN="center"
|
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VALIGN="top"
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> </TD
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><TD
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WIDTH="33%"
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ALIGN="right"
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VALIGN="top"
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>Software Installation</TD
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></TR
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></TABLE
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></DIV
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></BODY
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></HTML
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> |