517 lines
11 KiB
HTML
517 lines
11 KiB
HTML
<HTML
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><HEAD
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><TITLE
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>Software Usage</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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TITLE="DVD Playback HOWTO"
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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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><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="usage"
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></A
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>4. Software Usage</H1
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><P
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> Although I have tried very hard to keep this HOWTO focused on practical
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advice instead of abstract theory, it is necessary to have some minimal
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background in television video in order to understand how to get the
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best possible video quality under Linux.
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</P
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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="principles"
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></A
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>4.1. General principles: deinterlacing, telecine, and framerates</H2
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><P
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> Regular television video is <EM
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>interlaced</EM
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>, meaning
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that the odd-numbered scanlines are recorded (and displayed) first,
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followed by the even numbered scanlines, then the odd ones again, then
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the even ones again, etc. Each individual line is displayed 30 times a
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second (or 25, depending on where you live), but because of the
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interlacing, the television image as a whole is refreshed 60 times a
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second (or 50), with only half of the total lines being refreshed each
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time.
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</P
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><P
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> In general, with interlaced motion pictures, there is no way to
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reconstruct any single video frame perfectly without artifacts. This
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point is important enough to repeat: <EM
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>there is no way to
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perfectly reconstruct any single frame!</EM
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> The reason is that
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the odd-numbered lines are recorded onto the video tape with a timing
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skew of one half-frame relative to the even-numbered lines. If the video
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picture is still, this timing skew is no problem, but for moving
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pictures it causes half the lines to be displaced from the other half.
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On a television screen, you can't see this displacement, since TV
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screens (except for high-end HDTV monitors) are of such low quality that
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the artifacts aren't visible. However, on a computer screen, this
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displacement is very visible and causes comb-like artifacts to appear in
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the video. You can see screenshots of interlacing artifacts in the
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<A
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HREF="http://www.lukesvideo.com/interlacing.html"
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TARGET="_top"
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>interlacing
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section</A
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> of <A
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HREF="http://www.lukesvideo.com/"
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TARGET="_top"
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>Luke's Video
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Guide</A
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>.</P
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><DIV
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CLASS="sect3"
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><H3
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CLASS="sect3"
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><A
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NAME="deinterlace"
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></A
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>4.1.1. How to fix interlacing artifacts</H3
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><P
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>The process of removing interlacing artifacts is called
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<EM
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>deinterlacing</EM
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>. Unfortunately, all deinterlacing
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techniques are imperfect to some extent, and there is no single method
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which works best in all situations. It is therefore important to
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experiment with all of the different possible deinterlace settings to
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see which one works best for a particular disc.
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</P
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><P
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> <A
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HREF="usage.html#mplayer"
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>MPlayer</A
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> users can get a list of deinterlacing options
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by typing <B
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CLASS="command"
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>mplayer -pphelp</B
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> at the command line.
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Find the option that you want to use, and then use the <B
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CLASS="command"
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>-vf
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pp=<option></B
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> syntax to activate the option. For example,
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I usually use the <TT
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CLASS="varname"
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>lb</TT
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> option, which is
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done with the command: <B
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CLASS="command"
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>mplayer -vf pp=lb</B
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>, followed by
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whatever other options you would normally use to play the DVD.
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</P
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><P
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> <A
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HREF="usage.html#vlc"
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>VideoLAN</A
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> users can right-click on the movie to get a
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list of deinterlacing options (under <SPAN
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CLASS="guimenuitem"
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>Video
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Settings</SPAN
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> or <SPAN
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CLASS="guimenuitem"
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>Deinterlace</SPAN
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>,
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depending on the program version).
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</P
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><P
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> <A
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HREF="usage.html#xine"
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>Xine</A
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> has a list of
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deinterlacing options in the configuration panel; to get to it, right-click on the movie window, open the
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<SPAN
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CLASS="guimenu"
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>Settings</SPAN
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>-><SPAN
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CLASS="guimenuitem"
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>Setup</SPAN
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> dialog, set <SPAN
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CLASS="QUOTE"
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>"Configuration experience level"</SPAN
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> to
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<SPAN
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CLASS="QUOTE"
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>"Advanced"</SPAN
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>, and then look for <SPAN
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CLASS="QUOTE"
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>"Software deinterlace
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method"</SPAN
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> under the <SPAN
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CLASS="QUOTE"
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>"Video"</SPAN
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> tab.</P
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><P
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><A
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HREF="usage.html#ogle"
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>Ogle</A
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> has no deinterlacing support, so it is not
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recommended to use Ogle for watching interlaced video.
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</P
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></DIV
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><DIV
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CLASS="sect3"
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><H3
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CLASS="sect3"
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><A
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NAME="telecine"
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></A
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>4.1.2. Telecined video</H3
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><P
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>This section only applies to video in NTSC format (used in North
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America, east Asia, and parts of Latin America) -- PAL users (the rest of
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the world) can skip ahead.</P
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><P
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> The one exception to all of the above discussion about interlacing is in
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the case of telecined video. Briefly put, <EM
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>telecine</EM
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>
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is a special kind of interlacing that is done only to theatrical (i.e.
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cinematic) movies and some forms of hand-drawn animated shows. The
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special thing about telecine is that it can usually be perfectly undone.
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The details are too complicated to explain here, but you can read about
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it in <A
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HREF="http://www.lukesvideo.com/telecining.html"
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TARGET="_top"
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>Luke's
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Video Guide</A
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> or <A
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HREF="http://www.access-one.com/rjn/laser/legacy/ld12.txt"
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TARGET="_top"
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>Bob Niland's
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FAQs</A
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> if you're curious.
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</P
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><P
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>The process of undoing the telecine artifacts is called
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<EM
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>inverse telecine</EM
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>. The good news is that inverse
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telecine, done properly, fully restores the original video quality of
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the source video with no artifacts whatsoever. The bad news is that
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<A
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HREF="usage.html#mplayer"
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>MPlayer</A
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> is the only player program in the world right
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now that can perform inverse telecine.</P
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><P
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>To perform inverse telecine in MPlayer, simply add the
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<TT
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CLASS="varname"
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>-vf ivtc</TT
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> option to the MPlayer command. This
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option is the right one to use if you are watching a movie you know
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originated as a theatrical release, or if you are watching animated
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shows. Warning: this option is very CPU intensive. You need at least a 1 GHz
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processor to even think about doing it.</P
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></DIV
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><DIV
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CLASS="sect3"
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><H3
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CLASS="sect3"
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><A
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NAME="windows"
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></A
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>4.1.3. How come Windows users don't have to deal with all this?</H3
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><P
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>Windows DVD players hide most of the complexity of DVD playback
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and fall back to the lowest common demoninator when playing DVDs. The
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result is that you get playback quality which is decent in a wide range
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of situations but not always the best that can be achieved in any given
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situation. For example, no Windows DVD player in the world has an
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inverse telecine filter like MPlayer does, so telecined material always
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looks dramatically worse in Windows than in MPlayer under Linux.</P
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></DIV
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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="AEN345"
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></A
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>4.2. Specific usage instructions</H2
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><P
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>Here we give specific instructions for launching basic DVD
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playback in the various player programs. These commands only cover the
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basic steps of operating each program. You are encouraged to refer to
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the man pages of each program for further instructions.</P
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><P
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>Put the DVD that you want to play into your drive before
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attempting playback.</P
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><DIV
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CLASS="sect3"
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><H3
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CLASS="sect3"
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><A
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NAME="mplayer"
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></A
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>4.2.1. MPlayer</H3
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><P
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>Type <B
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CLASS="command"
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>mplayer dvd://1</B
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> to begin playing title
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#1 on the disc. To play other title numbers, substitute the appropriate
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number in place of <B
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CLASS="command"
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>1</B
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>.
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</P
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><P
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>Old versions of MPlayer, such as the one used in Debian, require
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the command <B
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CLASS="command"
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>mplayer -dvd 1</B
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> instead. In some cases
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you also have to explicitly add the option <TT
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CLASS="varname"
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>-vo xv</TT
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>
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in order to make MPlayer use the hardware video overlay port.</P
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><P
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>Subtitle and audio options for MPlayer have to be specified on the
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command line. The format is <TT
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CLASS="varname"
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>-alang NN</TT
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> or
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<TT
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CLASS="varname"
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>-slang NN</TT
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> where <TT
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CLASS="varname"
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>NN</TT
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> is the two-letter
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language code of the language you want. For example, to play back
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Japanese audio with English subtitles, type:<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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>mplayer</B
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> dvd://1 -alang ja -slang en</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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on the command line.
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</P
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></DIV
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><DIV
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CLASS="sect3"
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><H3
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CLASS="sect3"
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><A
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NAME="xine"
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></A
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>4.2.2. Xine</H3
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><P
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>Simply type <B
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CLASS="command"
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>xine</B
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> at the command prompt to
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start the program.</P
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><P
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>The first time you start the program, it will display a
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configuration screen with a bunch of options. In most cases you can
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leave all of the options at the defaults.</P
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><P
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>The program has a graphical console with a row of labeled buttons
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along the bottom. Press the DVD button to start playing the DVD. (However, if
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your version of Xine has a D5D button, use that instead.)</P
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><P
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>Xine supports DVD menus, so you can set language or subtitling
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options as you normally would via the disc's own menu.</P
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></DIV
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><DIV
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CLASS="sect3"
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><H3
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CLASS="sect3"
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><A
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NAME="ogle"
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></A
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>4.2.3. Ogle</H3
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><P
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>Type <B
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CLASS="command"
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>ogle</B
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> to start the program. Depending on
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which version of the program you have, it may start playing the DVD
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automatically. If it doesn't, then click on the <SPAN
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CLASS="guimenu"
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>File</SPAN
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>
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menu and select <SPAN
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CLASS="guimenuitem"
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>Open Disc</SPAN
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> to begin reading
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the disc.</P
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><P
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>Ogle, like Xine, supports DVD menus for setting the language or
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subtitling options.</P
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></DIV
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><DIV
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CLASS="sect3"
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><H3
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CLASS="sect3"
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><A
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NAME="vlc"
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></A
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>4.2.4. VideoLAN</H3
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><P
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>Use the <B
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CLASS="command"
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>vlc</B
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> command to bring up the VideoLAN
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GUI and click on the disc icon to open the disc and start playing.
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Right click the playback window to bring up the options menu, which
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includes deinterlacing, audio, and subtitle options.</P
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