LibreDrive support in other applications?

Discussion of LibreDrive mode, compatible drives and firmwares
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theophile
Posts: 21
Joined: Sat Jan 09, 2010 5:44 am

LibreDrive support in other applications?

#1 Post by theophile » Thu Oct 01, 2020 12:57 am

I've got a Kodi box running on a Rock64 SBC that can't run MakeMKV due to lack of required binaries. But as I understand it, the LibreDrive concept does not necessarily require MakeMKV to function, only an application that uses LibDriveIO. Is it currently possible for Kodi to playback Blurays on the fly through LibDriveIO? Or is there some other way to make a drive "permanently" CSS/AACS agnostic to achieve the same result?

dcoke22
Posts: 3052
Joined: Wed Jul 22, 2020 11:25 pm

Re: LibreDrive support in other applications?

#2 Post by dcoke22 » Thu Oct 01, 2020 2:43 pm

LibreDrive, as I understand it, prevents a drive's firmware from stopping the rip of a movie. It does not defeat the CSS/AACS protection schemes used by commercial DVDs or Blu-rays. As such, it won't, on its own, allow for disc playback.

There's a pretty good explanation here: viewtopic.php?f=19&t=18856

As a side note, why would you want to do this? If you're running Kodi on a Rock64 it seems like it would be easy for you to rip a Blu-ray on your computer and transfer the result to your Kodi setup.

theophile
Posts: 21
Joined: Sat Jan 09, 2010 5:44 am

Re: LibreDrive support in other applications?

#3 Post by theophile » Thu Oct 01, 2020 4:59 pm

dcoke22 wrote:
Thu Oct 01, 2020 2:43 pm
LibreDrive, as I understand it, prevents a drive's firmware from stopping the rip of a movie. It does not defeat the CSS/AACS protection schemes used by commercial DVDs or Blu-rays. As such, it won't, on its own, allow for disc playback.

There's a pretty good explanation here: viewtopic.php?f=19&t=18856
I'm not sure that's right. The CSS/AACS protection schemes used by commercial DVDs or Blu-rays are why the drive's firmware stops the rip of a movie. According to the explanation you linked, a LibreDrive will simply read the data from the disc without the firmware policing what the drive is and is not allowed to access. It seems to me that at this point, there's no functional difference between ripping a title from the disc and watching it "on the fly" in real time. The only distinction is the speed of the data transfer and whether the host is dumping the data to a file or decoding and displaying it. Right?
dcoke22 wrote:
Thu Oct 01, 2020 2:43 pm
As a side note, why would you want to do this? If you're running Kodi on a Rock64 it seems like it would be easy for you to rip a Blu-ray on your computer and transfer the result to your Kodi setup.
Yes, but for WAF purposes, it would be nice not to have to do a multi-step process involving two machines and time delay, especially when renting/borrowing discs, which would then require deleting the rip afterwards. And then you've got to choose between the additional cost of either massive storage to accommodate uncompressed rips, or time/quality if you're going to transcode/compress rips. I'd like to have the ability to just pop a disc into the drive and press "play." Seems like, at least in theory, that should be possible with a LibreDrive as long as the player (e.g. Kodi) is using LibDriveIO. Is that right?

st4evr
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Joined: Tue Mar 06, 2018 11:38 pm

Re: LibreDrive support in other applications?

#4 Post by st4evr » Fri Oct 02, 2020 12:15 am

Umm... no. Overall Libredrive in MakeMKV helps handle certificate revocation, not decryption. That is what is discussed in that link provided as explained by Mike himself. Two separate things.

If you are unsure what that means and what the differences are, this is where Google is your friend, as that topic has been discussed for over 10+ years and there are thousands of resources and examples of what it is and what it means in the webs. And what can happen when a drive’s certificate is revoked. So there is no need to go into those long drawn out explicit details/examples in this topic since the information is readily available out there.

The differences have also been extensively discussed within the walls of this forum since the feature was implemented nearly 2 years ago in MakeMKV. As people continuously misunderstand it to be a “solution to all my AACS/decryption tasks/problems”. Which it’s clearly not. The forum search should provide those discussions as well.

Also, yes, that feature could hypothetically be implemented in other apps. If the developers who own, develop, and support those apps wish to and it fits the functionality of said apps.

Asking in the MakeMKV Support Forum if Kodi (or others) can do it, well, it becomes all hypothetical because:

1. Do those developers know what it is and what it does? I have seen developers of other apps openly ask what in the hell is LibreDrive in their own support forums when asked and were not familiar until provided with MakeMKV’s use/information on it. They were completely clueless prior.

2. Is it even a function/feature that would be useful or that can be added at all into their existing app and could it work as intended? Does it fit that app’s functionality/design?

So, it should become a bit obvious that only those developers can accurately answer such questions. Because only they will (or should) have a 100% understanding of their app’s capabilities and limitations.

EDIT: “On the fly” playback outside of officially licensed players more often than not requires “on the fly” decryption. Hence why you need the decryption part of the process to watch them this way. It’s just the way it is. Feel free to blame the studios, AACS LA, and MPAA for putting all these roadblocks in the way of something that should be way more simple.

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