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Bootable DVD movies

 Add usability to DVDs for little cost
  (+4, -2)
(+4, -2) 		  [vote for,
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It is possible to make CD-ROMs which are bootable on PCs, placing code on the disc. It is also possible to do this for Macintosh CD-ROMs. With this it is possible to make dedicated standalone operating systems on CDs; examples include bootable disk utilities and standalone MP3 CDs (consisting of a small Linux-based system, an MP3 player and some MP3s).

I was thinking that this should be extended to DVD movies. Imagine if each DVD movie was bootable; putting it into a PC (or even perhaps a Mac) and rebooting would load a small, dedicated OS (perhaps based on Linux or QNX or similar) with a DVD player. This would turn the computer into a dedicated DVD player until the user rebooted it, without requiring any permanent DVD playing software to be installed.

Sure, most people want to play DVDs from their existing OSes, though in some cases this would add convenience; it would also cost very little (the OS and player could fit into a few megabytes; a mere trifle compared to the size of the video data).

—acb, Apr 10 2001

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       Too much hardware to support.
—bookworm, Apr 10 2001
   

       If your computer can play DVD's anyway, why would you want to reboot to do it? I am having trouble thinking of the convenience.
—blahginger, Apr 10 2001
   

       If you have a computer without an OS, or are a law-abiding Linux user who wishes to watch DVDs without downloading illegal software, or don't have the disk space to install a DVD player, being able to watch a DVD with no extra software would be useful.   

       As for too much hardware to support, if the system supported a generic ATAPI DVD-ROM drive and a VGAesque card, with perhaps one or two of the more popular accelerated chipsets, that could suffice as a bare-bones solution. This would be a basic yet functional DVD player, not a high-end one.
—acb, Apr 11 2001
   

       I think it is a great idea. A true hacker's concept: do it cuz you can. If you ever do create a CD like this, please e-mail me your OS and DVD software, I would love to see it. stoned_penguin@hushmail.com
—ieee, Aug 08 2001
   

       I think it is a great idea as it would work for making linux distro's easier as also the every expanding windows. Put winxp, officexp, firewalls, all software....etc. On one DVD. YEah yeah you can ghost from a seperate partition but HD's crash. DVD's will be less likely to crash. Get it? Also the idea for movie watching sounds great too. Good idea! I found this looking for a section on how to make a dvd bootable.
—ol' man, Nov 22 2002
   

       I would love a stand-alone version of this... just one normal CD/floppy (not sure how small you can make dvd decoding software) that would load to ram a DVD player OS... that would suit me fine, it doesnt have to be on every DVD ^_^ I have been looking for one since windoze decided it didnt like playing dvds (makes every program that tries vanish... lame!) great idea though!
—zablon, Aug 10 2003
   

       Can anyone tell me how I can create a DVD that is bootable in Sys 9.2.2 for the Mac. If this can be done, then I can add other things to it before I burn the DVD
—kiwigray, Dec 05 2003
   

       It would get rid of the long wait while Windows starts, since all it has to do is load up a video player... you could be watching your movie a lot sooner that way. If I had a DVD-ROM drive, I'd already be emailing whoever manufactures the movie discs about this.
—JimX, Dec 21 2003
   


 

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