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chadamir
23rd December 2006, 05:42
Fluxdvd, much like its predecessor "RatDVD" is merely a zip file with the same file names within. The difference between Flux and Rat is that Flux makes use of the h264 codec. The main advantage to both these formats is their ability to retain the dvd's menus through the use of the dvd's ifos and vobs (albeit making them smaller).

Fluxdvd is proprietary and only available to studios who sell their drmware through cinemanow. It's all very exciting. It's my hope that this might help inspire someone to use similar ideas to create their own fluxdvd equivalent which makes use of their decoder (albeit it is directshow) or to use the idea in their own opensource container.

The files contained within the zip .fluxdvd file are IFO, VSI, and XVO. The VSI seems to be the BUP but I'm not sure and I didn't take a hexeditor to it. The ifo is a standard IFO. According to Gspot, the XVO is a vob. Here's where things get interesting. In order to demux it, I used vobrator, everything else didn't want to. I then got a file which was recognized by windows media player as MPEG2, but was in actuality an h264 according to gspot; I confirmed this by opening it in media player classic, running graph edit and seeing that it was using an avc decoder. I'm wondering how an avc file was disguised as an mpeg2 and how a vob was made. I could not get any program to mux the fake mpeg2.

I used the free fluxdvd available on their website www.fluxdvd.com but I'm afraid to deep link to it because of that recent judge ruling. I'm also afraid to post pictures of how to do this until I get an ok for dmca reasons. It's all pretty easy to do. I hope it helps someone.

bond
23rd December 2006, 13:02
propably the xvo simply wrongly signals mpeg-2 and is therefore not compliant to the specs

i dont get the sense of fluxdvd, because i think the same could be done with hddvd (sd avc video + ac3 audio + menu), but with the advantage of being hdvd compliant

chadamir
23rd December 2006, 18:59
It uses a filter called XEBDSP which is the same one that ratdvd used, I believe (probably an altered version).

I guess it would be possible to use hd-dvd, but I don't know the specs and whether it uses the same menu structures. I'll play around, if I get a chance.

My ultimate guess about what he did was write a custom container that identifies and functions as a vob but allows him to be noncompliant and mux whatever. Same goes for an mpeg2 container. Or he managed to edit the header of an avc file to identify as mpeg2.

bond
23rd December 2006, 19:59
vob = mpeg program stream

there are official specs on how to mux avc into mpeg program streams, there is no need for a custom container

chadamir
23rd December 2006, 20:14
ah, I guess I've just not seen the software.