If you don't mind using a PC as a DVD player, AnyDvd strips all that stuff out (along with region coding and most other DRM)

and then you burn the stripped video back and put it in your home theater.

I know all this but it's the fact that I have to go through all this trouble to be able to use something that I paid good money for.

That's why many of us skip the paying good money part. They assume we're all criminals, so why not be? Everyone gets what they want that way.

Good point.

I've actually got an old Thinkpad hooked up to my TV. It works better than you might think. The dock has HDMI and it puts out a full 1080.

Would you please elaborate: which Thinkpad and dock models are those? I was not aware that there is such thing as dock with HDMI.

Apologies! I meant DVI (along with a DVI->HDMI cable). But as far as I can tell, that's just as good. All digital signal and it looks crisp on my HD TV.

It's a T43/p. I believe the /p is important since the regular T43 had a crap graphics card. And I think it's a ThinkPad Port Replicator II (like $20 on ebay).

Getting the drivers for the DVI port just right under Linux took some work though.

It might be illegal in the US thanks to the DMCA (I'm not sure, and I'm not a lawyer), but it really shouldn't be. It's an unjust law.

The DMCA is, itself, a racket and was designed right from the start to be.