[ddand]

We are having problems getting dvds to play on our G3. Some videos will work after we re-start with them in the disc drive but most do not. The player did work when we first installed it way back when but it seems to be getting more and more glitches as time goes on. We thought it might be parental controls becasue when we open the preferences there is a box to click to change them with garbled words beside it. Even uninstalling and re-installing doesn't seem to do anything to change this. Any help would be appreciated.
Thanks,
ddand

[SSharon]

What application are you using to play the DVD's? When does the problem start, as in does the application open but nothing happen, does the disk not show up at all on the desktop? I am trying to figure out if this is a hardware or software based issue. If no disk shows up on the desktop (try a working cd to be sure) it may be a problem with the drive. If the disk shows up but doesn't open properly it could be a bad disk (try another dvd). If the disk mounts fine and seems to open fine but then not play it is most likely a software issue. At that point there are two options, one is to fix the problem one is to work around it. So either fix apple dvd player (I assume you are using this) or whatever extensions may be causing the problem, or try another application to see if you can narrow down the exact problem.

You may also want to try the forum that deals with older macs as I am sure they will know much more about OS 9 than me, since I haven't used it in a long while.

By the way, when was the last time the drive did work to play a DVD, and what new software have you gotten since then that may be conflicting.

[reader50]

Delete this file and reboot:
Macintosh HD/System Folder/Preferences/Apple DVD Player Prefs

It is possible that the DVD drive is getting old. The laser fades a bit over time, until the drive starts having trouble reading cheaper CD-R's. Eventually, it will start having trouble on commercial disks, but I do not remember the typical drive lifespan.

It is also possible that the drive lens has dust on it and needs cleaning.

[ddand]

The software we are using came with our G3 when we bought it. The disk just says apple dvd player and the date is 1998. The problem we have is that some (mostly newer) dvd movies do not show up on the desktop. Sometimes the message comes up that the disk is not readable and other times it just doesn't even show up. It seems that older and G rated movies work more frequently than new releases (that we rent from the video store). I just took another look at the preferences menu and more than just the parental controls are garbled (showing up as words typed over each other). Re-installing the program after tossing it doesn't change this at all. What other software is availible for using with a G3 and OS 9.1? Could you direct me to the sight for older OS users? Thank you.

ddand

[reader50]

The most recent DVD player version for OS 9.x is Apple DVD Player 2.7, but the 2.x Player versions are not compatible with the B&W G3's DVD hardware.

You need Apple DVD Player 1.1, you can get it by downloading the DVD Player 1.1 updater. Applying the update might fix your problem.

If the update won't apply, use TomeViewer to manually extract DVD Player 1.1. The player is stored in the file:

Apple DVD Software Update/Software Installers/Apple DVD Software/Apple DVD Software Tome

There are other support files in the Tome also. You can search for those filenames, and replace them with the newer versions. Most go in Extensions, if you drop the extracted files on your closed System Folder, those that go in subfolders will be sent to the correct places.

[tooki]

What drive model is it?

I don't think it's a software problem. I've found that the Matsushita DVD-ROM drives that were very popular in the late 90s become very finicky as they age. The DVD-ROM drive used to be able to read anything I could throw at it. Now it rejects some types of CD-R discs (the kind with the clear dye) and any DVD that's even remotely marginal. Most likely you're encountering the latter case.

tooki

[ddand]

I think that tooky must be the one with the answer for us. We have one of the dvd roms. We're going to purchase a new mac soon so we won't need to worry about this glitch any more. Thanks for all your replies.
Ddand