[yamid]

I just purchased a powerbook G3 333 mhz, it's a little busted up and looks like it has been refurbished. One thing I noticed is that the original CD-ROM drive was replaced with a Pismo's DVD drive. It fits in fine and works to read DVDs... but.. i can't use DVD video playback. Anyone know how I could get a software or hardware decoder to let me play DVD movies?

[pi]

do you have Apple DVD player on your computer? it should have come with your computer, even though you didn't have the hardware to support it at the time.

If you donn't: Go to Apple support's recent downloads page and download the latest version ofDVD Player.

The DVD player is software based, so make sure to have a lot of RAM. I had 64 Megs and I couldn't watch a movie at all, there was no sound and the image was increddibly blocky. I upgraded to 320 Megs, and now I only have a couple of skips per film.

I don't know what else you'll need, the 333 was able to get a dvd player bto, but it needed a pc card decoder. If you have enough RAM and a ittle ingenuity I'm sure you can get around that.

tell me how it works out.

pi

[finboy]

Yeah, let us know how/if it works.

If I'm not badly mistaken, the Lombard (333) has HARDWARE DVD decoding, and the Pismo uses DVD Player to do SOFTWARE decoding. DVD drives were an option on the Lombard, so you need to find someone who got one originally with DVD and find out what software they were using. There may be an older version of DVD Player that will detect hardware decoding and use it.

I know, I know. The chipset in the Pismo supports hardware MPEG3 decoding too. Don't ask ME why Apple didn't choose to use it.

Actually, I just went to Apple and looked around (via the link in the above post).

It seems that SOME of the Lombards had DVD chipsets built-in, and some didn't. You can tell by looking in System Profiler. It will tell you by saying "DVD Decoder Present."

If you DON'T have one, then DVD Player will probably work, assuming it can detect the DVD drive. You may need a later version of the Apple CD/DVD Extension for that.

If you DO have one, which would probably be unusual on a 333 model (I don't know IF they ever made 333s with a decoder) then you'll have to find the software that supports that decoder. You can try DVD Player and see, but I think it won't work with hardware, again.

Good luck.

[ 07-01-2001: Message edited by: finboy ]

[pi]

The 333 needs a pc card for hardware decoding, the 400 does not. You can go to powerbook parts and find the diferent logic boards.

You could always buy a 400MHz logic board and put it in your 333, but I'd go about trying to hack the system first.

Search around Powerbook DVD Source and someone may have come up with the answer allready, but the site hasn't been updated in a long time.

pi

[yamid]

I don't have enough money to purchase a VST DVD drive kit, or a new logic board. I tried using the apple dvd player, but it said i had no decoder card. I then tried getting the newest version, but it said that my computer was incompatible with it. I was hoping someone would know of a PC card I could use, that would make things a lot easier.

[COmie JOe]

All Lombards that came with DVD-rom drives have (on the LB) the hardware decoder. hince you had to order the power book with DVD if you ever wanted it. But with the wallstreets the decoder is a PC card. The pmiso used software decodeing hince the choppy-ness. I havent tryed to see if a lombard DVD will work with software decodeing on a Lombard. Apple says you will need a certion version to use hardware decoding on computer that support it. On newer versions of Apple DVD player the decodeing is all software based.

[finboy]

VST has, on their web site (VSTTech.com) a DVD kit for Lombards that didn't have it built in. If you don't have the decoder on the motherboard, then you should contact VST to see if they'll sell you the DVD pc-card separately, or maybe you can find the OEM and buy it there. there have to be some PC cards out there without drives.

[COmie JOe]

I think apple coded the drives in diffrent ways, mainly on the lombard it was to the LB hardware decoder. and on the pmiso to software. If I rember correct the VST drive uses software.