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Tyler McAdams · Apr 21, 2003, 10:15 PM

I just bought a formac dvd-r which will let me watch DVD's on my mac... but I tried copying the apple dvd player application from my DV imac 400 to the g4 I'm using the dvd-r on... and when I try to play DVD's the dvd player pops into the dock and tries to start but gives an error that says it was unable to find any DVD player hardware... then quits... I know there is at least one aftermarket dvd player for os x out there but I can seem to find it... does anybody know such an app?

King Bob On The Cob · Apr 21, 2003, 10:35 PM

VLC. (Video LAN Client)

WJMoore · Apr 21, 2003, 11:35 PM

Originally posted by King Bob On The Cob:
VLC. (Video LAN Client)

http://www.videolan.org/

JB72 · Apr 21, 2003, 11:53 PM

Apparently the new Harry Potter DVD has a copy of Interactual for Mac DVD player on it.

http://www.xlr8yourmac.com/ (4-21-03, towards the bottom of the page.)

I haven't seen it yet myself, but that DVD is next on my Netflix queue.

icruise · Apr 22, 2003, 01:23 AM

The DVD Player app won't start unless you have an internal DVD-ROM drive. However, you can get around this by mounting a Toast disk image of a DVD first. DVD Player will think you have an internal drive for some reason. I use a very small image with no video that I made in DVD Studio Pro for this purpose. You can then manually open the VIDEO_TS folder on the actual DVD you want to play (under File for the DVD Player). If you have Toast, I can give you a copy of this (it's around 650K). I haven't tried it with the last few OS X updates, but I imagine it will still work.

JB72 · Apr 22, 2003, 02:51 AM

Originally posted by Icruise:
The DVD Player app won't start unless you have an internal DVD-ROM drive.

There's also some hacks for the app w/o having to mount.

Tyler McAdams · Apr 22, 2003, 03:01 AM

Originally posted by Icruise:
The DVD Player app won't start unless you have an internal DVD-ROM drive. However, you can get around this by mounting a Toast disk image of a DVD first. DVD Player will think you have an internal drive for some reason. I use a very small image with no video that I made in DVD Studio Pro for this purpose. You can then manually open the VIDEO_TS folder on the actual DVD you want to play (under File for the DVD Player). If you have Toast, I can give you a copy of this (it's around 650K). I haven't tried it with the last few OS X updates, but I imagine it will still work.

That sounds like a cool way to do it... if you would not mind emailing it to tyler@mcadams.com... that would be great! thanks!

rjenkinson · Apr 22, 2003, 04:43 AM

the easiest way to watch DVDs with an external drive is to use a hacked version of the apple DVD player application.

Tyler McAdams · Apr 24, 2003, 08:46 AM

Originally posted by rjenkinson:
the easiest way to watch DVDs with an external drive is to use a hacked version of the apple DVD player application.

I applied your hack.... very nice! Thank you!

dettociao · Apr 24, 2003, 01:08 PM

Another vote for VLC. I personally prefer it (or MPlayer) to Apple's DVD Player.

edddeduck · Apr 24, 2003, 05:18 PM

Another VLC vote...

VLC Supports my Midiman Sonica so I get true 5.1 Dolby Surround unlike that rubbish "Pro Logic" affair with Apple DVD Player.

The DVD Player better be upgraded in Panther as it sucks like the plague in 10.2

Edd

DeathMan · Apr 25, 2003, 01:38 AM

also vlc is cool for making screenshots of dvd's (which you cant really do easily with the built in player since it uses harware decoding, so the video never even hits the video ram...or at least thats what I heard)

You can make some funny versions of your dvds.

icruise · Apr 25, 2003, 07:31 AM

Originally posted by Tyler McAdams:
I applied your hack.... very nice! Thank you!

For some reason the hacks I found wouln't work for my system, so that why I had the above solution. I now have a new powerbook with internal superdrive, so the problem is more or less moot.

OwlBoy · Apr 25, 2003, 02:17 PM

Originally posted by JB72:
Apparently the new Harry Potter DVD has a copy of Interactual for Mac DVD player on it.

http://www.xlr8yourmac.com/ (4-21-03, towards the bottom of the page.)

I haven't seen it yet myself, but that DVD is next on my Netflix queue.

It does!

How interesting!

-Owl

CyberDave · Apr 25, 2003, 06:25 PM

Originally posted by OwlBoy:
It does!

How interesting!

-Owl

Yes, it does. Tried it (briefly) myself the other day. The reports on XLR8yourmac indicate that it doesn't do anything that the Apple player doesn't, with one exception. If you have dual monitors, you can watch the DVD on your non-primary display (the Apple player restricts you to the display with the menu bar). Goes along nicely with my Radeon 8500 and 19" + 17" CRTs.

Cheers,

CyberDave