[Obi Wan]

Hey everybody! I posted this same question over in the eMac forum, but I thought I might get some answers here, since this problem pretains to video as well.

I recently have been tinkering with the idea of a videography business. I have an eMac, and figured with some additional RAM, that it was good enough to cut video on, so I've started getting some software, and learning to use it. I got Final Cut, which runs beautifully, and then recently added DVD Studio Pro and an external Firewire DVD-RW drive. Much to my dismay, I realized AFTER purchasing the drive, that DVD Player will not play DVDs from an external drive - it won't even allow itslef to be installed on the computer. I wish Apple had been more forthcoming with this information, but that's beside the point, I guess.

I tried a few patches to allow me to run DVD Player, and none of them seem to work. I've tried VideoLAN, but it's picture is pixelated, it drops frames, and most importantly, hasn't played a DVD for longer than about 2 minutes without crashing. So now I'm wondering about the DVD drive, and how well it will work with DVD Studio Pro given that it's looking like running DVD Player isn't going to be an option. Does anyone have any experience using DVD Studio Pro with an external DVD-RW drive? How important is the DVD Player software to DVD Studio Pro? Can it function properly without the Player? I'm concerned that my setup was maybe a little bit of a mistake. Also, are eMacs able to have a superdrive installed into them? If so, would that be a better option? And is there any other software I should try to use to play a DVD?

I know that's a lot of questions, but I'm really struggling with this. Thanks in advance! Any advice will be greatly appreciated!

[bradoesch]

Please don't post the same thing in three places. It's frustrating when people take the time to answer your questions and then realize somebody else has already answered it because it's been posted somewhere else too.

[Obi Wan]

Sorry, man. As you can tell by my minute post count, I'm new around here. Didn't realize that was frowned upon. Not be obnoxious or anything, but I've gotten different pieces of information from the different postings, though, since my questions covered different areas, so it might not have really been that bad of an idea. Anyway, whatever...point taken. I won't do it again, and thanks for responding to my questions. I appreciate it.

So back to the subject at hand - in the other thread, you recommended possibly replacing the drive. It is a Pioneer, so this might work. How difficult a procedure is this. I haven't done that much with this sort of thing, and I'd be a little apprehensive about it. Suggestions?

Thanks again.

[bradoesch]

Originally posted by Obi Wan:
Sorry, man. As you can tell by my minute post count, I'm new around here. Didn't realize that was frowned upon. Not be obnoxious or anything, but I've gotten different pieces of information from the different postings, though, since my questions covered different areas, so it might not have really been that bad of an idea. Anyway, whatever...point taken. I won't do it again, and thanks for responding to my questions. I appreciate it.

So back to the subject at hand - in the other thread, you recommended possibly replacing the drive. It is a Pioneer, so this might work. How difficult a procedure is this. I haven't done that much with this sort of thing, and I'd be a little apprehensive about it. Suggestions?

Thanks again.

I didn't mean to come across as annoyed, I just wanted to let you know in a nice way before someone screams at you for doing it. It's kind of a gray area, since as you said you got different information in the different forums. I guess what's really frustrating is when the same information is given in each thread the person makes. I wish there was a way for people to post the same question in multiple forums (where it makes sense to do so) and have them all link to the same thread. Anyway, welcome to MacNN and let's get back to your question!

I've never taken apart an eMac before, and I'm thinking that will be the "trickiest" part. There's instructions somewhere on the Internet on how to do it, it shouldn't be that hard. Have you replaced a hard drive or optical drive before? If not, it's really quite simple. There's a ribbon cable and a power cable to disconnect from the old drive and reconnect to the SuperDrive. Fairly simple stuff. Check and see if the old drive was setup as a master or slave, and make sure the SuperDrive is set as the same. There's jumpers on the drive that determine master/slave settings. It might sound a little tricky, but it's quite simple once you do it. Post back if you've got more questions or say how it went.


Brad

[Obi Wan]

Thanks! I think I'm gonna give it a shot. I found a pretty nice tutorial on replacing the drive on an eMac, and it doesn't look too hard.

Thanks again!

[bradoesch]

Originally posted by Obi Wan:
Thanks! I think I'm gonna give it a shot. I found a pretty nice tutorial on replacing the drive on an eMac, and it doesn't look too hard.

Thanks again!

You're welcome.


Brad