DVD won't playback on a G3 Powerbook running OSX

Posted:
in Current Mac Hardware edited January 2014
Does anyone know of a work around. The DVD plays fine on the powerbook when I had OS 9.2.2. But stopped working when I upgraded to OS X. After installing OS X I noticed there is not even a DVD player on the install.



Help.

Comments

  • Reply 1 of 5
    aslanaslan Posts: 97member
    I have a pismo and have run into the same problem...



    The reason that there isn't a DVD Player in your Applications folder is because, for some reason, the OS X install happens to ignore the fact that you are installing FROM a DVD-ROM drive (in the case of the DVD-ROM module for the G3 Powerbook).



    I used an external drive to install OS X, and didn't have my DVD-ROM module inserted during installation, and the installer didn't include it in the configuration of my install. This is probably what happened to you.



    I haven't taken the effort to fix mine yet (too busy to screw with entertainment/games much), but I believe it is as simple as finding the DVD Player .pkg file on the OS X install disc, and running it. Not sure if this is the case or not (i.e. not sure there is a .pkg just for DVD player, but there ought to be), but don't just copy the app from a friend. It will croak for a variety of reasons for lack of support files elsewhere in the sys library. Best to find the .pkg and reinstall that part.



    Anyone else have any bright suggestions?
  • Reply 2 of 5
    defiantdefiant Posts: 4,876member
    yeah, I do.



    insert your DVD-Drive into your Computer, and just run the Installer again. It will check some things, and as soon as it finds your DVD-Drive, it installs the DVD-Player...
  • Reply 3 of 5
    defiantdefiant Posts: 4,876member
    btw. that should be moved into Genius Bar...
  • Reply 4 of 5
    If you have a lombard then DVD playback is not supported in OS X (at least with the original Apple DVD drive). I have to keep icky icky OS 9 on my laptop and boot into it whenever I want to playback a DVD. The official response from Apple (from what I've heard) is that they have not been able to write unix drivers for the lombards DVD decoder chip.



    I personally think that Apple's excuse is ludicrous. Before I switched to Apple I owned a Pentium 166 with 64MB of RAM. The computer had no hardware decoder (only software) and its DVD playback was flawless. If I could playback DVDs on that POS with a software decoder then I should be able to playback DVDs on my G3 400 with 196MB of RAM Lombard (with a software decoder at the very least). People paid a lot of money for their DVD drives and Apple has no excuse for preventing DVD playback.



    I hope the Jagwire will fix this problem.
  • Reply 5 of 5
    The G3 Laptop I have is the Lombard (USB Powerbook) and not the Pismo (firewire powerbook).



    So what ColtraneDylan is saying is true.



    Since this is the reality is there any third party solution to this problem. Meaning is there any software decoder that will work with OS X which will allow the DVD to playback under OS X.



    Anyone have ideas.
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