PBG4, OSX, DVD, & TV

daviddavid
Posted:
in Current Mac Hardware edited January 2014
Sorry for all the acronyms...



Anyway, here ya go gurus: Does anyone know how to use a G4 Powerbook running OS 10.1 to watch DVDs on a television. I can't get any of the available resolutions to work. DVD Player starts up and I get an "unsupported hardware configuration" error message. DVD Player then quits. Worse yet, I get the same message using the OS 9 DVD player when I boot into OS 9. This used to work perfectly. Is TV playback for the DVD player not yet supported in OSX, and, more importantly, what happened to my OS 9 setup? Thanks for any help

Comments

  • Reply 1 of 3
    zozo Posts: 3,117member
    look on the macnn forum boards. I've seen this recently somewhere and I think it was there. It had to do with turning your PBG4 off completely, hooking it up to the tv, turn on PBG4, close lid immediately, and THEN it should work.



    Bizarre.



    If you find it, please post here. If it wasn't macnn it was macfixit or macintouch (thats the problem with visiting so many damn sites!!)
  • Reply 2 of 3
    formerlurkerformerlurker Posts: 2,686member
    I believe you have to make the TV the main monitor (with the menubar) first, and then possibly turn ON video mirroring.



    Not sure though - havent tried it yet personally.
  • Reply 3 of 3
    adam11adam11 Posts: 163member
    There are a lot of threads on this at the apple discussion boards under DVD player in the OS X section (not iDVD). From memory the post above sounds about right from the apple board threads.... here are a couple of extracts -





    You do have to make your TV the active monitor - this from a guy named Vasilios from the Apple discsussions thread (he sounds like a really helpful guy so Im sure he wont mind a repost here) -



    QUOTE

    The reason that you get this error is because you have both your computers monitor and the display on your TV on, at the same time. The only way to make the DVD play is to only have the TV activated as a monitor. To make the TV the only active monitor you have to switch down your powerbook, connect the S-Video cable to the TV and start your powerbook with the lid closed. When your poowerbook has finished booting you can open the lid, startup the DVD application and everything will work fine (except of the overscan feature).

    UNQUOTE



    Also OS X does not seem to support Overscan whcih was available in OS 9 (this also from the same guy on the same thread) -



    QUOTE

    When watching DVD's in OS9 on a powerbook I usualy use the overscan function.



    Overscan can be chosen from the control-strip. Its an app that only appears when you have a TV conected to your powerbook. It looks like a TV symbol with the choices overscan, best for graphics, best for video.



    What this little setting does is that it stretches the picture so that there is no black border on the TV when watching DVD's.



    I know that very little people know about this function, but it makes big difference when watching DVD's. You can't enjoy a DVD without overscaning the picture because the movie size on the TV looks too small without it.



    Now I wonder if anybody else is missing this function in OSX 10.1. I sure would like to have it implemented because without this function watching DVD's on a TV is realy worthless...



    UNQUOTE.



    Sounds like you can do it, but not as well as under os ) - you should check out the apple boards - there is other material there too.

    cheers

    adam
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