How to get DVD playback on a beige G3?

lucaluca
Posted:
in Genius Bar edited January 2014
My brother has had some problems registering here, so he wants me to ask a question about his beige G3. It's a 233 MHz desktop with 192MB of RAM (he'll probably add a 256MB module pretty soon) and the stock Apple CD-ROM drive. He wants to be able to play DVDs on it. What hardware is required to play DVDs? Of course a DVD-ROM drive is necessary, and probably some sort of decoder card. Where could I get the stuff needed, and how much does it cost? Also, would it have to be an Apple DVD-ROM, so you can boot from a CD?



EDIT: I forgot to mention, he's running OS 10.1.5 right now and it'll be 10.2 in a week or so.



[ 08-29-2002: Message edited by: Luca Rescigno ]</p>

Comments

  • Reply 1 of 5
    ebbyebby Posts: 3,110member
    Those G3's have personality cards. One of them has a DVD decoder. Hopefully you have that one. Things you need: Yes, the DVD-ROM drive, 6Mb of Video ram, ans the hardware DVD decoder. (1.3 for OS 9. I don't know if OS X's DVD decoder is software or hardware based.) I had a Voodoo 5500 and an ATI Radion 7000 card in my Beige G3, and both cards don't work with DVD's. (Both cards also say they would work.)



    [ 08-29-2002: Message edited by: Ebby ]</p>
  • Reply 2 of 5
    defiantdefiant Posts: 4,876member
    <a href="http://www.thinksecret.com/news/hardwaredvd.html"; target="_blank">Apple: Hardware DVD playback in X "a promise we can't make," more Jag notes</a>
  • Reply 3 of 5
    lucaluca Posts: 3,833member
    Damnit. Why can't they allow DVD playback in OS X on older machines? Does this mean that a dual G4/500 won't be able to play DVDs unless I boot into OS 9, which sucks for DVD playback?



    Just another example of Apple being a bunch of morons. It's one thing to make Quartz Extreme available only to more powerful newer Macs to encourage sales of new equipment, but how many extra sales are they going to get by forcing you to buy a new machine to watch DVDs? How many people are going to think "you know, I found this used system, and it fills my needs at a great price, but because I have to boot into OS 9 to watch DVDs I think I'll just have to buy a new computer instead." Probably almost no one.



    They should seriously just come out with computers that are already out of date when they're released, so they don't have to spend that extra time crippling them later on (oh wait, they already do that... but then they cripple them down the road anyway).



    Sorry, just a bit pissed. May not even be Apple's fault, either. It's either them or the damn RIAA.
  • Reply 4 of 5
    eugeneeugene Posts: 8,254member
    The only way to get DVD playback on the beige G3 is to buy something like a PCI Radeon 7000. The 233 MHz CPU maybe choke on some more demanding DVDs though. 300 MHz or more is advised...
  • Reply 5 of 5
    lucaluca Posts: 3,833member
    Well my brother is planning on upgrading this G3 (which he got for free along with an Apple 1705 17" monitor from my dad's company) to a G4 and he's also getting a PCI Radeon graphics card.



    If he could play DVDs on this setup (assuming, of course, he gets an Apple OEM DVD-ROM drive), it would be great. If he couldn't play DVDs on it, I think he'd skip the upgrades and buy an older G4 (AGP Graphics) instead. So whether he could play DVDs (and if he could play them in OS X) is very important to his decision.



    Would it be possible to instead buy one of those A/V personailty cards and just get a cheap DVD player and hook it up to the A/V inputs? If that would work, it would be another option.
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