DVD playback stinks

Posted:
in General Discussion edited January 2014
Why did Apple release DVD-ROM drives on machines that were incapable of playing DVDs? My Pismo 400 and my iMac 500 are completely ineffective at playing DVD movies. Horrible slow and jerky, artifacts crop up in fast motion scenes. The sounds keeps playing normally though...

I mean, Apple could've put hardware support in for DVD playing fairly easily, right? Y'know, give full functionality for their products for a little more money (a full-featured WORKING DVVD player goes for $200), but instead we get the Apple DVD player, a software-only player that shows the G3 is not fast enough to play fullscreen movies.

Maybe modern CPUs are fast enough to handle the load. I have never seen a G4 play a DVD. I mean, it's cool if a TiBook G4 can satiisfy all watchers of DVDs, but why include it on an iBook if it can't?

Comments

  • Reply 1 of 8
    applenutapplenut Posts: 5,768member
    under OS X the machines you mentioned work perfectly. the OS 9 player was crap
  • Reply 2 of 8
    cdhostagecdhostage Posts: 1,038member
    DVD Player 2.7 stunk like a scared skunk. Stinks.



    I'm switching over to OS X.I in January.
  • Reply 3 of 8
    rokrok Posts: 3,519member
    um, sorry, but as every troubleshooting situation, "your mileage may vary."



    for example, my imac dv 400 has always played every dvd i have stuck in it perfectly. absolutely perfectly. dvd player 2.2 and 2.7. the only time playback was jerky, i relaized that i had forgotten to turn off file sharing and appletalk; once i did, no more problems.



    my pismo 500 dvd is about 80% perfect (which, for those keeping score, means it's pretty good). once in a while, though, it will hit a dvd that it just cannot play at some point in the movie. yet the dvd plays perfectly, like i said, in the imac. the powerbook is plugged in for the adapter, and everything was tweaked for optimum playback, yet... puase, pause, choke.... restart. it'll just die. did this for memento and mummy returns (though i am not nearly as disappointed with missing out on the latter). on occassion, the dvd player won't even mount a cd on the desktop.



    we're calling in the problem to apple tomorrow once and for all, since the pismo is still under 1-year warranty status, and get it all resolved. they have already swapped out our ac adapter and battery no-questions-asked for this computer, so i am betting it will be the same this time.



    [ 11-25-2001: Message edited by: rok ]</p>
  • Reply 4 of 8
    applenutapplenut Posts: 5,768member
    [quote]Originally posted by rok:

    <strong>um, sorry, but as every troubleshooting situation, "your mileage may vary."



    for example, my imac dv 400 has always played every dvd i have stuck in it perfectly. absolutely perfectly. dvd player 2.2 and 2.7. the only time playback was jerky, i relaized that i had forgotten to turn off file sharing and appletalk; once i did, no more problems.



    my pismo 500 dvd is about 80% perfect (which, for those keeping score, means it's pretty good). once in a while, though, it will hit a dvd that it just cannot play at some point in the movie. yet the dvd plays perfectly, like i said, in the imac. the powerbook is plugged in for the adapter, and everything was tweaked for optimum playback, yet... puase, pause, choke.... restart. it'll just die. did this for memento and mummy returns (though i am not nearly as disappointed with missing out on the latter). on occassion, the dvd player won't even mount a cd on the desktop.



    we're calling in the problem to apple tomorrow once and for all, since the pismo is still under 1-year warranty status, and get it all resolved. they have already swapped out our ac adapter and battery no-questions-asked for this computer, so i am betting it will be the same this time.



    [ 11-25-2001: Message edited by: rok ]</strong><hr></blockquote>



    i'm sorry but your mileage won't vary on that. the OS 9 player stopped if you tried to do ANYTHING. even on G4s. it was poorly written. very bad player.
  • Reply 5 of 8
    rokrok Posts: 3,519member
    uh, yeah, duh... <img src="graemlins/bugeye.gif" border="0" alt="[Skeptical]" /> that occurred with pretty much every os 9 app. ever. sure, some apps could work around os 9's shortcomings, like mp3 players (most never seemed to skip when the os was doing something else, i assume, through effective caching), but, in general, the rule was "one thing at a time" for any pre-os x app, or else do be surprised by excessive skipping and such.



    as far as my comment on "your mileage may vary," it was based mostly in that area that some folks overlook - namely, a single bad hardware unit (i.e. just bad luck, or a bad batch of units). not necessarily every unit, but some people just get bum players. for example, just for sh!ts and giggles, i nuked my pismo and installed 10.1 on it with nothing else this weekend, tried the mummy returns on it, and the dvd choked and died at the same place - almost down to the second. the only good part is that os x allows me to kill the dvd player without restarting.



    yet the same dvd, on dvd player 2.7 on os 9.1 on my imac dv 400 got through it without a hiccup. i have also zapped pram, as a last resort, but no luck. hence my assumption that it may be hardware related. i can't attest to the quality, or lack thereof, of the apple dvd player at any version, but, from MY EXPERIENCE ALONE, it has appeared to work fine, aside from a few choice circumstances that would seem to indicate bad hardware that may be easily replaced by apple, shoudl the hardware still be under warranty.



    so i am always quick to caution people who are ready to write off apple's decisions and technologies as failures, when too many intermediate factors may not have been taking into account. is it me jumping to apple's defense? maybe. but it also comes from ten years experience of seeing so many people ready to start lynch mobs and clas--action lawsuits, rather than doing and extensions set check, scsi chain renumbering , and a good old-fashioned tech-support call.



    if all else fails, yeah, complain. hell, i do all the time.



    [ 11-25-2001: Message edited by: rok ]</p>
  • Reply 6 of 8
    daverdaver Posts: 496member
    My iMac 500 plays DVDs flawlessly with Apple DVD Player 2.7 in OS 9.2.1, but my iBook (Dual USB) consistently stutters for a second or two at every chapter stop. I'm not sure why it does this, but it's an all-or-nothing affair: during some playback sessions the chapter switch stuttering is completely absent.
  • Reply 7 of 8
    bogiebogie Posts: 407member
    My Pismo 400 plays DVDs wonderfully well in both 9 and X. Sorry.
  • Reply 8 of 8
    majormattmajormatt Posts: 1,077member
    It could very well depend on your graphics card. What is it?



    I have a G4/400 and the playback is beyond belief. Movies can pause and start instantly, the sound is always in sync, and I have never seen an artifact. Bravo Apple!



    PS-They did have DVD hardware in the 1999 model G3 Towers.
Sign In or Register to comment.