Mac patience is gone!!!

[newmacguy2]

I have had this Power Mac G4/450(upgraded from G3) for two weeks now. I have looked everywhere under the sun to find out how to watch dvd's on this thing. I have tried all the solutions that everyone has suggested. I still can't watch them. I guess I will just live with not being able to watch them for now. My last question is how can i get video into Imovie so that I can edit it? Is there a video format converter(other than QT Pro) that I can use? Please help.

Thanks,
Dave(not a happy Macamper)

[evildan]

Dave,

I cannot speak to the iMovie, since my use of it is limited. I only use it when importing directly from my digital video camera, and it works great for that. I simply plug it in, fast forward to the clip I need and click import. I've never actually worked with a file already created.

I would think it would read any QuickTime formatted file, but that's really just a guess.

As far as the DVD, perhaps I could help you out. I have several macs all happily playing DVDs.

Let's start with the obvious and work our way to the more complex.

What kind of mac are you trying to play DVDs on? You mentioned it was a G4 upgrade, is this a laptop or a desktop?

Is this a 3rd party DVD drive?

Is there any circumstance in which you have been successful in watching a DVD?

Are you attempting to hook your machine up to a projector, tv or VCR to play your DVD on OR are you just attempting to watch it on the computer monitor?

What DVDs have you tried to play?

What version of OSX/DVD player do you have on your current system?

Could you describe what happens when you attempt to watch a DVD? (does your screen go black with no picture, but you get audio, or vis-versa?)

How exactly are you attempting to play the DVD?

You may have already answered these questions, but if not, take some time and jot your answers down, they are important questions.

[nb3004]

For iMovie are you trying to get clips from a video camera or just import them or do you already have them stored on the computer in a different format other than quicktime?

[ex2bot]

newmacguy2,

To edit Quicktime movies, I think you'll need at least Quicktime Pro ($30) or some other commercial graphics app such as Final Cut Express (?).

Is the video choppy? Have you tried lowering the screen resolution and color depth to "thousands of colors" instead of "millions of colors"?

Doug

P.S. This thread was moved from MacOSX System & Misc. Software forum.

[newmacguy2]

Evildan,
Thanks for offering to help me out. I will do my best to answer your questions.



Let's start with the obvious and work our way to the more complex.

What kind of mac are you trying to play DVDs on? You mentioned it was a G4 upgrade, is this a laptop or a desktop?

It is a B&W PowerMac G3 with a G4/450 upgrade with 1 gig of ram.


Is this a 3rd party DVD drive?
Yes. A Pioneer DVR-A03 DVDR/RW


Is there any circumstance in which you have been successful in watching a DVD?
Kind of. I downloaded VLC and am able to view the movie with it. It is so choppy that I can't stand to watch it. I have also converted the files to AVI and have watched them on QuickTime. They are also choppy there.

Are you attempting to hook your machine up to a projector, tv or VCR to play your DVD on OR are you just attempting to watch it on the computer monitor?
I am just trying to watch it on the 21 inch Mac monitor

What DVDs have you tried to play?
I have tried to watch three movies that I bought, and also 2 movies that
rented from Netflix.

What version of OSX/DVD player do you have on your current system?
OSX 10.1.3 and Apple DVD Player 3.1.1 someone also gave me a link to a
patch for it that is 3.2.dmg.sit

Could you describe what happens when you attempt to watch a DVD? (does your screen go black with no picture, but you get audio, or vis-versa?)
Before I installed the patch, when I tried to open up DVD player, I got a window that said "this machine in not configured for DVD player". After the patch the message says "dvd player has unexpectedly quit"

How exactly are you attempting to play the DVD?
I have tried to just insert the DVD into the drive. That is when I get the above messages.


You may have already answered these questions, but if not, take some time and jot your answers down, they are important questions.


Thanks again for helping.
Dave

[Jason]

well i say upgrade to jag..... to solve the dvd issue, might have updated drivers for the drive, who knows

[Arden]

Yes, definitely upgrade to 10.2 or later. You will find it solves many more issues than just the DVD player.

Also, did you install any hardware to accompany your player, like a decoder? It sounds like it is not configured to play DVD's because you do not have the appropriate decoding hardware installed. Anyone else think this is a valid point?

[DeltaMac]

Just a guess here, I think you are over-working your video. Did you upgrade that as well, or are you still running the original vid card. An up-to-date vid, such as a GeForce 4TI, or ATI 9700/9800 (if they released a Mac version) should have the decoding performance to help you out. Of course, the B&W does not have an AGP slot, so you are then restricted to what you can find that works in a PCI slot.