-DVD Player or Emulator-

[aarontrip]

I posted before but nobody replied and I still want to know...

is there an app or emulator type thing to play DVD's on an original iMac 233MHz machine? please reply if you know or email me... thanks, peace


aaronish_@hotmail.com

[AdmiralAK]

As far as I know the original iMac did not come with a DVD drive. In order to have DVD playback you need two things. A DVD drive to read DVD discs (which are not in the same format as CD-ROMs, DVD are double-surfaced, and some are even double-sides as well ). If you dont have a DVD drive them you are cant watch DVD movies. The second thing you need is a decoded card. I think the standard ATI Rage 128 card does this.

Hope this helps

Admiral

[aarontrip]

Thanks for confirming it for me.. after a while of trying to load a few DVD's in my iMac I realized how dumb I am for thinking Apple CD/DVD Driver meant I had the actual DVD-ROM drive too hehe. Thanks again. Peace

[thedbp]

Just to comment on this particular thread - Although it is necessary to have a DVD-ROM, or, better yet, the new SuperDrive, to read and play a DVD movie, you don't necessarily NEED a hardware decoder to play them.

I know of at least one Mac software-based DVD-player. The performance isn't top-notch, but its still in beta. It requires a fairly recent and fast processor, I belive they recommend a 300 at the VERY least, and movies don't play particularly in sync on my B&W 350. That was when I had 128 MB of RAM, now I have 384, and haven't tried it again, because, well, I have the deocder hardware, so what's the point?

But I can say that this software DOES WORK - limitedly. As far as playing it back on a 233 iMac, I dunno. Perhaps future versions will be less processor intensive. I have no idea where I got this program, and I don't have it in front of me, but when I get the name of it, I'll post it up for everyone who's interested.

It has the tempting promise to allow a Mac user to buy a cheap PC DVD-ROM and not have to upgrade their video card, which, in the case of the 233 iMac, might be difficult to impossible to acheive. Also, with the new 466 MHz upgrade cards available for the iMac, this may be a very viable alternative.

-zjd

B&W G3 350, 384 RAM, OS 9.1/OS X PB
8600/300, 128 RAM, OS 9.1/8.1