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#1
November 2nd, 2006, 06:48 PM
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| DVD crisis Well, maybe crisis is to strong a word. Here is what I have: (i) A 800Mhz PowerPC G4 with 768 MB DRAM (ii) La Cie DVD-RW (Porche Design, no less) Apple only supports DVD playback on Macs with a built-in DVD/CD drive (OK, I can dig that). Therefore I installed VLC, which is fine for playing low quality DVD recordings. However, on attempting to play SpongeBob/SquarePants Halloween Special this evening (for my 3 year old daughter I hasten to add) the image was hopelessly choppy, as was The Incredibles and my wife's DVD on Understanding Men (don't even go there). I suspect my CPU is lacking Viagra (and no doubt me). However, La Cie recommend a High Powered USB connection (which will no doubt involve inserting a PCI card somewhere in the grey fancy-looking box thing that sits under the monitor). Does any creative mind out there have anything advice to offer me (and please leave my wife out of the equation)?
__________________ Intel Mac Mini 1.83 1GB 10.5.4 PowerMac G4 833Hz 768MB 10.3.9 Education is when you read the fine print - experience is what you get when you don't. Pete Seeger  |
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#2
November 2nd, 2006, 07:03 PM
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| Well, you're probably plugged into a USB 1.0 connection, unless you've upgraded. I'm surprised it's working at all, to be honest. USB 2.0 is about 5x faster. Assuming you have a G4 Power Mac, you can install a PCI card with USB 2.0.
__________________ Power to Burn. At speeds of up to 733MHz, The most powerful Mac in history burns CDs, burns DVDs, and burns Pentiums - apple website, oct 4, 1999. advertisement for the powermac g4 |
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#3
November 2nd, 2006, 07:44 PM
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| Quote:
Can you explain how you go about acquiring the required PCI card and driver?
__________________ Intel Mac Mini 1.83 1GB 10.5.4 PowerMac G4 833Hz 768MB 10.3.9 Education is when you read the fine print - experience is what you get when you don't. Pete Seeger |
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#4
November 2nd, 2006, 08:10 PM
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| Quote:
If you have OS X, and fairly up-to-date, you shouldn't need to add any drivers for a hi-speed USB 2 card. A decent shop for computer goods should have several to choose from. Something from Belkin should work, but other brands should be OK, too, even if sold for PC use. 
__________________ Serendipity is a lucky guess ! |
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#5
November 2nd, 2006, 08:35 PM
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| I've used 3 different USB 2.0 cards, all generic windows PCI cards, and they worked automatically, with no configuring. I only had trouble with a firewire/USB combo card, which caused my Power Mac to stop from going to sleep. USB 2.0 is 480 mb/s, which is 40x faster, sorry. I was thinking wireless b/g..
__________________ Power to Burn. At speeds of up to 733MHz, The most powerful Mac in history burns CDs, burns DVDs, and burns Pentiums - apple website, oct 4, 1999. advertisement for the powermac g4 |
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#6
November 2nd, 2006, 09:07 PM
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| Thanks fellow creative experts. Your advice is duly noted, and as always very much appreciated. P.S. Do you know where you can hold of the the DVD Understanding Women?
__________________ Intel Mac Mini 1.83 1GB 10.5.4 PowerMac G4 833Hz 768MB 10.3.9 Education is when you read the fine print - experience is what you get when you don't. Pete Seeger |
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#7
November 2nd, 2006, 09:21 PM
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__________________ Power to Burn. At speeds of up to 733MHz, The most powerful Mac in history burns CDs, burns DVDs, and burns Pentiums - apple website, oct 4, 1999. advertisement for the powermac g4 |
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#8
November 3rd, 2006, 01:22 AM
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| A second to what's been said, i bought a generic 5 port usb 2 card over the counter from a highstreet store for about £10 and it worked perfectly. It did list OSX compatibility mind you.
__________________ --MBP 15" C2D 2.33Ghz, 2GB RAM, 160GB HD, glossy, OS 10.4.8  --PowerBook 12" 867Mhz, 640mb ram, 40gb HD, Combi, OS 10.4.7, 19" Acer widescreen LCD --PowerMac G4 'Sawtooth' 400mhz 256mb RAM, 10gb HD, OS 10.3.9 --Mini-racked Lacie 80, 250 and 300GB Ext HDs, Lacie 16x DL DVD writer |
