HowTo

Yosmite&Yikes

Creator: Joshua
Created on: 14 December 1999
Modified on: 26 December 2000

How to watch a DVD with a PowerMac G3 B&W or a Power Mac G4 PCI without buying an Mpeg2 decoder Card

DVD-ROM

First of all you need a DVD-ROM. Since Apple introduced IDE-ATAPI interface, many PC devices can be used with your Macintosh.
I have bought a Panasonic SR-8584, a 6x/32x DVD-ROM that works very well with Apple driver (this DVD-ROM is used in new PowerMac G4 AGP). I was able booting from CD, using Apple CD Player and CD-R without any problem (I used Apple CD/DVD Driver version 1.2.2)

Replacing your old CD is really esay, but if you need more informations I suggest you to check this page from Xlr8YourMac

Apple DVD Player

Next step is installing Apple DVD Player 2.2.

Attention: MacOS 8.6 includes Apple DVD Player 1.2; MacOS 9 includes Apple DVD Player 1.3. Apple DVD Player 2.2 is only availble at Apple web site

Apple DVD Player Installer checks your machine and allows you to begin installation only if a PowerMac G4 AGP or an iMac DV is found; if you want install Apple DVD Player on a different machine you have to extract files you need.
Tome Viewer is a software that allows you to extract files from Apple Installer Archives (konwn as "Tome")

After you mounted Apple DVD Player image, inside folder Apple DVD Software you will find DVD Software Tome. Using Tome Viewer you can extract files form this archive.
Of course you have to move those files to the right location:

  • Create folder My Apple DVD
  • Apple DVD Player 2.2 -> folder My Apple DVD
  • Apple DVD Player Guide -> folder My Apple DVD
  • Apple DVD Player Read Me -> folder My Apple DVD
  • DVD Navigation Manager -> folder Extensions
  • DVD Region Manager -> folder Extensions
  • DVD Runtime Lib -> folder Extensions
  • DVD AutoLauncher -> folder Extensions

Only for MacOS 8.6 users:

Apple DVD Player 2.2 requiers ATI driver from MacOS 9.0.4. If you have MacOS 8.6 you can use Apple DVD Player 2.2, but you need to install ATI drivers from 9.0.4:
  1. Donwload MacOS 9.0.4
  2. Using Tome Viewer open file "Tome" inside folder "Update MacOS 9"
  3. Extract ATI Driver:
    • Create folder ATI Drivers 9
    • ATI 3D Accelerator -> folder ATI Drivers 9
    • ATI Driver Update -> folder ATI Drivers 9
    • ATI Graphics Accelerator -> folder ATI Drivers 9
    • ATI MPP Manager -> folder ATI Drivers 9
    • ATI Rage 128 3D Accelerator -> folder ATI Drivers 9
    • ATI Resource Manager -> folder ATI Drivers 9
    • ATI Video Accelerator -> folder ATI Drivers 9

Move you old drivers from "Extensions Folder" to "ATI Drivers 8.6" folder and replace them with MacOS 9 drivers

Final step is patching Apple DVD Player to make it works with your machine; you can find Apple DVD Player 2.2 US patch here.

Now you are ready to watch your DVD-Video. If you have problems, here are some tips:

  • If system crash after starting DVD, try setting Disk Cache to 128k in Memory control panel
  • Increase Apple DVD Player memory (35-40Mb)
  • Disable Energy Saver settings and any screensaver

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