B&W DVD Decoder

[Richard]

I just installed a DVD-ROM drive in a B&W/400 today. Data DVDs work great. However, DVD movies do not work in the apple dvd player because I am missing the needed hardware. Do I need to connect the DVD drive to the stock Rage 128? What cable would I need to do this?

 

[Unknown_K]

The Rage 128 needs the hardware DVD decoder card that snaps onto it to work.

 

[Bunsen]

Or a better video card, such as the Radeon

 

[Rodus]

The stock card should have the required decoder, you don't have to connect the drive straight to the card, just install as usual and it will work through the PCI slot. If you're running OS X then your buggered too, the decoder is classic os only AFAIK.

 

[Christopher]

*waits for iamdigitalman to prove us wrong*

 

[Unknown_K]

The DVD decoder card did not come with all rage 128 video cards, and it could have been removed before he got his systems even if it did ship with one.

Radeon video cards will do DVD decoding fine, but you need to modify the software Apple shipped for DVD playback because it only wants to use the rage 128 DVD decoder hardware (software hack).

 

[register]

you need to modify the software Apple shipped for DVD playback because it only wants to use the rage 128 DVD decoder hardware (software hack).

Version 2.7 of the Apple DVD player does not depend on hardware decoders but only likes to use apple branded DVD readers. Joshua's patch works very well to resolve this issue. It is a patch to make the original classic Apple DVD player software usable with any DVD player upgrade you might use for your machine. Playback results will vary, depending to the computer hardware. On a stock beige G3/233 upgraded with a PX 708A recorder video DVD playback is smooth. Another link to a software dealing with DVD playback using Apple software in combination with "unexpected" hardware might be helpful for OS X users, as well.

 

[madmax_2069]

i use to use a Pioneer DVR-110D with a Radeon 7000 PCI in a Beige G3 AIO running OS 9.2.2 with the help of the Apple DVD patch on OS9forever.com and it worked great. in OS X the Apple DVD player worked without a hitch with the same setup with no patching (it wont play DVD videos in OS 9 or OS X with the Beige G3s stock onboard video no matter what you do).

the best thing to do is move away from the old Rage 128 and get a Radeon 7000 - 9200 PCI.

i also have a Yikes G4 400mhz (almost 100% identical to the B&W) that came with a Rage 128 with no DVD drive. i bought a Radeon 7000 and migrated the Pioneer drive from the beige G3 to the Yikes G4 and Apple DVD player in both OS 9 and in OS X worked without a hitch without using a patch. if you run OS X you would see a bit of a performance gain with the newer card and maybe in OS 9 as well.

also i gained full burn support in OS 9 with the pioneer drive with the help of a modded Pioneer Authoring extension, i did have a few issues with the Pioneer drive in my Beige G3 running OS 9. when you put the system to sleep and the drives also went to sleep and you woke the system up the system would freeze. but that was fixed with a Apple CD/DVD driver extension replacement called Intech CD/DVD speedtool 6.0. the issues with the drive was only in the Beige G3, no issues what so ever in the Yikes G4 and my DA G4.

the Pioneer drive also boots both OS 9 and OS X installer CDs/DVDs (it only boots OS X from the CD or DVD if its in a B&W or above)

you only had to use the patch in OS 9 if the system wasn't supported for DVD playback (like my Beige G3 was and you had to install the patch before it would work, but worked unpatched on the Yikes G4)