[MacDV] Re: iDVD and the Blue and White G3

[Warren Freeman]

Combining responses:

> Did you install Jaguar before or after you installed the DVR-104? If
> Jaguar didn't see the DVR-104 at the time of install it would have not
> installed the DVD Player 3.2. The fix would be to reinstall Jaguar or
> install the DVD Player 3.2 from the Jaguar install CD-ROM using
> Pacifist http://www.charlessoft.com to extract only that application
> for installation.

Since I did install Jaguar on my machine before I installed the DVR-104
SuperDrive, I believe your explanation is correct that the Jaguar installer
could not have seen a DVD-capable drive on the machine at the time Jaguar
was installed and, as a result, did not install the DVD Player application
along with the rest of the other Jaguar apps.

Using Pacifist from http://www.charlessoft.com, I was, however, finally able
to install the DVD Player on my machine to try and see if it would run.
Unfortunately, however, once the DVD Player was installed, I got the
following message:

"DVD Player encountered a serious error.  The current machine or system
configuration is not supported. [-70013]"

So I then rebooted, but got the same error message again.  Searching Google,
I found one reference to a similar error message:

    http://doc.weblogs.com/2002/11/20#somebodyAnybodyEventually

The Google message in this case referred to a situation where a G4/500
Titanium Powerbook (running under OS X 10.2) gave an error message when an
external monitor was hooked up.  Apparently once the external monitor was
removed, the DVD Player was able to run.  Although my situation is somewhat
different (I am not running two monitors and my system is not a Powerbook),
I wonder what part of my system could be causing this error message to be
generated and if there might be some kind of a workaround for it.

> Have you gone to the Apple Website and investigated their Power Mac G3
> (Platinum-Beige) discussion area for an answer? There are also Power
> Mac G3 (Platinum-Beige) specific downloads there. Tried any of those?

The Power Mac G3 (Platinum-Beige) discussion area and the associated
downloads area is something I will need to take a look at.

> Consumer Electronic stores sell excellent DVD Players for only about
> $49 on sales nowadays. I bought one the day after Thanksgiving for $39
> that plays Video CDs and SVideo CDs at Best Buy. So that solution is
> also pretty cheap.

If it turns out that there is no workaround as far as getting the DVD Player
to run on my system, probably the least expensive remaining option would be
to buy a stand-alone commercial DVD player as you suggest.  Could you
recommend a model that you have had good luck with?

> I'm sure the PCI ATI 7000 would help. It's only
> another $129. And you could use it as a second video card if you want
> to drive 4 monitors in your next Mac.

I may also give the ATI Radeon card a try in any case.  Not only because it
it likely to improve the performance of the VideoLan client on my system but
also because it is likely to improve the appearance of iMovie on my system
(which is not nearly as smooth as it could be).

Thank you for all your advice and suggestions!

- Warren Freeman