[MacDV] More on a Beige G3 and Video

[Mark M. Florida]

I'm doing just this with an old Beigie I picked up a few months back.

It plays DVDs and runs iTunes under Panther just great, here are my specs:

- 366 MHz G3 processor (plucked from a dead Blue G3, orig. 350 MHz)

- Radeon 7000 PCI (PC card flashed for Mac - bought on ebay)

- Apple DVI to Video adapter for TV output (they claim it will only work on
a G5, but it works fine on my ancient G3 and Radeon 7000)

- Seagate 120 GB HD (with 8 GB partition for the System)

- Apple 5x DVD-ROM drive (also plucked from dead Blue G3 mentioned above)

- Firewire card (cheapo from ebay with VIA chipset)

- USB card (1.0, not 2.0 -- the cheapo 2.0 cards don't work right in Macs
older than Blue G3s, unless you get one of the pricey "Mac-specific" cards)


A couple of notes:

- I had MAJOR problems trying to burn DVDs with an internal burner (Pioneer
DVR-108).  It works WONDERFULLY in an external case, though (Firewire/USB
2.0), plus I can hook it up to my wife's iBook when I need to burn DVDs from
there.  Maybe get a Combo drive somewhere so you could at least burn CDs
internally and still watch DVDs.

- You'll need XPostFacto to install Panther, but it's a painless,
straightforward procedure.

- You can't install a drive bigger than 120 GB (for practical purposes,
that's the biggest standard size you can use) on the motherboard ATA bus.
But if you add an ATA/133 or Serial ATA card, you can go hog wild and
install the biggest drive on the market.  :-)

- You only have THREE PCI slots -- USE WISELY.  I wish I had a spare slot
for an ATA/133 card, but I'll get by with external Firewire drives.

- Unless you put a fast processor in it (not really necessary for just
watching movies and listening to music), be prepared to wait a while when
doing anything processor-intensive.  My G3 is rock-solid (even with all the
hacked hardware and software), but it's no speed demon.


Hope that helps.

- Mark


On 12/1/04 8:08 PM, illovox at comcast.net at illovox at comcast.net wrote:

> Mark, Shirley,
> 
> Although I wizz along on my MDD 2 x 1.25ghz G4 nicely, I have been
> fantasizing about getting a Beige G3 I rescued from the dump up and running
> as a DVD-playing, video-noodling adjunct machine for either den use or
> actual production work in my office.  What suggestions aside from maxing ram
> and cpu upgrades do you recommend?  Will the unit play DVDs merely by adding
> one of the Super-Drives to the machine or does the video card have to be
> changed out as well?  Do(es) these(this) change(s) allow for DVD burning on
> the unit via Toast?  Will a combo drive do the trick?
> 
> Thanks for the coming advice, any and all...:)
> 
> Run
> 
>> From: "Mark M. Florida" <markf at squareblue.com>
> ...
>> There's actually two parts to the name of this list "Mac" and "DV".  If you
>> want to try to burn DVDs with a Beige G3, that qualifies as being on-topic.
>> "Mac" (G3) and "DV" (digital video on a DVD).
> 
> _______________________________________________
> MacDV mailing list
> MacDV at listserver.themacintoshguy.com
> http://listserver.themacintoshguy.com/mailman/listinfo/macdv