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Imacs and external USB DVD drives.

Submitted by dahetzel on January 18, 2006 - 4:39pm. PowerPC Macs

This has probably been beat to death but I have a few Imacs and I am trying to watch a DVD on any of them but Apple has the lock or whatever that you can only use internal drives. Does anyone know of a way around this? I tried the patch that is available but that didnt do anything. I can connect a DVD burner and it burns but cant watch a movie.

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cwsmith's picture

More the card than the drive?

Submitted by cwsmith on January 18, 2006 - 6:24pm.

I think it depends more on which model iMac we're talking about, and its video card, than which drive. Other 'Fritters, if I'm wrong, please enlighten me.

However, I doubt USB 1.1 has the transfer rate necessary to make video very enjoyable. Is firewire an option, or are these tray-loader iMacs (no firewire)?

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They are early Imacs

Submitted by dahetzel on January 18, 2006 - 6:55pm.

The Imacs in question are the 233Mhz tray loader and the 350Mhz slot loader. On the PC side I can watch DVDs with same drive on a 400Mhz PII with USB 1.1 no problems. It is something in OS X

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dankephoto's picture

try using VLC, but . . .

Submitted by dankephoto on January 18, 2006 - 7:40pm.

VLC can probably do it, but be aware that a 233 iMac just ain't got the moxy to cleanly play a DVD movie. I've tried this on trayload iMacs using an internal DVD drive, using CPUs from 233 to 400MHz, and even the fastest drop frames, making watching a DVD an exercise in frustration. I suspect playing from a USB DVD will be even less satisfactory.

Now the slotloader is a different animal, those can play DVDs no problem. However, as cwsmith points out, on an imac the USB bandwidth may not be fat enough for the required data, even if it works on your PC.

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I second the VLC suggestion.

Submitted by Inkwolf on January 18, 2006 - 7:47pm.

I second the VLC suggestion.

I don't have an iMac, I have a Quicksilver tower, but it also has issues with external DVD. Apple's software just isn't written to support non-Apple DVD drives.

VLC works for me. I am able to view DVDs, though it glitches a lot and occasionally crashes. Worth a try, and much better than nothing.

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gobabushka's picture

same here...

Submitted by gobabushka on January 18, 2006 - 10:04pm.

vlc will be able to do it, but when I tried it with me beige g3 to watch dvds, it was VERY SLOOOOOOOW. And that was at 300mhz.

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