Play DVD's Problem: PowerBook G3 Lombard / Bronze Keyboard 400MHz

[rusticmountain]

I have a Powerbook G3 Lombard / Bronze keyboard with the following specifications:


400MHz processor

128GB Hard Drive

512MB RAM

OS X 10.4.11

OS 9.2.2


I've read online that this model will play DVD's only if booted into the classic Mac OS (8.6-9.2.2). This is because the 400MHz model includes onboard MPEG-2 decoding.


I've tried to watch a DVD by booting into classic mode (OS 9.2.2) while in OS X, but I just get this message:


"That application or control panel is not supported by Classic."


I've also tried to watch a DVD by booting directly into OS 9.2.2, but this just gives me an error message that reads:


"This Macintosh does not support the Apple DVD Player. Error number (301)."


I even tried watching a DVD while booted only into OS X, but get an error message that reads:


"There was an initialization error. The current machine or system configuration is not supported. [-70013]"


QUESTION: Does anyone know how I can watch DVD's on my Powerbook G3 Lombard? Any advice would be greatly appreciated!

 

[AphoticD]

It might be worth trying an older version of VLC, version 0.9.5 should do the job in Tiger.

 

[rusticmountain]

It might be worth trying an older version of VLC, version 0.9.5 should do the job in Tiger.

Thanks for the suggestion!

That said, I tried VLC as you suggested and it did NOT work. I could hear the sound of the DVD (although it had a bit of stutter), but no picture.

What I've read is that this computer NEEDS to be booted into OS 9 classic to watch DVD's. Unfortunately, there is no VLC for OS 9 .

Any other suggestions out there?
[doublepost=1521668348][/doublepost]I'm planning to try reinstalling the OS 9 version of the DVD Player via http://macintoshgarden.org/apps/apple-dvd-player
and see if that helps. (suggested by another macrumors forum member elsewhere). I'll update later...

 

[bobesch]

Did you boot into os8 or os9 or boot into OS X and just launched Classic?
AFIK VLC is for OSX only.
My iBookG3SE 466MHz plays DVDs with Tiger. Need to check, how it works with os9.22.

 

[Dronecatcher]

Quote from macintoshgarden:
"It is not compatible with the DVD hardware in the Power Macintosh G3, PowerBook G3, and Power Mac G4 (PCI graphics) series computers. - Unless patched for use on unsupported hardware, then you can use this software on those Macintosh models and others."

Wasn't the Lomabard meant to be up to 10.3.9? Maybe having Tiger on it is causing the glitch?

EDIT: Though I've just seen there's a patched DVD player for unsupported hardware.

 

[AphoticD]

Wasn't the Lomabard meant to be up to 10.3.9? Maybe having Tiger on it is causing the glitch?

This is a good point. I’d say the OpenGL drivers in Tiger are failing to render the video. This is certainly the case on my Blueberry iBook.

You can confirm this theory if you open the Screensaver prefs and try Flurry, Cosmos, etc. if OpenGL is not functional then you’ll just see a black preview. Try installing Panther and then try the DVD again.

 

[rusticmountain]

Did you boot into os8 or os9 or boot into OS X and just launched Classic?
AFIK VLC is for OSX only.
My iBookG3SE 466MHz plays DVDs with Tiger. Need to check, how it works with os9.22.

I've tried booting into OSX, booting into OSX and launching OS 9.2.2 from there, and booting directly into OS 9.2.2. None of those worked. My original post shows the error messages for each of these methods.
[doublepost=1521679581][/doublepost]

Quote from macintoshgarden:
"It is not compatible with the DVD hardware in the Power Macintosh G3, PowerBook G3, and Power Mac G4 (PCI graphics) series computers. - Unless patched for use on unsupported hardware, then you can use this software on those Macintosh models and others."

Wasn't the Lomabard meant to be up to 10.3.9? Maybe having Tiger on it is causing the glitch?

EDIT: Though I've just seen there's a patched DVD player for unsupported hardware.

It's been documented elsewhere that OS X Tiger can run well on a Powerbook G3 Lombard. It actually was a really simple procedure to make it work. More details can be found here: http://lowendmac.com/2011/hacking-the-tiger-installer-for-unsupported-g3-macs/

My Lombard runs fantastic in OS X Tiger and in OS 9.2.2 - I really love it! I just wish I could also play DVD's on it.
[doublepost=1521680433][/doublepost]

This is a good point. I’d say the OpenGL drivers in Tiger are failing to render the video. This is certainly the case on my Blueberry iBook.

You can confirm this theory if you open the Screensaver prefs and try Flurry, Cosmos, etc. if OpenGL is not functional then you’ll just see a black preview. Try installing Panther and then try the DVD again.

I actually use the Flurry screen saver and it works fine ?!? Thanks for the suggestion just he same.
[doublepost=1521680607][/doublepost]From doing a little more research I'm pretty certain of the following:

A. I should be able to watch DVD's on a Powerbook G3 Lombard / Bronze keyboard with a 400MHZ processor.

B. My 400MHZ Powerbook G3 Lombard / Bronze keyboard does indeed have the original DVD drive which should allow DVD playback.

C. In order to watch DVD's I need to boot directly into OS 9. It wont work in any other way.

D. The 400MHz model includes a hardware MPEG-2 decoder for DVD playback which only Mac OS 9’s DVD Player can access. Therefore, booting directly into OS 9 is really the only way to watch DVD's on this model of Powerbook G3.

E. That leaves me with just this question:

When booted directly into OS 9.2.2 why am I getting the following error message "This Macintosh does not support the Apple DVD Player. Error number (301)." (and how do I fix it?)?

 

[Dronecatcher]

C. In order to watch DVD's I need to boot directly into OS 9. It wont work in any other way.

Where does that info come from?

 

[rusticmountain]

Where does that info come from?

Here are some of the places I’ve found this information:



everymac.com: “ a tray-loading 2X DVD-ROM drive (onboard MPEG-2 decoding)”



lowendmac.com: “Note that the DVD drive is not supported under Mac OS X. If you want to watch DVDs, you will have to boot in the classic Mac OS (8.6-9.2.2) to do so.”



also



“Lomdard was available in 333 MHz and 400 MHz models. I had a 333 MHz originally, and the difference between the two is negligible. The 400 MHz has an MPEG-2 decoder built into the hardware for playing DVDs in pre-OS X versions of the Mac OS, while the 333 MHz doesn’t. However, the 333 MHz can play DVDs in OS X because of the software decoder built into the operating system.”



applewikia.com: "DVD decoding required a PCMCIA decoder card on the 333 MHz model; the 400 MHz model had the decoder on the motherboard."

 

[weckart]

Reinstall OS9. Yours is b0rked.

 

[rusticmountain]

Reinstall OS9. Yours is b0rked.

Did you mean "broken" or is b0rked a term for some kind of specific problem (or just another way of saying it's broken )? Either way, I'm starting to think a reinstall may be the best option as well.
[doublepost=1521736547][/doublepost]I'll answer my own question via a quick look up on the urban dictionary (for any other newbies like me):

b0rked

pronunciation of "b0rked" - Borkt

1. To b0rk something is to break something.
2. When something is b0rked, it is broken.
3. Can be used as a threat, to b0rk someone.

1. 'Mummy just got me a kite, but it isnt the kite i wanted, i might b0rk this one so she gets me the right one.'

 

[weckart]

Either way, I'm starting to think a reinstall may be the best option as well.

It's just that I remember this 301 error from Macrumors back in the day. It means incompatible hardware but often occurred when there was an extension conflict (Toast and Macbugs were frequent culprits) or your OS installation went doolally.

No need to reformat and lose Tiger, just copy your existing OS9 files into a new dump folder and try again. You can copy your OS9 apps back when the new System Folder is up and running.

 

[AphoticD]

Yours is b0rked.

Showing your "l33t" lineage @weckart

@rusticmountain as you've found, "b0rked" was typical internet speak when referring to a technical fault and from what I can recall, gained popular use from about the late 90s and began to decline sometime last decade.

I would put "b0rked" into the same category as "fubar" (actually an acronym). This one dates back to WWII and is still commonly found in programming contexts in the form of "foo" and "bar", however has a history of being both technical and non-technical.

"Broken" works too.

In your PowerBook's case, it might benefit from a reinstall of OS9 as suggested, or even try using the Extensions Manager control panel to disable the things like Toast or similar optical drive hardware extensions / drivers if they exist.

Did the patched copy of DVD Player v2.7 from MG work in OS9?

Going back to VLC, version 0.9.10 was officially the last version for Tiger (10.4.7+). I just downloaded this from the VLC website and installed on Tiger on the iBook I mentioned (which has no DVD drive). I popped a DVD movie into my G5 running Tiger and then connected to the G5 from the iBook over ethernet. I then launched VLC and selected "Open Disc", then "VIDEO_TS" folder, navigated to the shared DVD and opened it. I got audio, but just a black screen. I tried changing the Video output settings in preferences and replaying, but the only one that worked was the "ASCII Art" option, which is fun, but not really useful.

I rebooted into Panther on the same iBook and downloaded VLC 0.8.6i from the same page and followed the same steps to access to the movie trying both Quartz and OpenGL video output with no luck.

I then replicated this process on a 400Mhz TiBook G4 with an 8MB Rage Mobility 128 GPU and got the same results (also the same result in Leopard running VLC 2.0.8).

I then rebooted into Jaguar on the TiBook, downloaded VLC 0.8.4i and connected to the DVD over the network. It played back almost perfectly, with only occasional stuttering which was likely a network buffering thing. On another note, Jaguar flies on this TiBook.

Maybe you could create a minimal partition for Jaguar on your PowerBook? I have a feeling that the built in DVD Player in both Panther and Jaguar might work if the Mac has a DVD drive.

 

[rusticmountain]

SOLVED

I decided to erase the partition I had OS 9.2.2 on and reinstall the operating system. I only had the OS and one application installed on this partition so doing this wasn’t a big deal. Post reinstallation of the OS and Apple DVD Player 1.3 I'm happy to report I can now watch DVD’s on my Lombard!

Here’s what I did differently that I think solved the problem: I had initially installed MAC OS 9.2.2 Universal (2013 edition) which I had downloaded from the Macintosh Repository. I noticed in the notes about this edition of OS 9.2.2 it stated:

“If you want a way more successful Mac OS 9.2.2 boot CD, try the Mac OS 9.2.2 universal boot CD (2002 edition).”

That got me to wondering if the 2013 edition was somehow the problem? Therefore, for my second installation I used MAC OS 9.2.2 Universal (2002 edition) which I also downloaded from the Macintosh Repository. This version of the OS worked like a charm! I’m watching DVD’s just fine now. (When booted directly into OS 9.2.2)

Thanks for everyones input, much appreciated!