DVD Player BAAAAD! redux...
Well, since my last post has been "archived" (a mere 4 months after I dared to criticize this wonderful piece of software), and there's really no place on the discussion boards to talk about DVD Player, I thought I'd start here, with the OS.
To refresh our memories, here's the text of my original post...then, I'll follow up with a new piece of evidence.
(2/7/07)
"So what gives with this product? Why keep trying to make an Apple-branded DVD player if THEY CAN'T DO IT?
Why the frustration? Because I'm doing a 50-disk "make good" for a client. The duplicator I used burnt discs that, somehow, play on their (windows-based) computers, but don't play in standalone DVD players. So I've burnt 50 make-up discs, and I'm checking them, one by one, to keep this guy happy. And they play fine...in my DVD player. But, put them into EITHER of my Macs, and DVD "Player" doesn't work. Well, I take that back...the first two discs I tried worked in the iBook, then nada after that. But I want to be SURE that these discs play in both standalone machines and laptops, and gollygoshdarnit (substitute your fave words here), my wonderful Mac with it's WONNERFUL DVD Player software just won't help me with that process.
I've tried all combinations of preference settings; tossed prefs on both machines; cleared out the "DVD Player Bookmarks" folders in Application Support; and cursed in the general direction of Cuppertino. Nothing worked (though the cursing made me feel better...).
These discs were authored in DVDSP 3.0, burnt on my G5 with my new Pioneer -111 DVD/CD drive. Could there be something about 16x media that's incompatible with DVD Player 4.0? And why is it that Apple constantly leaves us "late adopters" out to dry by not updating products for their previous operating system (go ahead, search for DVD Player 4.0 problems...you'll fine many. Now search for updates...you'll find none.) in their rush to cram out the "latest, greatest" OS?
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OK, so much for the past. This morning, I put a DVD-R (created in a DVD recorder) into my computer. Well, hey, the menu shows up (if one hits the play button), but the DVD itself won't play. Which I expected, as DVDs recorded in those cheap recorders oftentimes are more trouble than they're worth. And of course, it plays fine in my $79 Zenith DVD/VHS combo machine.
However, my point is this. DVD Player is so finicky about what it will and won't play as to be, basically, useless. And this makes me angry; as far as I'm concerned, if Apple is willing to put its brand on something, it should work. End of story. And it shouldn't need a league of apologists telling me that I'm the crazy one because it's such a great little app and it works fine for me. Well, I've given you all two pieces of evidence that it ISN'T so hot. So if you've got any concrete suggestions or explanations, I'm all ears (prefs have already been tossed, so forget about that one).
Oh yes...the disc opens and plays fine in VLC Player. Maybe the wizards in Cuppertino should dump the DVD Player dev team and buy VLC
G5 dual 2 (2 g)/G4-733 (1 g)/iBook 1ghz (.5 g) Mac OS X (10.4.9) older slower Macs
G5 dual 2 (2 g)/G4-733 (1 g)/iBook 1ghz (.5 g) Mac OS X (10.3.9) older slower Macs
To refresh our memories, here's the text of my original post...then, I'll follow up with a new piece of evidence.
(2/7/07)
"So what gives with this product? Why keep trying to make an Apple-branded DVD player if THEY CAN'T DO IT?
Why the frustration? Because I'm doing a 50-disk "make good" for a client. The duplicator I used burnt discs that, somehow, play on their (windows-based) computers, but don't play in standalone DVD players. So I've burnt 50 make-up discs, and I'm checking them, one by one, to keep this guy happy. And they play fine...in my DVD player. But, put them into EITHER of my Macs, and DVD "Player" doesn't work. Well, I take that back...the first two discs I tried worked in the iBook, then nada after that. But I want to be SURE that these discs play in both standalone machines and laptops, and gollygoshdarnit (substitute your fave words here), my wonderful Mac with it's WONNERFUL DVD Player software just won't help me with that process.
I've tried all combinations of preference settings; tossed prefs on both machines; cleared out the "DVD Player Bookmarks" folders in Application Support; and cursed in the general direction of Cuppertino. Nothing worked (though the cursing made me feel better...).
These discs were authored in DVDSP 3.0, burnt on my G5 with my new Pioneer -111 DVD/CD drive. Could there be something about 16x media that's incompatible with DVD Player 4.0? And why is it that Apple constantly leaves us "late adopters" out to dry by not updating products for their previous operating system (go ahead, search for DVD Player 4.0 problems...you'll fine many. Now search for updates...you'll find none.) in their rush to cram out the "latest, greatest" OS?
----------------------
OK, so much for the past. This morning, I put a DVD-R (created in a DVD recorder) into my computer. Well, hey, the menu shows up (if one hits the play button), but the DVD itself won't play. Which I expected, as DVDs recorded in those cheap recorders oftentimes are more trouble than they're worth. And of course, it plays fine in my $79 Zenith DVD/VHS combo machine.
However, my point is this. DVD Player is so finicky about what it will and won't play as to be, basically, useless. And this makes me angry; as far as I'm concerned, if Apple is willing to put its brand on something, it should work. End of story. And it shouldn't need a league of apologists telling me that I'm the crazy one because it's such a great little app and it works fine for me. Well, I've given you all two pieces of evidence that it ISN'T so hot. So if you've got any concrete suggestions or explanations, I'm all ears (prefs have already been tossed, so forget about that one).
Oh yes...the disc opens and plays fine in VLC Player. Maybe the wizards in Cuppertino should dump the DVD Player dev team and buy VLC
G5 dual 2 (2 g)/G4-733 (1 g)/iBook 1ghz (.5 g) Mac OS X (10.4.9) older slower Macs
G5 dual 2 (2 g)/G4-733 (1 g)/iBook 1ghz (.5 g) Mac OS X (10.3.9) older slower Macs
