Video DVD won't load

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Video DVD won't load

Hi,

I just realized that, after upgrading to Leopard a few weeks ago, my iMac does not recognize certain Video DVDs any more. (Per preferences, Leopard is supposed to open DVD Player, but NOTHING happens.) The DVD does not even appear in Finder. When I put the exact same DVD in my Windows Laptop, it works perfectly fine. And even when I insert it in my iMac when Parallels is running,
the XP Guest OS does recognize it and starts playing.
The DVD is the typical 'self-made' one with directories called AUDIO_TS and VIDEO_TS and was created using 'DVD Arabesk'.

I tried it so far on my iMac, a MacBook, and a MacBook Pro - all the same issues! All of my Windows PCs (one laptop and 2 desktops) the DVD works fine - so I am SURE it has something to do with Leopard.

Anybody any idea?

Joerg

20" iMac Intel Core 2 Duo, MacBook Pro, MacBook, Mac OS X (10.5.1)

Posted on Dec 4, 2007 6:55 PM

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Answer 1

Dec 4, 2007 6:59 PM in response to JoergR

It could just be a bug with DVD player. Sometimes if its recognized by the program as a data disk instead of a movie disk it will not play automatically. Try going to DVD player's "File" menu and select the "Open DVD Media" option. Then select the VIDEO_TS folder and open that to play it. Hopefully that will get the program to play the DVD contents.

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Answer 2

JoergR Author

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Dec 4, 2007 9:07 PM in response to Topher Kessler

Thanks for the tip!
Unfortunately that does not work as the DVD will not mount at all - meaning it is not visible. So when I try your suggestion, that will open a Finder window asking to select the media, but it does not show up.
Looks to me like Leopard somehow does not even mount certain DVDs?????
(Again, Windows has no issue to open it and I never had issues with those DVDs when I was still using Tiger.)

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Answer 3

Dec 4, 2007 9:23 PM in response to JoergR

You might try copying the DVD on a windows machine. If the mac's hardware cannot read it then it could have been a bad quality burn that for some reason is getting recognized on your other computers. Have you tried viewing the thing in another Mac?

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Answer 4

JoergR Author

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Dec 5, 2007 8:03 AM in response to JoergR

Yep,

tried it an all three MACs that I have (all with Leopard), but none of if it can read the DVD. (And all my three Windows systems have no issues). And as mentioned, when inserting the same DVD when I have Windows XP running in Parallels on that exact same iMAC, the DVD is recognized with no issues.
So I am am 99.999% sure that this is a Leopard issue (the DVD worked when I still had Tiger on my iMAC)!

Any help is appreciated (as I would really like to get rid of may last three Windows systems)!

Joerg

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Answer 5

Jolyon

Level 1

5 points

Dec 5, 2007 9:24 AM in response to JoergR

You are not going mad! Don't worry. There is a definite problem with the re-coded software now running the DVD drive. (There is also a seperate issue which Apple is addressing with the quality of their Leopard Disks). In relation to the former you can find many threads from people whose systems hang when they try to play DVD movies. Playback stutters, and in my case the machine hangs until I pull the plug. Patch 10.5.1 hasn't addressed the problem. In my view Apple have tried to be too clever. They should have kept it simple and stayed with the old style player. EVENTUALLY when somebody from Apple reads this we may get a patch. Solution? None at present. Some have advocated removing the Settings folder for the DVD application which is stored under libraries in your personal folder. It won't work as the system generates a new folder on each start up of the player.

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Answer 6

JoergR Author

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Dec 5, 2007 10:59 AM in response to Jolyon

Thanks for the info!

Yes I did see other threads, but so far everybody else seemed to be able to at least have the disk mounted. Oh well, might just be those self created DVDs and I will wait to see if Apple will fix it eventually. (Only bad thing: I will have to keep my Windows machines around until that is fixed.)

Thanks again

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Answer 7

tdstout

Level 1

10 points

Dec 5, 2007 3:04 PM in response to JoergR

I have the same problem. Burned DVDs will not mount nor play on my G5 since installing Leopard. Original DVDs will mount/play. Burned DVDs will not. I spent over two hours on the phone with Apple today trying to sort it out with no result. I was told maybe the DVD Drive coincidentally went bad at the same time I installed Leopard. All is fine on my MacBook Pro since Leopard. It works great.

I'm so frustrated. I'm about to buy a new DVD drive for the G5. The one that came with the G5 is too slow as it is. I hope this takes care of the problem.

Any suggestions on replacing the DVD drive? I've heard the Pioneer DVR 112 is supposed to be good. What are my other choices?

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