DVD RAM installation

Question

DVD RAM installation

Hi everyone,

I have a BW G3 (listed below) running 10.2.x

I have a couple of questions: first of all, I just got a DVD RAM drive off a guy in town here for $5. I know the guy, so it's a good drive, he said it's in fine working condition. It's the Apple Model #LF-D111A

Anyway, I haven't attempted installing it yet - it's a simple IDE drive, but I have a couple of questions before I do.

First of all, he pulled this unit out of a G4, and it's listed as a G4 unit, but I read online that it can be installed in a BW G3 as long as you have the "decoder card" whatever that is! So first question: What is the decoder card? Do I have it? How do I get it? Is it worth it?

My second question is I plan to install OS Tiger on my system after I get the DVD RAM drive installed. Do you forsee any problems with this installation? Will I have to reinstall my program files?

Thanks so much!

Tim

B&W G3. 450Mhz., Mac OS X (10.2.x)

Posted on Oct 2, 2006 11:57 AM

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Answer 1

Best reply

Grant Bennet-Alder

Level 10

127,519 points

Oct 2, 2006 3:55 PM in response to Timothy Shutes

for "decoder card" read "MPEG Decoder card", which attaches to the standard Display Card and is used only to play movies in Mac OS 9.

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Answer 2

Oct 2, 2006 4:10 PM in response to Timothy Shutes

oh ok - so I don't need it then? It should work fine on my system running 10.2?

Tim

B&W G3. 450Mhz. Mac OS X (10.2.x)

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Answer 3

Jeff

Level 6

12,058 points

Oct 2, 2006 8:13 PM in response to Timothy Shutes

The decoder module piggybacked to the B&W G3's OEM ATI Rage 128 graphics card. The earliest versions (1.x) of the Apple DVD Player program relied on hardware (MPEG-2) decoding, for viewing DVD movies. By the time that OS X shipped with newer Macs having faster CPUs, the Apple DVD Player program was able to use software decoding, not requiring the hardware decoder.

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Answer 4

Oct 2, 2006 10:31 PM in response to Jeff

ok haha so you're saying I'm good to go.

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Answer 5

Oct 3, 2006 6:13 AM in response to Timothy Shutes

The software decoder works great with a G4/400 or better. If you have a less-capable processor, you may have to go to extraordinary lengths to reduce other processor use to get stutter-free movie playback. This could include shutting down Networking and eliminating background processes. Adding more real RAM memory may be required to reduce disk activity due to paging.

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Answer 6

Oct 3, 2006 6:24 AM in response to Grant Bennet-Alder

what about a 450Mhz G3 and 640MB RAM? I don't expect to use it much for movies. I got it for $5 and the main task I want it for is to install Tiger. Do you see any problems with that given my older computer?

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Answer 7

Oct 3, 2006 8:13 AM in response to Timothy Shutes

Apple set the minimum required -- in practice, it appears to work most of the time with less, but you may have to take some of the extra steps I mentioned above. Users who have been willing to take those extra steps have reported getting it working to their satisfaction with as little as a G3/350. Your mileage may vary.

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Answer 8

Oct 3, 2006 9:07 AM in response to Grant Bennet-Alder

thanks - it's been very helpful!

Tim

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Answer 9

Oct 5, 2006 11:49 AM in response to Timothy Shutes

I've just got a G3 400MHz with 256MB RAM with a Lite-On DVD/CD-RW with OS X 10.3.9. I just watched the Matrix with it while MSN Messenger, Windows Media Player, and Safari running in the background, skip free, so I think you'll be fine.

Jason

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