Can't get DVD player to run disks on Mini w/Tiger — just quits

[dmag]

Hi,

Running 10.4.11 on a Mini. This is my son's computer and he wants to play DVD movies, but DVD Player immediately quits as soon as the DVD starts to load...repeatedly.

I ran Disk Warrior and rebuilt the volume. All seems fine and other operations are normal. It just won't accept DVDs.

Any help is appreciated.

Thanks.

[modelamac]

I think the mini optical drives are junk. Mine died after 2 years. I bought a bus-powered external that is doing the job. For regular use, just buy a powered external unit. Bus-powered units still rely on the computer power to perform - not something I'd want to do for daily use.

If I have problems with my external, I still have 2 other Macs for backup. Not everyone has that luxury.

[Chakravartin]

Trash the pref file.

"~/Library/Preferences/com.apple.DVDPlayer.plist"

[dotman]

had the same problem. ended up downloading vlc player. that works fine for dvds and other media.

dot.

[Jimmypoo]

I second the VLC cure. You'll find that VLC plays everything and that having a few different options
around can be helpful. Plus - Quicktime can use the CODECs that come with VLC, and adding
Perian (the Swiss Army Knife for Quicktime!) - you'll have some pretty bulletproof options
to play the CD with.

http://perian.org/

http://www.videolan.org/vlc/download-macosx.html

http://www.divx.com/en/software/mac

Those three - and you've got a nice media capable set-up. AND... one person on the forum, who put
considerable time into making a BluRay theater with big screen TV and a mini equipped to to playback
and an AppleTV and/or other insanity to sit in a chair and stare (Stavs... who shall remain nameless)
uses THIS program to control it all.

http://www.plexapp.com/mac.php

It's pretty powerful, recognizes the remote, and has a neat side scroll that you can just use the arrow keys to navigate.

NOTE -- if that mini you are using is a G4 - (since you stopped at Tiger 10.4.x) you'll have to make
sure that the above links you download are the Universals, and/or good of below 10.5 and PowerPC.

[dmag]

Thanks for the tips, guys. I'm on it.

Really appreciate the help.

[silvarios]

Don't remove the internal drive. I don't think OS X will play DVDs from an external drive if it does not detect an internal drive.

[NewtonMP2100]

......I wish I could QUIT you......!!!

[silvarios]

Tested on a couple Macs. DVD Player won't launch on my Macs (Snow Leopard) without internal DVD drives. You can use a hex editor to edit this behavior. Try an internet search for the fix.

You might be okay if you keep the broken internal drive installed.

[dmag]

Trashing the DVD player prefs didn't work. I was able to locate a 10.4 release of VLC and loaded it up.

I ran my six year-old through how to open a disc with it, and he picked it up.

Problem solved.

When I get time I'll do a fresh install of the system and see if that brings back the DVD player. For now, as long as he can play his disks he is happy.

Thanks to all who contributed.