Suddenly DVDs won't play!

[Mala]

Suddenly my Powerbook refuses to play DVDs! It just shows any DVD as containing two folders, one called AUDIO_TS, the other called VIDEO_TS. I've tried clicking on the files inside these, but I just get messages saying the files are not readable and choose an application; I've tried going to Windows Media Player, iDVD, RealPlayer etc and opening them from there - still no luck! Help! My nephew's visiting and we want to watch Baraka, or failing that, The Lady Vanishes!

[HexMonkey]

Opening individual files won't help. If the DVD Player application won't play it (either automatically or by choosing 'Open VIDEO_TS folder' from the File menu), try VLC (http://www.videolan.org/vlc/download-macosx.html) , which will play almost anything.

[Mala]

Opening individual files won't help. If the DVD Player application won't play it (either automatically or by choosing 'Open VIDEO_TS folder' from the File menu), try VLC (http://www.videolan.org/vlc/download-macosx.html) , which will play almost anything.

Thanks, downloading it now. The weird thing is that this is suddenly happening with all DVDs, and it never happened before.

[reh]

Just checking... Have you tried launching DVD Player? If it works, then check your CD/DVD settings in System Preferences.

[Mala]

Just checking... Have you tried launching DVD Player? If it works, then check your CD/DVD settings in System Preferences.

Yes, I tried launching it - no dice; tried fiddling with the CD/DVD prefs, but still no dice. But VLC played it all right.

[Sparky's]

I tried VLC to play DVDs on my LaCie http://www.lacie.com/products/product.htm?id=10113
and no go :mad:

I haven't been able to get anything to work.

[cb911]

have u ever changed the region code in DVD Player? it only lets u change it about 5 times, then it locks in the last region used...

[Sparky's]

cb who you talkin' to? If me I have no idea what you just said. How would I go about doing that?

If not tlakin' to me then..... never mind

[jshepard]

I am having the same "all of the sudden" problem (Initialization error on DVD Player startup). I know that the drive is being "read," because I can play a CD, and the icon shows up on the screen. However, DVD Player doesn't see it.

DVD Player DOES open a dvd image.

I tried reinstalling DVD Player....i tried throwing away the preference files...nothing seems to work.

Any ideas?

:(

[jshepard]

Well - Here I am replying to my OWN request (and hopefully it will help the rest of you).

Thanks to a thread I finally found on the Apple Website, here is the solution to the External DVD not recognized problem! IT IS WITH SYSTEM 10.3.3 !

So, what you've got to do is go back to an EARLIER version of the DVD Player software. Here's how (without messing up the rest of 10.3.3.
It works perfectly with my TDK External Drive. (Just make sure you don't install any updates of DVD Player in the future).

1.Download Pacifist (shareware) http://www.charlessoft.com
Use "Pacifist" to extract DVD Player from an earlier version of the system install disk (I used 10.3.0) and install it.

2. Extract "DVDPlayback.framework" and install it.

("DVD Player" is in "Contents of EssentialSystemSoftware.mpkg : Contents of Essentials.pkg : Applications" )

("DVDPlayback.framework" is in "Contents of EssentialSystemSoftware.mpkg : Contents of Essentials.pkg : System : Frameworks")

If you want to see the Apple Board discussion, it is at:

http://discussions.info.apple.com/WebX?13@142.OcORaa1Vlrr.0@.68906f5b/8

JS