Hi all,
This might fall under the "stupid pet tricks" section of MacRumors, but it is an aspect of Mac hardware/software about which I am genuinely naive and could use a little help. Here's the scoop:
I've got a seriously amped up Beige G3 (specs below), however, one thing I could really use for audio/video sampling is a DVD player (I do a little DJ work on the side). I'm a little reticent to muck around further with the innards of my machine, so I'm considering purchasing an external DVD player. Here's the stuff I don't know:
* How would my Mac handle decoding (playing movies, music DVDs, MP3 DVDs, etc...) with an external DVD player? I'm using a Rage 128 pull from a Blue/White that theoretically can decode DVDs, but will it work with an external firewire drive? Since my MoBo is a bit hacked together, I also noticed that the original internal ATI graphics board (6MB) also has the ability to decode DVDs, and this same question applies... How would I enable either of these graphics boards to decode an external (Firewire - presumably Oxford 911) DVD signal, or does OSX do this automatically?
* If I purchase an external combo drive or DVD-ROM (read DVDs only), will it work with iDVD for playback? Does iDVD use software decoding if neither of my graphics cards will do it?
* Should I get a DVD-RAM, what programs will burn to an external Firewire DVD player? Toast Titanium? I read somewhere that iDVD won't burn to an external drive (although I think there's a hack around this) even if it is a Pioneer "Superdrive".
* As we all know, the Beige G3s don't have built-in Firewire/USB, so I'm using a MacAlly PCI card for my Firewire/USB ports. Same questions apply about the ability to decode the DVD signal through the MacAlly card.
Currently I've been sampling DVDs by using analog line in/line out from the DVD player attached to my TV, and as you might imagine, this introduces a lot of line noise and hum that's a pain in the *ss to filter out. I'd like to get a DVD for my Mac so I can sample with less interference, if not digitally, but don't want to spend the $$$ unless I know it will work. Thanks for your help...
Tracy
This might fall under the "stupid pet tricks" section of MacRumors, but it is an aspect of Mac hardware/software about which I am genuinely naive and could use a little help. Here's the scoop:
I've got a seriously amped up Beige G3 (specs below), however, one thing I could really use for audio/video sampling is a DVD player (I do a little DJ work on the side). I'm a little reticent to muck around further with the innards of my machine, so I'm considering purchasing an external DVD player. Here's the stuff I don't know:
* How would my Mac handle decoding (playing movies, music DVDs, MP3 DVDs, etc...) with an external DVD player? I'm using a Rage 128 pull from a Blue/White that theoretically can decode DVDs, but will it work with an external firewire drive? Since my MoBo is a bit hacked together, I also noticed that the original internal ATI graphics board (6MB) also has the ability to decode DVDs, and this same question applies... How would I enable either of these graphics boards to decode an external (Firewire - presumably Oxford 911) DVD signal, or does OSX do this automatically?
* If I purchase an external combo drive or DVD-ROM (read DVDs only), will it work with iDVD for playback? Does iDVD use software decoding if neither of my graphics cards will do it?
* Should I get a DVD-RAM, what programs will burn to an external Firewire DVD player? Toast Titanium? I read somewhere that iDVD won't burn to an external drive (although I think there's a hack around this) even if it is a Pioneer "Superdrive".
* As we all know, the Beige G3s don't have built-in Firewire/USB, so I'm using a MacAlly PCI card for my Firewire/USB ports. Same questions apply about the ability to decode the DVD signal through the MacAlly card.
Currently I've been sampling DVDs by using analog line in/line out from the DVD player attached to my TV, and as you might imagine, this introduces a lot of line noise and hum that's a pain in the *ss to filter out. I'd like to get a DVD for my Mac so I can sample with less interference, if not digitally, but don't want to spend the $$$ unless I know it will work. Thanks for your help...
Tracy