With a new i-mac, how do to I view dvd on an external monitor? Do the signals need to be routed out of the vga port? I have been trying to route the outgoing signal through the firewire then into a canopus dv convertor (ADVC100) and then into the television. Can't seen to get a dvd signal out-putting through the firewire. Should I strictly focus on the vga out for a solution? Thanks.
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i-dvd to External Monitor
- Thread starter Chaser
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Re: i-dvd to External Monitor
You can pick one up from Apple. Video Adapter
Are you trying to watch a DVD on your TV? If so, then this has nothing to do with iDVD. Your iMac supports video mirroring on either a VGA monitor or a TV (with an adapter).
You can pick one up from Apple. Video Adapter
Just curious, why would you need to accomplish this through Firewire when there is a simple and cheap solution available with the VGA adaptor? Is there something else that you're trying to do that isn't quite obvious?
Anyways, I suppose that you could rip the DVD and import it into iDVD. Then you could export it out through the Canopus into your TV.
Just trying to get educated on the options for routing video out of the i-mac. For example, the firewire does output i-movie video and sound through the Canopus. Since the Canopus outputs s-video and sound from an i-movie firewire feed, why not dvd? That's the question. The vga adapter will handle dvd video output, but then I'll have to find a solution to handle the dvd sound output question.
I think that the video adapter handles sound as well. This video adapter has connections for s-video and for RCA. As far as I know, both s-video and RCA have hook-ups for stereo sound.
If this isn't true, then the video adapter is pretty much useless and Apple took a step back. On my iBook (500, Combo), the TV output is handled by the headphone jack. A special AV plug is used and gives me the RCA connections (video, L, R). When the newer iBooks were intro'd, they went with the mini-vga plug for the TV output options. They standardized this on the iBook and the iMac (and then later with the 12" AlBook).
Anyways, I'm pretty sure that the video adapter supports sound.
EDIT - I just went and checked that Apple link that I gave you. I says that the Video Adapter only supports video. That pretty much sucks. How are you supposed to watch a DVD movie on a TV with an iBook or an iMac? There must be a way to hook up the mini-jack to RCA connections. Maybe Radio Shack has some options. The iMacs do have the mini-jacks, right?
Yeah you can get a mini-jack (of course the iMacs have them, how else can you have audio??) to RCA adapters.. in fact I'm using them right now. They weren't too expensive either, maybe 400 yen, which would be less than 3 dollars in the US. They should have it at any major electronics store (of course, this is from a Japanese resident's point of view).
irmongoose
irmongoose
iDVD does not output video
I too have the Canopus ADVC 100. While video editing applications usually output .DV video through FireWire, iDVD does not. iDVD is not .DV exclusive so any QuickTime codec can be imported into it. The finished rendered video is in the MPEG-2 format which is not compatible with the ADVC-100. The best way to watch your videos on a TV is by burning a disc and playing it on a DVD player.
I too have the Canopus ADVC 100. While video editing applications usually output .DV video through FireWire, iDVD does not. iDVD is not .DV exclusive so any QuickTime codec can be imported into it. The finished rendered video is in the MPEG-2 format which is not compatible with the ADVC-100. The best way to watch your videos on a TV is by burning a disc and playing it on a DVD player.
That's good to know that there is a way to get audio from the iBook/iMac/12"AlBook to RCA. I'm wondering why Apple chose to remove audio altogether from the Video Adapter.
It would have been just as easy to "meld" the mini-jack connector right onto the Video Adapter and you'd have an All-in-One solution. One of the main selling points for the iBook is that you can use it as a DVD player for your TV. Having two separate adapters to accomplish this doesn't seem like typical Apple Elegance to me.
Anyways, Chaser has his full-fleged solution now.
Ttaok, actually I'm not sure that I have a full-time solution. The "waters" in fact are getting a bit more murky. As previously mentioned, I've been trying to view dvds on from the I-mac superdrive via my external Toshiba television set. A seemingly simple task. As Sol pointed out, apparently the Canopus ADVC 100 unit does not successfully pass the dvd playback to the television because of a codec incompatibility problem. I am going to check with the Canopus people, because the packaging says the unit is compatible with macs. A further update... yesterday, I went out and bought the vga/s-video adapter just to see what it would do. It indeed only passes video (in theory) not sound. Unfortunately, I can't get the video adapter to pass a viewable picture to my television from my I-mac. What am I doing wrong?
I would forego this method. It's much too complicated just to view DVDs on a TV. That's just my personal opinion.
Hmm, that's strange. I know that on my iBook (with the regular AV adapter), I sometimes have to resort to a few tricks to get the iBook to recognize that the TVs connected. Usually, messing with the sound buttons gets iBook to auto-detect the TV and all is well.
I suppose that you could go into your Displays System Preference and see if the TV is recognized.
That's all that I can say. Other than "it should work".
The ADVC 100 is not the problem. It works just fine w/programs that output via firewire (iMovie and FCP). But Apple's DVD player and iDVD do not output via firewire so the ADVC will not work w/them.
Lethal
"I would forego this method. It's much too complicated just to view DVDs on a TV."
(Ftaok)
Ftaok, part of the plan to export the superdrive dvd is to not only watch it on a television, but to eventually watch it via a front projector for home theater use.
LethalWolfe, I'll take your word, but it is hard to fathon why they wouldn't design the dvd player to output via firewire?
(Ftaok)
Ftaok, part of the plan to export the superdrive dvd is to not only watch it on a television, but to eventually watch it via a front projector for home theater use.
LethalWolfe, I'll take your word, but it is hard to fathon why they wouldn't design the dvd player to output via firewire?
Doesn't your project have RCA inputs? You could still use the video adapter+mini-jack plug to do this, right?
Ftaok, as I mentioned in a previous post, I can't get the vga/s-video/rca composite signal adapter to work in exporting a dvd signal to my television. Regarding the projector, I will eventually be going from the i-mac mini-vga out to the projector's vga or sideo in for the video signal.
Oh yeah, I forgot that you couldn't get it working.
But my reply is that is should work. Can't see why it doesn't. Maybe the adapter is bad. Or maybe the mini-vga plug on you iMac is bad.
All I can say is that the video adapter is designed to connect the Mac to a TV (or VCR, etc). There must be something here that's preventing it from working.
Why would they design it w/FW output? Currently no TVs/home entertainment stuff have FW so you'd either have to run it thru a converter (either a DV camera, deck, or stand alone converter) just to be able to watch it on yer TV. Even if it did output via FW I don't think the ADVC could decode the signal sense it would be MPEG-2 and not DV (unless of course the Mac did MPEG-2 --> DV encoding in RT). Also I don't know how FW and Macrovision get along so I doubt, for legal reasons, Apple would give such a ready made solution for people to copy DVDs.
Lethal
Only the new 1GHz iMacs have TV-out support. My older, 800 MHz can't do it unless I get a $300 mini-VGA to RCA adapter.
irmongoose
irmongoose
LethalWolfe, my i-mac does export i-movies via fire to the Canopus then on to the television via s-video jack. I can't get the dvd player to output via fire or via the mini-vga output jack. The apple literature does mention that the vga output can be used to view programming on a television or projector. So, I'll continue to muddle around until I can find a solution to a seemingly simple task that the i-mac was designed to perform.