iBook DVD player sound but no picture

[winwintoo]

The grandkids have my old 600 mhz tray-loading iBook and have used it to watch several commercial DVD movies. But today when they popped in Harry Potter, they got sound but no picture. They ejected the disk and re-loaded it, no luck. Tried a different movie, same result - sound but no picture - by no picture, I mean the screen is active, icons visible etc. and the control thingie for the DVD player is there, just no movie picture.

Can anyone suggest a way to trouble shoot this?? I have no ideas. I can't see any way to "turn off" the picture, so don't think it got accidently turned off.

Please help, kids are disappointed.

M

 

[jimthorn]

My first Mac was the 600MHz iBook that you're talking about. As I recall, one of the unusual things about that model was that the Audio Out (headphone) port on the side was actually an "AV Port", which could transmit video and/or audio depending on what cable you plugged into it. I had some strange "no picture" behavior from time to time, which I eventually traced back to that port. If you plug in headphones or speakers too slowly, the iBook may think you've plugged in an AV cable, which allows it to send the DVD picture to a TV. I learned to always snap in my headphones quickly and even then it did weird things sometimes.

 

[sandman42]

I have the same computer (600MHz iBook) and I had the very same problem just today. Seems to me it has happened once or twice in the past. As with the previous responder's situation, I had the Apple A/V cable (audio and video) plugged into my A/V port at the time. I unplugged the cable and the picture came back, but not until I unsuccessfully tried to fix it by restarting the computer.

I also have an EyeTV, and I've noticed that plugging/unplugging the A/V cable (which I do often) will sometimes cause the same problem trying to play back video with that software - I get sound but no pic.

You don't mention having anything plugged into the computer, so I'm guessing that you didn't have anything plugged into the A/V port. True? Headphones possibly? I think I may have had some random weirdness once when nothing was plugged in, but I don't really remember. You might try restarting your computer, to see if that helps.

Good luck.

 

[winwintoo]

Thanks guys!! There are several kids in the house and lots going on, so probably they did have headphones plugged in. I'll pass along your advise and see if that solves the problem. Makes sense to me

Margaret