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mac can't read all dvds ?!?!

mcadam

mcadam

macrumors 6502a
Original poster
Apr 3, 2004
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hello out there

bought a dvd the other day, ghost dog, so happy, it was very cheap...in the evening all set, ready to watch it with my girlfriend, puts it in my pb, everything looks fine untill i start playing it when it just jams completely and asks my to restart the computer!!!

next day back to shop, get it changed witha copy that's not broken, but exactly the same thing happens. Back to shop again - and then!! The guy there tells me it's a common problem with macs!! I can't beliiieve it!

Anybody with the same experience, someone who can, please, tell me it's not apples fault!

Adam
 
I'm not speaking from any personal experience, but only what I would do with my PC if I encountered a similar situation. Try getting another program for playing DVD's. Or, since you have the kind of money to spend on a mac anyway, go buy a 30 dollar dvd player at best buy or something, and watch it on that, assuming you don't really need to watch this in the car or a plane or something.
 
well, don't have a tv, so just buying a cheap player is not an option! Besides, the real issue here is that it shouldn't be true that the pb can't play some dvd's - it should just work! so, why don't it?

adam
 
arogge said:
Some DVDs must be run through DeCSS before they can be played on the Mac.
Click to expand...

Could you elaborate this a bit more? Perhaps give a short description or a link at least.
 
There have been issues with PS2's not playing all DVD's, Macs, along with some DVD players having issues. There used to be a site about which DVD's PS2's would not play...don't know if there is one on the Mac platform though.
 
Sounds like a hardware problem to me. If your discs cannot be ejected, then I would get the laptop repaired. I doubt its the discs.

Do you have applecare? If so, call Apple.
 
10 bucks its a Windows Media encrypted CD, i've head if u take a black felt tip marker and trace the outer edge it should work, but i don't have any encrypted dvd's to try it on. you may want to try REMOVING the encryption via a program such as DVDBackup or MacTheRipper available at your friendly versiontracker or macupdate near you :p.

Horrortaxi said:
Is there a link for information on Windows Media encrypted CDs? I haven't heard of that before but it sounds like Microsoft's style.
Click to expand...

if you do a search on CNet or CNN i'm sure it will come up, it was a big deal awhile ago because the CDs could actually BREAK your drive, and apparently it happened to alot of people. as long as the artists right's aren't violated though i suppose :confused: .
 
arogge said:
Some DVDs must be run through DeCSS before they can be played on the Mac.
Click to expand...

Why would that be? CSS is copyright protection so unless he's copying the disk it's not an issue.

The only thing I've heard of that is similar is that you have to play a disk through DVD player before you can copy it with DVD Backup (which will also strip the CSS).

Is there a link for information on Windows Media encrypted CDs? I haven't heard of that before but it sounds like Microsoft's style.
 
mcadam said:
hello out there

bought a dvd the other day, ghost dog, so happy, it was very cheap...in the evening all set, ready to watch it with my girlfriend, puts it in my pb, everything looks fine untill i start playing it when it just jams completely and asks my to restart the computer!!!

next day back to shop, get it changed witha copy that's not broken, but exactly the same thing happens. Back to shop again - and then!! The guy there tells me it's a common problem with macs!! I can't beliiieve it!

Anybody with the same experience, someone who can, please, tell me it's not apples fault!

Adam
Click to expand...
I have one DVD that doesn't play right on my iBook 500 (OS X 10.2.8). It's "The Justice League" cartoon DVD. It always freezes at the same point in the movie.

I've tried copying the Video_TS folder and playing it off the hard drive and it still didn't work. For what it's worth, it's a Warner Bros. DVD.
 
ftaok said:
I have one DVD that doesn't play right on my iBook 500 (OS X 10.2.8). It's "The Justice League" cartoon DVD. It always freezes at the same point in the movie.
Click to expand...

yep that's it - just in the very beginning

ftaok said:
I've tried copying the Video_TS folder and playing it off the hard drive and it still didn't work. DVD.
Click to expand...

sad to hear that, it sounded like the most promising option to me...

but thanx for the response, so far i prefer the explanation that blames M$ :D
 
it is unfortunate that in spite of the various dvd "standards", you can get unreadable dvds... I believe, for example, that "-r" drives can read most "+r" discs, but not all. Superdrives are "-r" devices.

Can you play the disc in a PC with a "+/- r" drive?
 
Horrortaxi said:
Why would that be? CSS is copyright protection so unless he's copying the disk it's not an issue.

The only thing I've heard of that is similar is that you have to play a disk through DVD player before you can copy it with DVD Backup (which will also strip the CSS).

Is there a link for information on Windows Media encrypted CDs? I haven't heard of that before but it sounds like Microsoft's style.
Click to expand...
DeCSS, despite the MPAA's bleating, has nothing to do with copying DVDs. You can make a bit-for-bit copy of a DVD and the copy will be identical to the original - CSS et al. DeCSS is only useful when trying to play a DVD of a given region in a player of another region - say a Region 3 (Asia) DVD in a Region 1 (USA) player.

Also, it can't be a Windows Media encrypted disk because it actually plays for a while - if it were encrypted, it would be encrypted "all way through".

And just for the record, VLC does not include DeCSS. It includes an independent implementation of similar code. I think it's called libcss but I could be mistaken. An apparently minor difference, but one that makes a world of difference: because DeCSS is banned and libcss (or whatever it is called) isn't - yet.
 
Sounds to me like this has nothing to do with Encryption

Hello all,

I have been reading the thread, and I am a little surprised at a couple of the solutions.

I want to start off with the comment that no matter what ink ( laundry marker or hi-lighter ) you spread around the outer edge of the cd/dvd, it has no impact on playability. The exception to this rule was a copy protection scheme that came out some time ago for CDs that used a 2 tracked CD. The first track was audio, the second was copy protected MP3s ( essentially ). If you damaged the out track, a CDRom couldn't read it, and would fall back to the audio data ( which is what you wanted in the first place ).

The problem I see here is one of two things...

One, there is an mpeg error in mastering this disk, and the software player is not dealing with it well. You can test this by trying another software player ( or ripping utility may work. Several have been mentioned already in this thread.

The other error may be physical. While it is true that the drive itself may be flaky, it is also probable that the disk may be substandard too.

With the rash of ultra low cost movies coming out (Walmart, I'm look in your direction) I have to wonder in the QA standards are not being met. By that, I mean I wonder if the DVD stamps are not getting replaced regularly.

On thing that happens with Stamps for optical media is that over time, the bumps that indent the optical media become rounded and start to change shape. After a while, they start leaving inadequate pits in the disc, and the structure of the disc actually starts to change. When this happens, all discs made from this stamp are defective.

With a $5 disc, I would have to imagine that those stamps are used as long as possible, and as such, discs made towards the end of the run are less readable in as many players than the discs from a newer stamp.

I have run into several bad discs, as I am a $5 Walmart special DVD addict.

I would say try the disc on several players, and / or try to replace the disc. Amazon should have another fairly cheap.


My $.02

Max.
 
What is obvious is that without DeCSS, some DVD movies refuse to play. Some DVDs cause "NOT PERMITTED" to be displayed by DVD Player when Play is pressed, while other movies freeze and crash DVD Player. Once the CSS garbage is removed, the movies play normally; the CPU load also decreases during movie playback.
 
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