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Panther DVD Software Preview

Re: Question for everyone

Your assuming everyone has huge TV + audio set up such as a home theatre that can do 5.1 sound etc etc.

Not everyone has this.

I don't, for one. I can get 5.1 sound using my PC and a better picture than I can on my lowly stereo 19" TV. I use my Mac also for watching DVDs as well - comedies etc where I don't really need 5.1 sound - AND - it doesn't skip as much as my PC - infact, it doesn't skip at all. Also, I use computers because I don't have a external DVD player..!

Why don't I just get a home theatre and larger TV? Can't be arsed, better money to spend my money on - such as Apple hardware!!

When I get my G5 and digital speakers, I'll use that exclusively for DVD watching instead of my PC.

Originally posted by greenstork
Do you all actually watch DVD's on your desktop computer? Call me naiive, but I just don't get it. I definitely see the desire to watch DVD's on a laptop when traveling or otherwise but I don't understand why anyone would want to sit in front of their desktop computer to watch a DVD aside from creating your own movies and DVD's. I'd much rather be in front of my big TV, kicking back on a couch but I would be interested to hear other people's preferences.
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I watch movie all the time on my laptop when I'm in bed or soemthing, elspecially last year when I was living in a dorm room. Now I mostly use my PC for watching DVD's (bigger 19 inch monitor compared to the 15 inch LCD) and DIVX movies. I've got no problems watching a movie on my screen, I do it quite often, especially while I'm doing work.

In addition to this I have my computer hooked up to a HD projector too so I can watch them from a more comfortable couch :p.

BEN
 
Re: Question for everyone

Originally posted by greenstork
Do you all actually watch DVD's on your desktop computer? Call me naiive, but I just don't get it. I definitely see the desire to watch DVD's on a laptop when traveling or otherwise but I don't understand why anyone would want to sit in front of their desktop computer to watch a DVD aside from creating your own movies and DVD's. I'd much rather be in front of my big TV, kicking back on a couch but I would be interested to hear other people's preferences.
Click to expand...

i could see the multitasking thing... but honestly i'm a student, i don't have a lot of room and my apple dispaly is nicer than my TV plus i can chat on the internet and watch a movie i rented at teh same time... seems trivial, but when you drop 3k on a computer you kinda want it to do a lot...
 
I use my Xbox connected to a 27" Samsung HDtv with HDtv connector pack and 5.1 surround sound through an optical cable to my 600 watt Pioneer DTS receiver, but I am sure a G5 can get better quality on a HD cinema display, not to mention I bet it is more stable. With the Xbox, it freezes if I pause it or switch chapters too quickly and I have to mess with the DVD playback connector sometimes to get it to recognize a DVD. Sure, I could buy a stand alone player, but if you have a computer that can play DVDs, then there isn't much point in paying extra for another DVD player.
 
personally, i like the sound of the part where it recognizes ichat messages and whatnot. sometimes you're just watching to waste some time, and you would be much happier if that hottie you were interested in became available for, say, a date. ;)
 
Surround sound

DVD player has supported surround sound since OS 9 and the OS X player has it too. It is only the old 2 channel Dolby but it still works.

Before I bought a real DVD player I placed my TiBook on the coffee table and plugged the headphone jack into my stereo (with a mini plug to stereo RCA cable) and had surround sound. There was a bit of noise, being analog with a massively long cable I wasn't too surprised.

The only problem, anything encoded in 5.1 audio sounded lousy, the front channel never seemed to work quite right. Anything in the older format worked great.
 
widescreen bars fixed?

I actually use my powerbook to watch movies a lot. I hook it up to my TV through the S-Video connection.

Anyway, I was wondering if anyone out there who has been playing with Panther could tell me if they got rid of the "double black bars" on widescreen movies that are at the alternative aspect ratio (I don't know which is the normal and which is the alternative ratio). If you don't know what I'm talking about, sometimes a DVD will have a wider aspect ratio, and instead of the black bars at top and bottom simply being wider, there will be two sets of black bars: one set representing the normal aspect ratio, and another set (not actually black, but a dark grey) filling in the rest of the space.

I get asked all the time, "Why are there two sets of bars?", and I just feel stupid telling people that it's a software problem.

Can I get some feedback concerning this on Panther's DVD player?

-Alex
 
Originally posted by bankshot
That was my impression too. Of course the inclusion of digital out on the G5 was a dead giveaway that they'd need to support it in DVD Player. My question is, if you have a 3rd party sound card with S/PDIF out, will DVD Player use it? That would be quite nice, but would Apple care enough to do this, or do enough people even have this to care? Most people with 3rd party digital sound are probably musicians and probably don't care much about watching DVDs per se.
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Yes. A new feature in the DVD Player is the ability to specify the audio interface you want to use for output. The major player here is M-Audio and they've already released drivers for their Revolution 7.1 card that supports 10.3.

More info :

http://www.apple.com/downloads/macosx/drivers/revolution71.html
 
Multi Screen

Now I can finally watch DVD's on my dual monitor while I work on my 17" Powerook. Isn't life gravy!?!? If I could make love to Apple I would do it oh so hard!!!!
 
Dumb Question

Is there any easy way to get 5.1 out of a PowerBook? Easy means usb or 1394, no internal cards.
 
bookmarks

Will bookmarks (or anything else) allow you to skip over the incredibly annoying intro's to some DVD's that normally prohibit you from skipping? I've got some DVD lying around that forces you to watch over a minute of unskippable trash before you get to the menu...hopefully with new DVD I can skip this?
 
Re: widescreen bars fixed?

Originally posted by a_kim
I was wondering if anyone out there who has been playing with Panther could tell me if they got rid of the "double black bars" on widescreen movies that are at the alternative aspect ratio (I don't know which is the normal and which is the alternative ratio). If you don't know what I'm talking about, sometimes a DVD will have a wider aspect ratio, and instead of the black bars at top and bottom simply being wider, there will be two sets of black bars: one set representing the normal aspect ratio, and another set (not actually black, but a dark grey) filling in the rest of the space.
Click to expand...
Basically, DVDs are recorded with one of two possible aspect ratios - 4:3 (standard) or 16:9 (anamorphic widescreen).

Then you get the content aspect ratio. Generally, if its one of the two DVD ratios, matching is easy. If its very close, they may either stretch/compress or trim part of the material to match. If its far off (like a 2.35:1 movie) they'll pick the closest (16:9) and, rather than clipping the content, will "letterbox" it.

This is pretty meaningless on a conventional television, but on a widescreen TV or a computer that can show the media, it makes a much bigger deal.

So all the old letterboxing annoyances about wasting lines of horizontal resolution are still around, but at least they can start with a closer format.

Note: it gets really annoying when you get widescreen movies (such as True Lies) that have a wide ratio but are recorded at a 4:3 level.

-Richard
 
Just noticed that one of the DVD controller panels looks alot like an iPod. Wouldn't it be cool if they somehow let us use our iPods as a sort of remote control for apps like DVD player and iTunes! Probably never happen, just a pipe dream.
 
Re: bookmarks

Originally posted by SelectBishopEgg
Will bookmarks (or anything else) allow you to skip over the incredibly annoying intro's to some DVD's that normally prohibit you from skipping? I've got some DVD lying around that forces you to watch over a minute of unskippable trash before you get to the menu...hopefully with new DVD I can skip this?
Click to expand...

Don't quote me on this, but probably yes. The way it works is simply to remember the time period - e.g. 00(hrs):03(mins):34(seconds) - on the appropriate video stream, then access it when it's instructed to. Kinda like when you use the scene selection or chaptering features on a DVD...
 
Re: Surround sound

Originally posted by Jeffrey
DVD player has supported surround sound since OS 9 and the OS X player has it too. It is only the old 2 channel Dolby but it still works.

Before I bought a real DVD player I placed my TiBook on the coffee table and plugged the headphone jack into my stereo (with a mini plug to stereo RCA cable) and had surround sound. There was a bit of noise, being analog with a massively long cable I wasn't too surprised.

The only problem, anything encoded in 5.1 audio sounded lousy, the front channel never seemed to work quite right. Anything in the older format worked great.
Click to expand...
Dolby Stereo isn't what people are referring to when they say "surround sound". Rather, they're usually talking about at least Dolby Surround/Pro Logic (4.0, L/R/C/S), and maybe Dolby Digital or DTS (5.1, L/R/C/LS/RS/LFE), or a less-common standard like Sony's SDDS that may be 7.1 or more.

In this case, people are referring to Dolby Digital AC-3, which is 5.1. Point being that DVD Player has not supported surround sound until this new version 4.0.

I'm a little rusty on some of this, so please correct me if I'm wrong, everybody!

HTH
WM
 
Originally posted by arn
MultiMonitor support is always nice.

arn
Click to expand...

Personally, the ideal I'd go for is this (at least as an option):

Largest (or main) monitor gets the video stream, full-screen.

Smaller (or secondary) monitor gets the controls, blacked out until a movement of the mouse, on an otherwise black screen (ie, no bright UI filling up the whole screen when you go to hit the "pause" button, temporarily blinding you, in which state of blindness you end up clicking on every app in your dock ...)

That, I would pay money for. :)

Plus, of course, it plays to the Mac hardware advantages and gives a real, concrete benefit over any Windows solution out there (that I know of anyways ... WinDVD and PowerDVD and WMP ...)
 
Re: Re: Question for everyone

Originally posted by iLife
i could see the multitasking thing... but honestly i'm a student, i don't have a lot of room and my apple dispaly is nicer than my TV plus i can chat on the internet and watch a movie i rented at teh same time... seems trivial, but when you drop 3k on a computer you kinda want it to do a lot...
Click to expand...

I second that:p
 
Re: i don't think so...

Originally posted by From Win to Mac
i think that would be illegal.

it would probably show it, then skip
Click to expand...

The only thing they are required to show is the Copyright notice.... and I don't think it has to be shown at the beginning... just has to be available to see, same as other media.

Otherwise, it's your DVD now and you can watch the content anyway you choose.
 
Long over-due features

Originally posted by arn
MultiMonitor support is always nice.
Click to expand...

Yes, especially when the older OS 9 could do it but not the latest and greatest OS X.

Surround sound was long overdue for DVD Player.

Now that these two features are included in the program maybe Apple will start improving the image quality, most importantly the combing effect that interlacing creates on computer monitors.

And where is the application to do to DVDs what iTunes did to CDs? Macrovision be damned, I want an easy to use, no brainer way to rip my DVDs and store them in my hard drive as MP4s.
 
Video_TS Folder

An easy way to make back up's of your DVD's onto your harddrive is by using DVD Backup...an even easier method (one that doesn't remove encryption however) is to just make a Disk Image of the DVD and voila!

I've been interested in making personal copies of DVD's I own using my Mac. To do this the easy way, bust out good old freeware DVD Backup, rip said DVD to HD, unleash expensive Window's port of DVD2OneX to fit info onto a single layer dvd and your good. If anyone can tell me how to do dual-layer dvd's (dvd-9) using a superdrive i'd love to hear.

Don't steal...borrow :D.
BKONAR@SBCGLOBAL.NET

first post...and 10.2.8 is garbage...give me 10.1!!!
 
I wonder if they will also release some hardware to support the audio, that'll go in well.

I'm hoping for support for normal files like .wm* .mov .mpg(s) so on, sometimes the other players don't handle them very well.
 
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