Got a tip for us?
Let us know
Become a MacRumors Supporter for $50/year with no ads, ability to filter front page stories, and private forums.
Panther DVD Software Preview
- Thread starter MacRumors
- Start date
- Sort by reaction score
I agree that WMV is unecessary. After all, why make it easy for Microsoft to push its own format?
I do think that MPG1 and by extension VCD support should be included in Apple DVD Player. Most hardware DVD players offer support for this format so why not Apple as well? Quicktime is good for file playback, not for disc playback.
Re: Question for everyone
In the UK, even if you use your TV as just a medium to watch DVDs or videos you have to pay £116 ($174) for a TV liscence unless your over 75. Hence using your computer as a DVD player circumvents this...poll tax for the BBC saving us poor students a huge amount of money for what would be essentially an entertainement buy!
In the UK, even if you use your TV as just a medium to watch DVDs or videos you have to pay £116 ($174) for a TV liscence unless your over 75. Hence using your computer as a DVD player circumvents this...poll tax for the BBC saving us poor students a huge amount of money for what would be essentially an entertainement buy!
This is my main problem with Macs at the moment, but I can't use VLC to solve the interlacing problem since my PB G4 550 is not fast enough to do software deinterlacing.
What I want is hardware deinterlacing, all ATI cards from the ATI128 support this. Nvidia cards don't support this but all the Macs that have Nvidia cards are fast enough to do software deinterlacing anyway.
Re: Dumb Question
I have heard the Creative sound blaster extigy working with 10.2, but only in stereo. Maybe it will work in 5.1 sound in Panther.
I have heard the Creative sound blaster extigy working with 10.2, but only in stereo. Maybe it will work in 5.1 sound in Panther.
Oh my god! This is the single most annoying thing about the iPod, IMHO. You are listening to a 2-hour set from a DJ and you get those 1-2 second gaps. Grrrr!!!!
You've already spent that much money on your HDTV, receiver and 5.1 speaker package that a DVD player shouldn't be a problem no? For example the Toshiba SD330E is supposed to be outstanding value for money (in the UK you can get it for about £100), or if you wanna match your receiver, there are 2 or 3 Pioneer (like the 565A, the 656A or, if you got the iLink input on your receiver, the 757Ai) universal players, all of them really good. Using the xBox for watching DVDs is asking for trouble, if you are that concerned by quality, IMHO.
The Xbox also does not have as good picture quality as a proper DVD player, the same goes for the PS2.
As about the deinterlacing, Appleinsider is saying that the new Apple DVD PLayer will have hardware interlacing for the graphics chips that support it. In the PC world these are all the Nvidia cards from Geforce 3 onwards and all the ATI cards from Rage 128 onwards. So I hope the Radeon 7000M in my PB G4 is supported by Apple, since it is in the Windows world.
As for the hardware-based de-interlacing that will be supported under Panther (v10.3), this is apparently only available if you install ATI's retail video card software. Panther doesn't support hardware de-interlacing right out of the box and since this "support" requires ATI's software the NVIDIA cards won't work. Also, the de-interlacing support with the ATI cards is nothing new. If you install ATI's retail software you can access the de-interlacing feature today in OS 9 and 10.1 (but not 10.2, Quartz Extreme apparently disabled -- or broke -- ATI's de-interlacing extension).
As a test (under OS 9), I installed ATI's retail software on my PowerBook DVI and tried their hardware-based de-interlacing. I wasn't that impressed, it was somewhat better than Apple's "stock" DVD playback but IMO it wasn't nearly as good as the de-interlacing that is implemented in the VideoLAN Client (VLC) software. Thus, your results when using ATI's retail software may vary, apparently only the latest Radeon cards can do good quality de-interlacing.
does it have digital zoom though?? one thing thats always p'd me off about dvd player. i know you can do that screen zoom thing of osx, but its still not nearly as convenient as a "convert 1:85 to 16:9" button, and the screen zoom is a pain in the ass when you exit full screen
Re: Surround sound
This is stereo, not surround sound. What everyone considers (at least in this conversation) to be surround sound is 5.1 audio, not 2.0 stereo. This capability has been absent from Macs until, afaik, the M-Audio Revolution sound card coupled with the VLC player under OS X. Creative's one and only sound card for Macs is also a stereo card, and never really worth buying.
This is stereo, not surround sound. What everyone considers (at least in this conversation) to be surround sound is 5.1 audio, not 2.0 stereo. This capability has been absent from Macs until, afaik, the M-Audio Revolution sound card coupled with the VLC player under OS X. Creative's one and only sound card for Macs is also a stereo card, and never really worth buying.
Dolby Digital and Panther
I installed a Panther beta just to see the DVD player and whether I could get a Dolby Digtal 5.1 signal out via my Delta Audiophile soundcard and it worked. I have G4 Dual 1.25ghz.
On the interlacing issue, I installed a Radeon 9000 pro in to my old G4 dual 450. The Ati driver software that came with a deinterlacing option I think, don't have that cumputer anymore to check.
I installed a Panther beta just to see the DVD player and whether I could get a Dolby Digtal 5.1 signal out via my Delta Audiophile soundcard and it worked. I have G4 Dual 1.25ghz.
On the interlacing issue, I installed a Radeon 9000 pro in to my old G4 dual 450. The Ati driver software that came with a deinterlacing option I think, don't have that cumputer anymore to check.
Just one thing: Why, oh why, is there no Dolby Headphone support? For those who are unaware, Dolby Headphone is a piece of software that will take a 5.1 audio track, and downmix it to a 2.0 version that you can use with headphones. Unlike normal downmixing, the Dolby Headphone process actually very accurately simulates a 5.1 track. There are several pieces DVD playing software for Windows that use Dolby Headphone, so it's disappinting that Apple won't put up the cash to use it in their DVD playing software. This would be a wonderful solution for being able to watch a film with wonderful 5.1 sound while on a trip using your PowerBook.
It's already an embarassment enough that Apple took so long to adapt 5.1 in general, and I would have hoped that they'd want to catch up by adding the next big thing - Dolby Headphone - to their software, but I suppose they're following the same pattern.
It's already an embarassment enough that Apple took so long to adapt 5.1 in general, and I would have hoped that they'd want to catch up by adding the next big thing - Dolby Headphone - to their software, but I suppose they're following the same pattern.
I need a few questions answered about DVD playback on OSX.
Have Apple solved the issue with the de-interlacing yet?
If not, why have they chosen a halfway solution to this thing?
Have Apple solved the issue with the de-interlacing yet?
If not, why have they chosen a halfway solution to this thing?
I haven't seen any interlaced artifacts yet but I'm mainly watching movies where you don't get this. I haven't noticed it on the special features though.
In my opinion the Panther DVD player is very sleek and a lot nicer and more functional than the one in Jaguar.
In my opinion the Panther DVD player is very sleek and a lot nicer and more functional than the one in Jaguar.
De-interlacing, Apple's position
I know this comes a bit late, but here is an update on the de-interlacing issue.
I haven't been able to check this yet, but Apple now claims to have implemented de-interlacing in it's current hardware. The bad news is that Apple appears to have no intention of doing this for the rest of us. I found this out when I accused Apple (via their Australian operation) of breaching our Trade Practices Act on the grounds that their claims regarding DVD playback quality were patently false. Apple's response (set out in part below) was predictable. What was most disappointing, however, was their complete failure to acknowledge that this might be an issue.
Please feel free to email me at adug_au@REMOVETHISyahoo.com (having removed the REMOVETHIS) and pass this message on to others who may be affected by this as it would be good to repudiate Apple's statement (see below) that customers don't care about interlacing.
Apple Asia's statement on Interlacing:
Commercially available DVDs are either encoded with interlaced frames
or progressive frames. Since movies on commercially available DVD are
typically made with film, which unlike video does not use interlacing,
this effect does not generally occur.
De-interlacing attempts to override interlacing on the part of the
DVD author by using compromising techniques such as blending fields,
discarding fields, motion compensation etc reduce the effect of
jagged lines. However, the compromise is that motion may not be as
smooth when played back on a television. Accordingly whether or not a
DVD author decides to encode their DVD with interlaced frames or
progressive frames is at their discretion.
For your further information, depending on the capability of the
computer, de-interlacing is an automatically-enabled feature in
Apples DVD Video Player when run on certain products including its
current release PowerMac G5, PowerBook G4 and iBook and iMac computers.
De-interlacing is also a feature of Apples digital video editing
software Final Cut Pro often used during the authoring of
DVD-Videos. During this authoring production stage is when an author
would decide what his priorities are, choosing between jagged lines
on progressive-scan monitors, or motion smoothness on televisions and
encoding the DVD accordingly.
Given the above, Apple disagrees with your suggestion that Apple has in
any way breached the Trade Practices Act in connection with the
marketing or supply of its DVD players.
I know this comes a bit late, but here is an update on the de-interlacing issue.
I haven't been able to check this yet, but Apple now claims to have implemented de-interlacing in it's current hardware. The bad news is that Apple appears to have no intention of doing this for the rest of us. I found this out when I accused Apple (via their Australian operation) of breaching our Trade Practices Act on the grounds that their claims regarding DVD playback quality were patently false. Apple's response (set out in part below) was predictable. What was most disappointing, however, was their complete failure to acknowledge that this might be an issue.
Please feel free to email me at adug_au@REMOVETHISyahoo.com (having removed the REMOVETHIS) and pass this message on to others who may be affected by this as it would be good to repudiate Apple's statement (see below) that customers don't care about interlacing.
Apple Asia's statement on Interlacing:
Commercially available DVDs are either encoded with interlaced frames
or progressive frames. Since movies on commercially available DVD are
typically made with film, which unlike video does not use interlacing,
this effect does not generally occur.
De-interlacing attempts to override interlacing on the part of the
DVD author by using compromising techniques such as blending fields,
discarding fields, motion compensation etc reduce the effect of
jagged lines. However, the compromise is that motion may not be as
smooth when played back on a television. Accordingly whether or not a
DVD author decides to encode their DVD with interlaced frames or
progressive frames is at their discretion.
For your further information, depending on the capability of the
computer, de-interlacing is an automatically-enabled feature in
Apples DVD Video Player when run on certain products including its
current release PowerMac G5, PowerBook G4 and iBook and iMac computers.
De-interlacing is also a feature of Apples digital video editing
software Final Cut Pro often used during the authoring of
DVD-Videos. During this authoring production stage is when an author
would decide what his priorities are, choosing between jagged lines
on progressive-scan monitors, or motion smoothness on televisions and
encoding the DVD accordingly.
Given the above, Apple disagrees with your suggestion that Apple has in
any way breached the Trade Practices Act in connection with the
marketing or supply of its DVD players.