About DVD player faults

Hi All,
I recently posted an issue with freezing of a DVD and took some very knowledgeble guys on a bit of a tour, thinking I had this problem with my DVD authoring.
Turns out, it was my DVD player that caused the problem.
Tested it on 3 other machines and it runs fine, all this work, and taking time from people here for my own stupidity of not thinking of this.
My question is; Where do most of you draw the line? What if I tested this DVD on three good machines, and approve it that way, send it off to a client who so happens to have that one DVD player like mine where it does NOT work, how do you answer that? Sorry, runs fine here...try another machine?
Is that the true reality of the DVD world? I just want to know how I should prepare clients for that without looking like I just goofed up.

Depends on what you are doing with the DVD - meaning if it is going to replication and you are running thousands of copies or you are making 1/2 dozen from your computer for a client and not quite sure it was going to be played on.
If the former, get it on as many machines as possible, and there are places that have a ton of machines that will run tests. Trai at dvdverification.com has machines and so do some other places. They will test machines and make sure proper tests are being run (Eclipse etc.)
If it is for a client and just burning, 3, 6 machines may be enough and you need to prepare them that not all machines are made equal. They may "get" this or not. And when a conversation starts with "I got this brand new player at [put store here] for $20 [U.S. or Canadian, you choose ] and it plays every DVD but this one, oh yeah it also is a great TV." remember to breath deeply, relax and try to get through it.;)

Similar Messages

A dumb question about DVD player

Hi, im new to mac. Got my macbook about 3 weeks ago. There has been a problem about the DVD player of OSx that i haven't gotten used to. How do you guys do fast forward (or vice versa) while you are watching a DVD? I found that Front Row only allows you to jump between chapters, and I didn't find any buttons or anything like that on the DVD player panel to do so either, except for the shortcut keys on the keyboard.
Thanks.

and in addition to Pmccain's answer if you go to "Controls" (in the menu bar)->Scan rate you can select the speed in which you scan through the disc when holding down the forward/back button. Anywhere from 2X to 32X.

Some thing wrong in iTune , DVD Player , or may be with my keyboard

hi every body
after installing the last update of mac lion os , iTune went crazy ,
itune was starting automatically every 30 secconds , even wehn i quit iTune , it start automatically .
actully first i thought only it's iTune , but after a while i get the action by DVD player too .
first i though some body is hacking me , but after disabling any device that is connected to out side of os things happends again .
i check forums about itune and many guys ask about iTune , but no body ask about DVD player , so i think may be it's keyboard signal bugs .
i am thinking maybe the "Play button" of keyboard is hitting automatically and by that iTune or DVD player appliaction starts .
dose any body have any idea ?!
it's make me crazy
dose any body have this problem too ?!
how can i check which appliaction or which singlas is sent to itune or dvd player ?
thanks you guys

Hi Russel
After endless hours of trying to work around the same problem you have, I found the solution. The problem has to do with the script. For some strange reason the scripts become corrupted. I found out that the problem was corrected when I made a new script and connected the buttons to the new script. Hope they at apple find time to correct this problem in the future.
Best. Ingvar

DVD Player BAAAAD! redux...

Well, since my last post has been "archived" (a mere 4 months after I dared to criticize this wonderful piece of software), and there's really no place on the discussion boards to talk about DVD Player, I thought I'd start here, with the OS.
To refresh our memories, here's the text of my original post...then, I'll follow up with a new piece of evidence.
(2/7/07)
"So what gives with this product? Why keep trying to make an Apple-branded DVD player if THEY CAN'T DO IT?
Why the frustration? Because I'm doing a 50-disk "make good" for a client. The duplicator I used burnt discs that, somehow, play on their (windows-based) computers, but don't play in standalone DVD players. So I've burnt 50 make-up discs, and I'm checking them, one by one, to keep this guy happy. And they play fine...in my DVD player. But, put them into EITHER of my Macs, and DVD "Player" doesn't work. Well, I take that back...the first two discs I tried worked in the iBook, then nada after that. But I want to be SURE that these discs play in both standalone machines and laptops, and gollygoshdarnit (substitute your fave words here), my wonderful Mac with it's WONNERFUL DVD Player software just won't help me with that process.
I've tried all combinations of preference settings; tossed prefs on both machines; cleared out the "DVD Player Bookmarks" folders in Application Support; and cursed in the general direction of Cuppertino. Nothing worked (though the cursing made me feel better...).
These discs were authored in DVDSP 3.0, burnt on my G5 with my new Pioneer -111 DVD/CD drive. Could there be something about 16x media that's incompatible with DVD Player 4.0? And why is it that Apple constantly leaves us "late adopters" out to dry by not updating products for their previous operating system (go ahead, search for DVD Player 4.0 problems...you'll fine many. Now search for updates...you'll find none.) in their rush to cram out the "latest, greatest" OS?
OK, so much for the past. This morning, I put a DVD-R (created in a DVD recorder) into my computer. Well, hey, the menu shows up (if one hits the play button), but the DVD itself won't play. Which I expected, as DVDs recorded in those cheap recorders oftentimes are more trouble than they're worth. And of course, it plays fine in my $79 Zenith DVD/VHS combo machine.
However, my point is this. DVD Player is so finicky about what it will and won't play as to be, basically, useless. And this makes me angry; as far as I'm concerned, if Apple is willing to put its brand on something, it should work. End of story. And it shouldn't need a league of apologists telling me that I'm the crazy one because it's such a great little app and it works fine for me. Well, I've given you all two pieces of evidence that it ISN'T so hot. So if you've got any concrete suggestions or explanations, I'm all ears (prefs have already been tossed, so forget about that one).
Oh yes...the disc opens and plays fine in VLC Player. Maybe the wizards in Cuppertino should dump the DVD Player dev team and buy VLC
G5 dual 2 (2 g)/G4-733 (1 g)/iBook 1ghz (.5 g) Mac OS X (10.4.9) older slower Macs
G5 dual 2 (2 g)/G4-733 (1 g)/iBook 1ghz (.5 g) Mac OS X (10.3.9) older slower Macs

Thanks. I look forward to Leopard.
I do have a WD drive, but it's in a a FW case, and I did not install any backup software for it. I have similar problems with discs on my older G4/733. And I mis-spoke about cofiguration a bit...the G5 has its original Hitachi drive, the G4 has the Pioneer -111.
And now the wrinkle. I copied the DVD using Toast 6.1.1, and the copy plays in DVD Player. Somewhere I remember some sage telling me to do this before. So now I have a workaround, which works for DVD Player (at least in this situation...)

No DVD player?

Tried to watch a DVD for the first time tonight. The drive doesn't recognize the DVD, no desktop icon appears and it won't eject the disc. If I go to applications and try to open the DVD player it says "Initialization Error. A Valid DVD drive could not be found[-70012]." If I look in hardware at ATA it says I have no ATA devices. Can anyone help? Thanks. Especially helpful would be a way to get the disc out.

HI and Welcome to Apple Discussions...
*"If I go to applications and try to open the DVD player it says "Initialization Error. A Valid DVD drive could not be found-70012.""*
Go here ..
About DVD Player: About DVD-Video Regions
Restart your MacBookPro while holding down the Eject key ⏏ to eject the disk.
Carolyn
Message was edited by: Carolyn Samit

Dvd player wackiness

I've been watching movies on my PowerBook ever since I got it, no problems. A few months ago DVD player got buggy. I went through all the maintenance stuff, but nothing helped.
So off I went to the website, and I downloaded the most recent version of dvd player for Tiger.
However, I can't install it. I get the message "newer version of this software already on this computer" -- which, no. It is most definitely not.
Any suggestions on how to make this work?
Thank you for whatever help you can provide.

The DVD Player blues....
HI Rosina... maybe I can make some suggestions that will help.
To find out exactly what version of DVD Player you are running BEFORE you download an updates, launch DVD Player, in the Menu click DVD Player/About DVD Player. A pane will open and tell you exactly which version is installed.
Now... maybe the DVD Player preferences are corrupted. Locate this file:
com.apple.dvdplayer.plist Navigate here: MacintoshHD/Users/YourName/Library/Preferences. Open the Preferences folder, locate that file and drag it to the Trash. Reboot and then try DVD Player.
And... you are running 10.4.3. You need to update your system. Go to the Apple logo top left of your screen, then click Software Updates. The Updater will scan your drive for possible updates.
And... if all else fails, go here and get Pacifist:
http://www.versiontracker.com/dyn/moreinfo/macosx/12743
You can use it to extract software off your Tiger restore disk and reinstall DVD Player. If you do this, after it's reinstalled, don't forget to update to the most recent version 4.6.5.
Now all you need is popcorn!
Carolyn

Region code for DVD player

When I was visiting another country on vacation I watched a movie and guess it was the 5th time of me changing my region code. So appaently it is now permanent and I can no longer watch dvd's on my mac, import cd's or install software. How can i change my region code back to canada?
Please help asap!

cambridge2020:
Be sure to type accurately when asking about "DVD player". We don't always know if you mean DVD drive or Apple's "DVD Player.app" software.
Region code data is changed both in the firmware of some DVD drive hardware, in the base UNIX operating system software, and in the "DVD Player.app" software. For a particular drive, if it has region code protection firmware (those sold in the white market in countries that comply with the motion picture industry "suggestion"), will become locked for DVD region coded disc playback after 4 changes (5 code uses). Even if you have a region-free DVD drive as I do, the OS and "DVD Player.app" will stop allowing you to play region-coded DVD movie discs. You can (and I have) overcome this in several ways. I won't elaborate because Apple may feel it their duty to censor my comments. I will go so far as to say an "Erase and Install" will reset the region tracking for everything but the drive firmware.

Dvd player has dvd in it but will only eject about 1/4 inch and won't load or play

I [put a dvd in sony player and it says loading on the screen for about 30 seconds and the it says insert disc but the disc won't eject and only about a 1/4 inch of the tray ejects and then quickly retracts! I've done all the suggestions on line for unlocking a disc but they don't work. Help anyone?

Which model DVD player do you own?

I have had my mac book pro for about a year and a half and suddenly my dvd player will not play DVDs and i can not play alot of things on full screen. Does anybody know how i can fix this?

I have had my mac book pro for about a year and a half and suddenly my dvd player will not play DVDs and i can not play alot of things on full screen. Does anybody know how i can fix this?

This could be several things, but let's get the obvious ones out of the way, first:
1. Judging from your text, there's no problem with anything stuck in the mechanism; it's more an issue of no being to put in a disk. In other words, you're sure that there isn't a disk stuck in your MBP. (That happens a lot for all computers.)
2. Go to Applications/Utilities/Disk Utility, and repair the disk. This should take under 10 minutes.
3. Perform the procedure outlined here:
http://forums.macrumors.com/showthread.php?
4. After you're done, leave a message here as to the status of the repair.

IDVD slideshow DVD pauses video and audio during playback...messages about sleeping DVD player

I have just burned a slideshow on iDVD from iPhoto book project. During playback, the DVD player pauses with photo visible and audio stops for same time, and then resumes after about 5 seconds. I thought the MP3 (purchased from Amazon because it was not in iTunes) format may have been the issue, so, I converted to AAC, and rebuilt slideshow from scratch using AAC music. During Preview playback, the problem does NOT exhibit...only when played from produced DVD on both computer or DVD player. I only have this one pause at same time on every DVD burned. Is AIFF a probable solution? I saw a message saying DVD player "Sleeping" or "DVD player waked from sleeping" at beginning and end of this pause.

Whoa!!! I'd back up here and make sure you have your "T" s crossed before your continue with 10,000 discs! What were your bitrates for the main track and Bonus features? Did you use AC3 audio? DVD has a bitrate ceilings of 9.8 for video. Its also important you check your bitrates in a viewer to makes sure your OK.
Bitrates are the most crucial part to control in DVD.
http://www.videohelp.com/tools?toolsearch=bitrate+view&Submit=Search&s=&orderby= Name&hits=50&convert=&dvdauthorfeatures=

What can I do about this message -"Toshiba DVD Player has stopped working"

Hi
My DVD Player used to work fine . . . and then I installed iTunes.
It then worked for a while, but only by using 'Run as Administrator'.
After a couple of weeks I started to get the message "Toshiba DVD Player has stopped working".
I have uninstalled iTunes - and uninstalled and then re-installed the DVD Player - but it still will not work!!
Any solutions please?
Thanks in advance for your help.
Ms Q_reeus

My solution to this is to remove Toshiba DVD player and install VLC player. You can get it for free.
It can read all video formats and you don't need some additional codecs.

Question about multizone DVD player plugged to iMac ?

I want to buy a multizone DVD player to plug to my french iMac. How will it react to NTSC signal ? In short, does the monitor play NTSC/PAL ?

Hi-
Please clarify- exactly how do you intend to connect your "multizone DVD player" to your iMac?
Is it a USB device, or something else? Are you using a TV tuner card, like an elgato, or something else?
You are aware that generally speaking that it is not possible to connect a DVD player to your iMac as if the iMac is a TV, right?
The only way you can connect a device like a DVD to an iMac directly is if you have one of the new 27 inch iMacs, and you make a connection with the mini display port.
Any other iMac will require either some sort of USB connection (assuming that the DVD device is just a DVD drive, and not a dedicated player), or an Analog/Digital converter of some sort, like a TV tuner USB device, etc.

Anyone else finding fault with the sony DVP-FX980 portable dvd player related to the plastic latch ?

DVP-FX980
design flaw: latch mechanism falls out renders unit unuseable. this is my second experience with this problem. warranty of 90 days isn't enough to cover. I am sure others have had this same experience since I've seen it twice now.

I'm sorry to know you have this issue on your portable DVD player. We always post known issues of Sony products on our Esupport website and this is not one of them.

DVD pauses on DVD player

I have created a wedding video using Final Cut Express. This was rendered in FCE and imported into iDVD. I set up menus and burned directly to DVD (Verbatim DVD-R). DVD plays back perfectly on iMac and on Sony PS3 console. When the bride plays back on her stand alone DVD player, the movie pauses for approximately 15 seconds then continues. The pauses happen at approx 15m31s 26m15s 35m54s and 46m17s. She has tried on her mother's DVD player with the same results. My next step was to export as a disk image and burn this to disk using Disk Utility. Still get the same result. I'm stumped. Has anyone else encountered anything like this? If so, have you been able to fix it?
Thanks

Latest update...
1) I burned another copy of the disk from the disk image using Apple Disk Utility.
2) I copied the disk image from the iMac onto a PC and burned a disk using Imgburn set to a maximum of 4x burn speed.
Both disks were Verbatim DVD-R from the same batch.
This mornig I have played both disks on a Cambridge Audio DVD player. The results...
1) The disk burned on the iMac using Disk Utility pauses briefly at about the 15 minute mark for approx 5 seconds then continues. At the 26 minute mark, it pauses for about 15 seconds, advances a couple of frames then pauses again for about 10 seconds, jumps ahead about 3 seconds then pauses again, then plays about one frame every second for a couple of seconds before pausing for an extended period. I tried to zoom, but it didn't respond. Eventually I hit the menu button, which allowed me to return to the main menu.
2) The disk burned on the Windows PC plays without any problems so far. (I'm at 35 minutes and still going strong.)
So to reiterate:
- captured footage from original Mini DVcam tapes.
- edited footage using Final Cut Express
- Applied chapter markers in FCE and exported as Quicktime movie
- imported Quicktime movie into iDVD, created menus, including scene selection based on chapter markers
- burned DVD directly from iDVD - Result - defective disk that pauses and restarts at approx 11 minute intervals
- exported disk image from iDVD to hard drive
- burned disk image to DVD using Apple Disk Utility - Result - defective disk that pauses and restarts at approx 11 minute intervals
- copied .img file to Windows Vista PC and burned DVD from .img file using Imgburn - Result - Perfect disk that pays without problems.
My conclusion is that the Apple software is flawed, whether burning directly from iDVD to DVD or using a disk image created by iDVD and burned to DVD by Disk Utility. However, taking the same disk image created by iDVD and burning this on a PC worked fine. So it appears that it is not necessarily iDVD that is at fault, but the underlying software component which writes to the DVD. This would seem to be validated by the fact that other people with the same problem were able to achieve a workaround by using Roxio Toast. I don't have that piece of software, so cannot validate this directly.
I would be interested to know if Apple actually monitor these forums discussions and take note of end users' problems. If so, do they carry out their own investigations to find the root cause of these issues, especially when the evidence seems to point to this being an issue with their code.

Photo Slideshow - to play on TV/DVD player.

I've been trying to create a photo slideshow that I can play on the TV's DVD player.
All I want is just for the photos to appear & me to then manually move them on as & when required. (as they do, if I burn them from the folder straight to the DVD)
When I tried exporting straight from iPhoto to the DVD, the files grew quite spectacularly (am assuming they'd been decompressed to show on screen, then recompreseed to export, hence both losing quality & expanding size [my fault; I said I wanted them high quality ... cos I didn't think I wanted to compress them more!) Result was that I could do what I wanted (i.e. manually advance them), but due to size, nearly died of boredom waiting for them to open!
So, I thought I'd try iDVD. They opened much quicker, though auto forwarded & also wanted to play music. (The latter could be got over by using the mute button - though from a size point of view, clearly better without it)
I can't seem to find any handy hints that tell me how to disable the auto play; is there one particular theme that I need to try to use?
Or, am I better going to my import folder & just dragging those I want to the DVD & doing it that way?? (I import them to the hard drive, before using iPhoto, so have them outside as well as inside iPhoto [am wanting to make sure that if I ever revert to a PC again, i won't have all my photos linked to iPhoto])

All I want is just for the photos to appear & me to then manually move them on as & when required. (as they do, if I burn them from the folder straight to the DVD)
One way of achieving that is to make each photo a separate chapter, but iDVD has a 99 chapter limit.
There are many ways to produce slide shows using iPhoto, iMovie or iDVD, but they all have one thing in common: they reduce the quality of the photos to that of a movie still frame and sometimes limit the number of photos you can use.
If what you want is what I want, namely to be able to use high resolution photos (even 300 dpi tiff files), to pan and zoom individual photos, use a variety of transitions, to add and edit music or commentary, and to end up with a DVD that looks good on both your Mac and a TV - in other words end up with and end result that does not look like an old fashioned slide show from a projector - you may be interested in how I do it. You don't have to do it my way, but the following may be food for thought!
Firstly you need proper software to assemble the photos, decide on the duration of each, the transitions you want to use, and how to pan and zoom individual photos where required, and add proper titles. For this I use Photo to Movie. You can read about what it can do on their website:
http://www.lqgraphics.com/software/phototomovie.php
(Other users here use the alternative FotoMagico: http://www.boinx.com/fotomagico/homevspro/ which you may prefer - I have no experience with it.)
Neither of these are freeware, but are worth the investment if you are going to do a lot of slide shows. Read about them in detail, then decide which one you feel is best suited to your needs.
Once you have timed and arranged and manipulated the photos to your liking in Photo to Movie, it exports the file to iMovie 6 as a DV stream. You can add music in Photo to Movie, but I prefer doing this in iMovie where it is easier to edit. You can now further edit the slide show in iMovie just as you would a movie, then send it to iDVD 7, or Toast, for burning.
You will be pleasantly surprised at how professional the results can be!

About DVD player faults

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