Watching HD DVDs on a mini mac
Discussion
After playing with the preferences in DVD player to get my sound to work, I noticed the HD options tab. Had a quick browse and then made the assumption that I can play HD-DVDs.
So then in my wisdom I spent £40 on 3 great action films on HD-DVD.
And they don't play. Nothing. The mac doesn't even recognise them as a DVD. Ive been a bit daft really, but is there anyway I can make it play them without a HD-DVD drive? I have a new Mac Mini with a superdrive. Are there any external drives that play them?
If not then I have a copy of Jarhead, Full Metal Jacket and Swordfish avaliable on HD-DVD for £13 each if anybody is interested!
Busta
So then in my wisdom I spent £40 on 3 great action films on HD-DVD.
And they don't play. Nothing. The mac doesn't even recognise them as a DVD. Ive been a bit daft really, but is there anyway I can make it play them without a HD-DVD drive? I have a new Mac Mini with a superdrive. Are there any external drives that play them?
If not then I have a copy of Jarhead, Full Metal Jacket and Swordfish avaliable on HD-DVD for £13 each if anybody is interested!
Busta
Edited by busta on Saturday 6th January 18:18
Looking around it seems 360 HD-DVD -> PC or Mac can be a bit hit or miss.
On one had the 'drivers' are just an updated UDF thingie for reading the disk contents... on the other a fair few people seem to be suggesting random issues with XP Home, XP Pro and XP MCE...
I suspect it will be a drop in and go on any version of Vista though, which should have the newer specs built in to handle HD media.
As to OS X. 10.5 seems to be appearing with software to playback HD properly (the one in 10.4's DVD Player is very 'work in progress' and doesn't support the codecs required). Although again, seems hit or miss as to the Mac actually recognising the drive, some do, some don't.
So until 10.5 appears even if your mini does recognise the drive, you're going to need a 3rd party application to play the disks... of which I know of none...
Unless that PowerDVD thing is also available on Mac in which case that might do it.
On one had the 'drivers' are just an updated UDF thingie for reading the disk contents... on the other a fair few people seem to be suggesting random issues with XP Home, XP Pro and XP MCE...
I suspect it will be a drop in and go on any version of Vista though, which should have the newer specs built in to handle HD media.
As to OS X. 10.5 seems to be appearing with software to playback HD properly (the one in 10.4's DVD Player is very 'work in progress' and doesn't support the codecs required). Although again, seems hit or miss as to the Mac actually recognising the drive, some do, some don't.
So until 10.5 appears even if your mini does recognise the drive, you're going to need a 3rd party application to play the disks... of which I know of none...
Unless that PowerDVD thing is also available on Mac in which case that might do it.
Edited by ThePassenger on Sunday 7th January 02:37
busta said:
mmm-five said:
The Mac (with 10.4.8) does recognise the drive and see the disc, however DVD Player will not play anything. I believe this is because of the copy protection system on the HDDVD which the Mac does not understand.
Mine doesn't.
You didn't go out and buy a 360's HDDVD drive on the off chance did you??
Plotloss said:
Yes, that's where I found my information from. The comments do generate in to "PS3 On0rz j00, 360 4 lief" type crap but when you filter those out you get the impression it working seems rather hit or miss.
I'd check out the actual forum mentioned as well before embarking on a trip to buy the drive.
Plotloss said:
Just been having a further read.
Its natively supported in Vista by all accounts.
Which is a proper bonus.
Its natively supported in Vista by all accounts.
Which is a proper bonus.
Yep. Might be a reason for going Vista. I'd wager OS X 10.5 will be the same, plug it in and off it goes.
Now if the Linux crowd can pull of the same trick... MythTV with a HD-DVD enabled frontend...
ThePassenger said:
busta said:
mmm-five said:
The Mac (with 10.4.8) does recognise the drive and see the disc, however DVD Player will not play anything. I believe this is because of the copy protection system on the HDDVD which the Mac does not understand.
Mine doesn't.
You didn't go out and buy a 360's HDDVD drive on the off chance did you??
No, not spending any more money on thsi if they aren't easy to set up. I'm just gonna send the DVD's back.
They came from the US though via Amazon (and a supposedly UK seller rather confusingly!)
Seeing as if I send them back saying 'I didn't realise I didn't have the right dvd player' I'm gonna look like a wally, do you think I could send them back on the grounds they say they are only licensed to be bought, sold or viewed in the US?
say you bought them as a gift but he/she's already got them
On this matter, as I am about to get a Mac Mini what does the assembled host of experts think to this colution:
Rip the DVD's onto an external hard drive (not sure how - any idead) which would need some playback (xbox?)
Read the movies from the hard drive.
Would this get around the Mac/xbox compatability issue?
Miles
On this matter, as I am about to get a Mac Mini what does the assembled host of experts think to this colution:
Rip the DVD's onto an external hard drive (not sure how - any idead) which would need some playback (xbox?)
Read the movies from the hard drive.
Would this get around the Mac/xbox compatability issue?
Miles
Miles_stylus said:
say you bought them as a gift but he/she's already got them
On this matter, as I am about to get a Mac Mini what does the assembled host of experts think to this colution:
Rip the DVD's onto an external hard drive (not sure how - any idead) which would need some playback (xbox?)
Read the movies from the hard drive.
Would this get around the Mac/xbox compatability issue?
Miles
On this matter, as I am about to get a Mac Mini what does the assembled host of experts think to this colution:
Rip the DVD's onto an external hard drive (not sure how - any idead) which would need some playback (xbox?)
Read the movies from the hard drive.
Would this get around the Mac/xbox compatability issue?
Miles
You would need a PC and x-box hard drive to rip the discs onto a hard drive. So why not just watch it on the PC?
Miles_stylus said:
say you bought them as a gift but he/she's already got them
On this matter, as I am about to get a Mac Mini what does the assembled host of experts think to this colution:
Rip the DVD's onto an external hard drive (not sure how - any idead) which would need some playback (xbox?)
Read the movies from the hard drive.
Would this get around the Mac/xbox compatability issue?
Miles
On this matter, as I am about to get a Mac Mini what does the assembled host of experts think to this colution:
Rip the DVD's onto an external hard drive (not sure how - any idead) which would need some playback (xbox?)
Read the movies from the hard drive.
Would this get around the Mac/xbox compatability issue?
Miles
No.
You'd need the Mac or PC to be able to access the HD-DVD drive, which is causing issues.
Then you'd need ripping software that can handle HD-DVD ripping, which doesn't work on Mac.
Then you'd need a Windows PC to act as the media server for the xbox's "Media Extender", preferably Windows Media Center Edition (Vista or XP).
So the main problem is that step 1 isn't working perfectly; which is to be expected with such an immature technology. You're best bet would be to wait for OS X 10.5 'Panther' to be released, which will have UDF 2.5 (a prerequisit for HD-DVD) and will (probably) have an updated DVD Player utility which can handle HD content in the required formats (it only does H.263 at the momment).
Miles_stylus said:
Thanks TheP - however given the mac mini can be booted into Windows and the file will be a remote disk surely many of the issues can be overcome by booting as a Windows machine, doing the do and then watching the files under the Mac?
Or am I missing something key here!
Miles
Or am I missing something key here!
Miles
Step 1.
If you're running XP then the HD-DVD drive may or may not work (same as the OS X 10.4.x).
Although, assuming Vista does the nasty with the drive, then booting to Vista MCE running the ripper might well work A-Ok.
Now as for the BootCamp'd Vista MCE being accessible to OS X... it should have read-only on an NTFS parition / drive and read-write on FAT32... so yeah you could do it that way.
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