It appears as tho the G3 B&W requires a dvd capable video card in order to view DVD's?? Or, Am I doing something wrong?? B&W G3 w/ 9.0.4 and an acom Firewire DVD drive. [I had too many problems w/ the CDRW that came in the enclosure, playing nice w/ firewire] Thanks for the input. MV
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G3 W/ DVD Video card??
- Thread starter racepres
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The blue and white G3 used the ATI Rage 128 video card, which also had a separate slot for a DVD decoder card on the video card itself. I believe the DVD decoder was only included with machines that shipped with a DVD-ROM drive. If it's not present in your machine, you can either try to locate the DVD decoder for the Rage 128, or replace the video card with an some variant of the ATI Radeon PCI card (original, 7000, 9200, etc.).
DVDs played through hardware decoding on older machines. I believe even newer machines rely heavily on hardware decoding for watching DVDs. So it makes sense that your machine would need it.
If you're still using the stock Rage 128, you'll need the model with the DVD daughter card. Although, if you updated your graphics card to say a Radeon 7000 or better the card itself will be able to handle DVDs.
Yup! It appears as tho the G3 does depend on hardware for DVD capability. On one machine there is a daughter board on the video card, which seems to be necessary for DVD decoding/viewing. Now if I am to use the firewire dvd drive ... what cards can be made to work w/ the B&W?? I have heard that a firmware "patch" is available for a PC voodoo card?? True? if so, where do you find that? Otherwise do you suppose one can find a daughter board reasonably??? Thanks for the responses' MV
I have a G3 350 that plays DVDs just dandy with the stock card. It was a CDROM build, that i've slapped a DVD writer into. The power supply blew on it, so i transfered the drives into another one, which also worked straight off. The old one still has the video card in it if you want it (neither have daughter cards as far as i can tell).
Maybe you need 9.22 for DVD decoding - do you have the DVD Decoder Library and DVD Region Manager extensions? Mine say they came with 9.21 (v.1.3 & 1.1), so maybe they weren't in 9.04? (and maybe Firewire support also)
Maybe you need 9.22 for DVD decoding - do you have the DVD Decoder Library and DVD Region Manager extensions? Mine say they came with 9.21 (v.1.3 & 1.1), so maybe they weren't in 9.04? (and maybe Firewire support also)
OH Crap!!! Never thought of having to go to 9.2[.1 is as far as I have]. Will do it today!! If I still have a prob, what would you want for the video card you have?? Thanks . MV
Probably OSx would fix it but, we use at least 4 macs in the office, and lots of "classic" software for members, points, pay-out.... etc.. Don't feel like trying to convert at this stage. Everything is working well. But when I swap video cards only one [the one w/ the daughter card] functions w/ DVD's in whichever version of OS9 is resident. Where would one look for a list of video cards [pc] that can be "zapped" to function in my mac? I have quite a few of 'em
buy a ATI orignal Radeon Mac Edition PCI, or a ATI Radeon 7000 Mac Edition PCI. i have a Radeon 7000 ME PCI on my Beige G3 running OS 9.2.2 and it play's dvd great. i am also a bit above stock. plus the Radeon 7000 ME is a better card then the stock video card in the B&W by far
IMHO dvd's play a bit more slowly in OS X than in OS 9.2.2
IMHO dvd's play a bit more slowly in OS X than in OS 9.2.2
The updates to 9.2.2 are available from Apple.
If you still want the card you can have it for shipping - but given i'm an ocean away, you might find one cheaper nearer home. And like i said, i don't believe it has a daughter card, but it plays DVDs anyway, so your existing card might too..
If you still want the card you can have it for shipping - but given i'm an ocean away, you might find one cheaper nearer home. And like i said, i don't believe it has a daughter card, but it plays DVDs anyway, so your existing card might too..
i only paid $35 USD with shipping for my ATI Radeon 7000 ME PCI. the orignal Radeon or the Radeon 7000 would be better at playing dvd's than the stock card in those B&W would be. plus the orignal Radeon ME or the Radeon 7000 ME dont need a addon card just to decode dvd movies. plus you would be able to have smoother GUI proformance than with the stock card to boot
I also see them for abt $30-35 on ebay... Probably what frt would be from frankblundt... We'll see what going to 9.2.2 does also.... MV
Spock said:
This is not entirely correct. OS X doesn't support the hardware decoder of the Rage II/Pro series chip, which was included in the beige G3.
To play back DVDs on a blue and white G3 with either OS 9 or X, you must have a Rage 128 with hardware decoder or any Radeon series video card.
http://www.versiontracker.com/dyn/moreinfo/macosx/14738
here you go... It wont work on my beige g3, cuase I don't have X 10.3 installed..
here you go... It wont work on my beige g3, cuase I don't have X 10.3 installed..
My experience with DVD drives...
It was under the assumption that the video processor and video memory made the biggest difference with DVD playback that I never got my Wallstreet (which has been upgraded to a G4 at 500 MHz with 1 MB of L2) a DVD-ROM drive. This system only has an ATI Rage Lite with 4 MB of VRAM... which I doubt would cut it for playing DVDs.
As I recall the ATI Rage 128 card in my 8600/300 (which came out of a Blue & White) had the DVD decoder on it... I'll check to see. If it does, I don't need it (that is a Rhapsody system and doesn't work with DVDs). It should just plug into the Rage 128 card on Blue & Whites without one.
Case 1: I put a DVD drive in my iMac/350 and it plays DVDs just fine in Mac OS X v10.2.8 (G3 at 350 MHz, 512k of L2, ATI Rage 128 with 8 MB VRAM).
Case 2: My wife's PowerBook G3 Pismo has a DVD drive and it plays DVDs just fine in Mac OS X v10.3.9 (G3 at 400 MHz, 1 MB of L2, ATI Rage 128 Mobility with 8 MB of VRAM).
Case 3: My Beige G3 has a DVD drive and it plays DVDs just fine in Mac OS X v10.3.9 (both with the original G3 at 266 MHz and later with a G4 at 533 Mhz, originally 512k of L2 and later with 1 MB of L2, both setups using an ATI Radeon 7000 with 32 MB of VRAM).
Apple has a system requirement of 400 MHz for the software decoding DVD Player, though I think it actually requires is a video fast enough to play DVDs as I've used it on systems with both a G3/266 and a G3/350 and it works great.Case 2: My wife's PowerBook G3 Pismo has a DVD drive and it plays DVDs just fine in Mac OS X v10.3.9 (G3 at 400 MHz, 1 MB of L2, ATI Rage 128 Mobility with 8 MB of VRAM).
Case 3: My Beige G3 has a DVD drive and it plays DVDs just fine in Mac OS X v10.3.9 (both with the original G3 at 266 MHz and later with a G4 at 533 Mhz, originally 512k of L2 and later with 1 MB of L2, both setups using an ATI Radeon 7000 with 32 MB of VRAM).
It was under the assumption that the video processor and video memory made the biggest difference with DVD playback that I never got my Wallstreet (which has been upgraded to a G4 at 500 MHz with 1 MB of L2) a DVD-ROM drive. This system only has an ATI Rage Lite with 4 MB of VRAM... which I doubt would cut it for playing DVDs.
As I recall the ATI Rage 128 card in my 8600/300 (which came out of a Blue & White) had the DVD decoder on it... I'll check to see. If it does, I don't need it (that is a Rhapsody system and doesn't work with DVDs). It should just plug into the Rage 128 card on Blue & Whites without one.
Thank You RacerX, LMK... Update, to 9.9.2 didn't accomplish anything!! Put a 3dfx voodoo3 out of my 8600, in it and got perhaps better video performance, but no DVD.. Just beating a down fighter, to convince myself that OS9 and DVD are "Hardware Dependant".... MV
DVD Card
I have a blue and white G3. The video card is the stock card with the DVD daughter card. I am running OS X 10.2. My system will reconize a DVD. When I try to play a DVD it will not play. Last week I replaced my 15" moniter with a 17" moniter. I increased the resolution for the moniter. Guess what it will now play DVDs. I am not sure what this means. However, I do have another stock (from a blue and white G3) video card w/DVD daughter card. I will ship it to you for $30 if you are interested.
I have a blue and white G3. The video card is the stock card with the DVD daughter card. I am running OS X 10.2. My system will reconize a DVD. When I try to play a DVD it will not play. Last week I replaced my 15" moniter with a 17" moniter. I increased the resolution for the moniter. Guess what it will now play DVDs. I am not sure what this means. However, I do have another stock (from a blue and white G3) video card w/DVD daughter card. I will ship it to you for $30 if you are interested.
get a ATI Radeon Mac edition PCI or Radeon 7000 Mac edition PCI. they can be had for around $30 UDS and would provide better proformance than any other card you could buy. the video card that came stock in a B&W (AKA Rage 128 Pro cards) some will not work in the Beige even tho it has a dvd decoder card cause it was designed for the 66mhz pci bus that the Beige G3 dont have as said here http://www.os9forever.com/DVDPlayer.html they have a hack of sorts to allow you to play dvd's useing apple dvd player 2.7 on a Beige with the correct video card ( i have a radeon 7000 Mac edition) i can play dvd's just fine at full speed
a ATI Radeon or radeon 7000 would out proform that rage 128 pro in any shape or form. it would be better to go with a radeon Mac edition PCI or a Radeon 7000 Mac edition PCI
a ATI Radeon or radeon 7000 would out proform that rage 128 pro in any shape or form. it would be better to go with a radeon Mac edition PCI or a Radeon 7000 Mac edition PCI