iMac DVD player won't play certain DVDs?
 

My built in DVD rom combo won't play many mainstream DVD movies, only certain ones.

My iMac is a 700 MHz G4 model, below are details that I cut/paste from the System Profiler.

Can anyone tell me if I need a firmware update or anything else that could help and where I go to get one, also I don't know how to do these things so I hope any site you point me to has instructions?

Oh yes, I did an 10.3.7 combo update and repaired all permissions etc, but the DVD player had difficulty reading certain main-stream movies before this.

HL-DT-ST RW/DVD GCC-4120B:

Manufacturer: HL-DT-ST
**Model: HL-DT-ST RW/DVD GCC-4120B
**Revision: 2.11
**Serial Number:
**Drive Type: CD-RW/DVD-ROM
**Disc Burning: Apple Supported/Shipped
**Removable Media: Yes
**Detachable Drive: No
**Protocol: ATAPI
**Unit Number: 1
**Socket Type: Internal

You're going to have to give us a lot more detail about what movies won't play, and what error message you get.

Trevor

Saving Private Ryan, Matix Revolutions, Big Lebowski, MI1 and 2, pretty much 25% of any DVD I go to play simply will not even mount, just spins slowly for 40 seconds and ejects, or doesn't even eject, nothing shows???

There's no reason your drive should have problems with those DVDs. You might try cleaning your drive with a CD/DVD cleaning disc or compressed air...

Are the DVDs that won't play from outside of your "zone"? Are they NTSC rather than PAL? Are they DVD+R discs? Or are they unusual in any other way?

If there is nothing unusual about them, then try Las Vegas' advice above, and if that doesn't fix it then it sounds like you've got a problem DVD drive, and may want to look into either a professional cleaning or a replacement drive.

Trevor

Similar problem but not exactly
 

I have the same 700 mhz iMac G4 flat panel system with a combo drive, the same one described below by iMan, only I'm running 10.3.9. Mine has read everything just fine until tonight. It still has no problems with movies, all other DVDs, etc. BUT for some reason one new DVD with software on it will not even show up, just sits for a while doing nothing then is ejected. I tried it on a friend's older, slower, PowerMac, and it recognized the DVD right away. The person who sent it to me had it work on several systems. It's a Fujijilm DVD-R for data and video, up to 8x, 4.7 GB/120 mins. No matter what I try, my system just doesn't seem to know what to do with it, no icon appears, then eventually it is ejected. Any ideas? I don't want to buy a whole new drive just for this one DVD, don't understand why I'd need to clean the drive if it works with other DVDs, but it's got software on it that I'd really like to be able to use. Any ideas?

Home made DVD R and CD R discs work because when they were "burnt" a chemical reaction occured in the die of the blank disc and created the information for drives to read.
Some drives won't read some discs and that is all there is to it. One possible problem is that your drive laser has gone dim and is no longer powerful enough to pick up the information on the disc. Another is that it just doesn't like the colors on the disc and can't figure them out. A third is that the discs may have been burnt in some non standard format.

Some more clues
 

Thanks. This morning, I tried two things that lead me to believe that it's something else. First, I booted in System 9.2, it saw the DVD, rebuilt its desktop, then I could read it. But I need to use this in OS X. So I rebooted in OS X (10.3.9), it still didn't show. I found the System Preference item called CD&DVD, opened that, changed the setting for what to do when I put in a blank DVD from Always Ask to Open in Finder, and the DVD showed up on the desktop! But only once. I had to restart, when I tried it again, and ever since then, it just won't see the thing no matter how I set that. But if my DVD itself was not compatible with my drive, or if I had a weak laser, then why would it have seen it without a problem under System 9, and why would it have worked once under OS X? I'm really stumped now!!!
Any more ideas?

And yet some more
 

I turned on Classic from the Sys 9 System Preferences, then inserted the DVD, and it showed up right away. But I can't use the application on the DVD unless it has mounted under OS X only, with Classic off, and for some strange reason this DVD won't do that.

Any help would be appreciated.

(newbie!) Hi - I have the same dvd problem as iMan and Isochrin. - G4 flat screen 700 mhz, 10.2.8 and the combo drive is a dcr-111!
Of the few dvds I have, (all region 2, pal) Pulp Fiction is the only one that'll play without jumping! All cds play and burn no problem.
sorry i can't offer a solution, has anyone come across one?
Thanks, C.

That's a different problem. Instead of discs being rejected, you're getting jumpy playback.

Jumpy playback might be caused by something hogging a lot of your CPU cycles. Can you launch Activity Monitor, set it to show "All Processes" in the popup menu at the top of the screen, click the %CPU column so that it sorts by %CPU, then tell us the top 10 or so processes and an average of what percent of the CPU they are taking up?

Trevor

Thanks Trevor,

Yes it's different all right - I can play dvds, though it can take up to 10 minutes before they even spin up. On playback, the audio is fine, but the video is jumpy.

The top processes are quite low:
Firefox - 0.70% cpu, 12% memory
SystemUIServer - 0.70% cpu, 1% memory
Window Manager - 0.90% , 6% memory
Crashreported, SecurityServer, init, update, Dock, Finder, mach_init and TabletDriver also show up, all 0% CPU

A process - 'integod' pops up every few seconds - 0.40%, 2.0% memory, higher when I put in a dvd (3% cpu)

Thanks,

Ciaran.

Ahh - I think you have found the culprit!
I believe that process is part of the anti-virus program "Virus Barrier" from Intego: http://www.intego.com/home.asp
I think you will find it in a folder "/Library/Intego" (/Library is the one at the top level of your drive)
You don't need an anti-virus program on OS X - as you have seen, such programs usually cause more trouble than they are worth.
I recommend removing the /Library/Intego folder (e.g. move it to the Desktop) and then restarting your Mac. (You can trash it later when all seems well)

Thanks again! VirusBarrier came with a magazine coverdisk, and as you say, is not needed! I deleted all Virusbarrier and Intego files and rebooted, but still no joy! It still takes 5 mins for a dvd to spin up, and the playback is still jumpy.
I'm not too worried about it though as i don't watch DVDs on the mac, just curious! Like previous posters, I've cleaned the drive, tried OS9 etc.
(physically, are there 2 lenses on a combo drive? - maybe only the Cd lens is being cleaned!)
The dvds play ok on dvd machines and e.g. pcs at work.
I don't have the original Install cds, just the Restore ones, perhaps a reinstall of dvd player would help?
Thanks all,
CP

same problem here - this is what I found
 

The first hint that I had that there was something was wrong with the CD/DVD drive was when I put in a copy of a DVD that a friend of mine created with their DVD camera (product promotion) and made me a copy. It worked fine for months.

Then that same friend had problems with his burner (something about the DVD+ and - ) got that problem fixed and burned me some copies again for promotional purposes and then the trouble began.

For awhile no CD or DVD would run or even be recognized. Then I opened the iMac and pulled out lovely "dust bunnies" and blew out the rest of the dust with the canned air. Still no improvements.

Finally I threw the computer out a 13 story building and now it works :)
(I wish) but seriously this is what I have accomplised so far. I took two nights to try every single CD or DVD that I had and all but 4 of them would not be recognized. Then I reset PRAM, did a disk first aid (would like to rebuild the desktop but don't know how to do it on the iMac (Tiger) and now I have 25 CD's that will work perfectly BUT every one of them are either data backup files that I had created or photo Cd's or some mps backup files. No original software CD's will work and and if I put in a blank Cd - drag files (it will copy) try to burn and it appears to burn until I get to the verify disk and it shows an error message.

I have 3 music programs (I have a music studio in my home) that require the original CD to run. I FINALLY LAST NIGHT AS 1:30 AM got it to work.

I took the originals of those 3 to my other iMac with a working CD/DVD burner - named the blank disc EXACLTY what the original was named. Dragged the files onto the blank CD - and burned the new backup CD - went back to this computer - put in the newly burned CD reinstalled the program from the backup and all three programs run perfectly.

My son (who was going to fix my computer (but I didn't know which month:) thinks that either the DVD drive is locked into a project that got interrupted or I need to do a firmware update.

Any thoughts from the rest of you

Ellie:rolleyes:

If you have on of the machines listed below you might try this firmware update from apple:

SuperDrive Firmware Update

About this update
Delivers updated SuperDrive firmware to improve reliability when accessing DVD and CD media.

Systems:
- Power Mac G5 (June 2004)
- Power Mac G5 (Late 2004)
- eMac (USB 2.0)

available here: http://www.apple.com/support/downloa...areupdate.html

firmware update from Apple
 

My imac G4 flat panel machine does not have a super drive it has the combo drive.

I just spent some time online with my son trying to find the firmware update for the actual CD/DVD drive that is in my imac G4 (HL-DT-ST RW/DVD GCC-4120B) and the best I came up with was LG electronics site and the updater for that model drive was for windows.

My question is: has anyone here in this forum actually solved this problem "completely" and tell the rest of us how you did it.

my Combo now plays DVDs!
 

Hi dleimer,

My 700mhz iMac flat screen with combo drive has (or had) always problems recognising most DVDs, and the few that it did play were choppy. I have no problem reading/writing CDs.

Over 18 months, I think I'd tried everything - also looked for a firmware update (its a Pioneer dcr-111) and also only found one for windows, and I haven't reinstalled Apple dvd player (I lost the original disc)

Then just before Christmas I installed Graphic Driver Update 1.0 from Apple (for OS X v10.2.8), and Yes - I cautiously say that things are finally working fine! :) :)

ALL DVDs will now mount and play, though it could take up to 5 minutes for them to mount.

a few other thoughts... (bearing in mind that my combo drive always recognised at least 1 dvd all along, maybe a different prob than yours - and I'm still using Jaguar.)

- I don't know if its possible, but could your friends DVD have realigned your laser lens???
- has your region code been changed? My machine was previously owned by an American and I've wondered if mine had been changed.
- try the freeware VLC media player from videolan.org - at one stage it worked better than dvd player.
strangely, vlc v0.8.1 works but not the latest version,

to sum up - Apple Graphics Driver Update 1.0 worked for me!
good luck,
C.

iMac G4 CD/DVD problem
 

your post was interesting and I downloaded the Graphic Driver Update 1.0 BUT I didn't notice that is makes corrections in system 10.2. 8 - I am running system 10.3.9

I tried to find a Graphic Driver Update for 10.3.9 but no luck. Any ideas??

Ellie

Well it is several hours later and I am still trying to solve this - I am 60 years old and at this rate I will be 100 by the time I get the correct answer.

I tried making some changes to my preferences - telling the computer what to do when I insert a blank Cd - blank DVD - etc. When I put in a purchased DVD it tells me I have inserted a blank DVD - any ideas guys?

graphics driver for 10.3.6
 

Hi Ellie,

I know it sounds strange that I'd been looking for a DVD firmware or driver update, couldn't find one, and tried a Graphics update that seems to have solved my prob, but there you go!

I had a quick search and there's a RADEON Graphics update for 10.3... at https://support.ati.com/ics/support/...asp?deptID=894
I don't know what iMacs (if any) have Radeon cards, but there may be something there. Try also driverguide.com.

I got my update from Apple, although it didn't show up on Software Update.

I'll let you know if I come across anything over the weekend.
Good luck,
Ciaran.

hi, i have the exact same problem as ellie with mac os x 3.9. is there no answer to this after all these years?????

Hi Bugzimerit,
I'd almost forgotten about this great forum :o thanks for reminding me!

I'm afraid I don't have a definitive solution - I just watch DVDs on the dvd player now!
I have since moved on to 10.4.11

I've just tried playing 2 dvds - One is LOTR, the Two Towers, second-hand and pretty scratched, and it plays perfectly,
The second is LOTR, The Fellowship, which has never worked on this iMac, and guess what? It still doesn't. I bought it new and watched it twice! It just doesn't load. Both are region 2 discs.


Any joy on your side Ellie? I didn't have the same probs - any CD I burn will work on any cd player.

Ciaran.

p.s. - update - The Fellowship has just spun up (after 10 mins, as it used to,) but it is jumpy as anything and unwatchable :(