DVD-ROM/Video impressions

Matthew Schroeder has a new Rev. 3 G3/300 minitower with the DVD-ROM/Video option. He writes that "the performance of the machine and the DVD-Video software is impressive to say the least." But there are a few glitches. In particular:

"While Apple's DVD-Video Player software played most of my DVD-Video titles without a hitch, it decidedly does not work with MGM's 2001:A Space Odyssey. The disk loads, and the menu screen appears, but at this point the menu options are un-selectable, and the buttons on Apple's DVD controller do nothing. The problem seems to reside within the player software itself.

There is no longer a separate control for the built-in speaker. In the Monitors & Sound control panel, there is only one volume slider: Computer System Volume. While not a glitch, technically, it seems an oversight on Apple's part, as I have my system hooked up to a rather large stereo system, and the tinny whine of the small built-in speaker doesn't mix well with the other signals. If I use the Mute option, everything is muted. A work-around is to use the Sound control panel (included in the Apple Extras folder). This allowed me to mute the internal speaker while leaving the volume slider up."

Jeff Leigh was not so lucky. He had to go back to the Sound control panel from Mac OS 7.6 before he could get this to work.

Update: Bradley Laue reports that, while reverting to the older software works, these older versions do not provide the level of sound quality you get with the newer software.