So I'm trying to play DVDs and Apple's player won't even install. I understand that the Apple DVD Player is a software only implementation and that it is set not to install on machines which have have DVD decode hardware. So the question is, what version of Apple's DVD Player does work? and where does one get it?

400MHz Tangerine iMacDV MacOS 9.1 Apple DVD Player 2.7
Wind to thy wings.

cira

Have you tried an avenue such as this one?

http://support.apple.com/kb/index?page=search&product=&q=DVD%20player
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(60x) 13DT + 3PB + PTPro; (G3) 7DT/MT; (G4) 3T + PB. System 8.1 to OS 10.5.8

I thought I had, but now I see a version 2.4 and a reference specifically to the iMac DV! I have only tried versions 2.3 and 2.7 so far.

version 2.4 ==> http://docs.info.apple.com/article.html?artnum=26201

I have attempted to install Apple DVD Player 2.4 on this machine but the installer replies:

"Apple DVD Player 2.4 cannot be installed onto this machine."

It makes me wonder if I have mis-identified the hardware I'm dealing with. According to the "How to differentiate between iMacs" document:

http://support.apple.com/kb/HT1362

A tangerine CRT with a 400MHz G3 is the iMacDV, but the black letters on the front of the machine say "iMac" not "iMacDV" as I have seen on others.

I wonder what would happen if I cracked open the installer and by-passed the system detection stuff. Or perhaps if I booted the drive from this machine in another which runs DVD Player and installed from there...

I don't understand why a software only implementation should stop working when decode hardware becomes available.

Well I got it working.

The problem turned out to be that the "Apple CD/DVD Driver" extension was disabled. Enable it -> problem goes away. Disable it -> problem returns.

I discovered this by digging up DVD Player 2.0, which installs without complaint, but upon execution complained about that extension being missing. Once I enabled it, DVD Player 2.7 installed without problem.