12-03-2009, 11:54 PM

I have searched and found other posts on this same subject, but did not see any answers. The problem: Apple DVD Player can't find external DVD drive, I am running on an eMac G4 with Mac OSX 10.4.11 with a Sony DVD/CD rewritable drive connected via USB. The DVD disk with show up on the desktop, but still Apple's DVD Player can't find the external DVD drive. I appreciate you help. Thanks

12-04-2009, 01:58 PM

I read something similar on a different Mac forum The macosxhints Forums - For discussing everything OS X.... The answer was, I seem to recall, that the Apple DVD Player app would not play a dvd from an external source, something to do with the necessity of a direct IDE connection. I wish I could be more specific, but it was well over a year ago.

The solution, as I recall, was to use VLC Player. I know from experience that if does work, but you need firewire connection. Even then, the transfer rate makes it less than ideal.

May I ask why you're using an external drive to play a dvd? Has the eMac's internal one died?

12-04-2009, 03:53 PM

And if you are attempting to boot from your install DVD, G4's, including the eMac, require Firewire connection to the external HDD as USB, even USB2, is just not fast enough.