DVD Player Initialisation Error

[Max88]

This forum is pretty awesome, I've found a few solutions to problems I've had, but now find myself posting for the first time.

I'm hardly new to Mac, but am new to OSX (10.4.4). In short, I bypassed the last 4 years and jumped from OS 9 to 10.4. I must say, I love OSX, however, I've never had so many minor issues.

I'm running a PowerMac G4; 533 Mhz; internal CD drive.

Anyway, this is the issue I'm currently having. I just bought a LaCie d2 DVD+/-RW external drive. I was assured that it was plug'n play. However, I am able to run the DVD that came with the player and also CD's, however I find that I'm not able to play any DVD films, music video's etc. In fact, when I try to load the DVD Player (v4.6.5), I get the following:

There was an initialization error
A valid DVD drive could not be found. [-70012]

Any thoughts, suggestions?

When I click the DVD on my desk top, I see two folders, VIDEO_TS and AUDIO_TS. Within these folders, I can find nothing to click to load the video.

I've read a few concerns about DVD players becoming region coded after 5 uses. Is this something I should be concerned with and how can I view DVD's from different regions, specifically region 1 and 2.

Please Help!!!

Regards
Max88

 

[Ric]

Hi there and welcome !

thanks for your kind comments.

Make as 'alias' of the DVD Player App and leave it on your Desktop...

...now drag the Video TOS folder to the Alias... DVD Player should now open and start playing.

Let us know what happens.

Apple's DVD player has always had problems with 'external' drives, I'm not sure if it 'currently' meant to work or not, I shall find out.

I have a LaCie DVD drive somewhere I'll dig it out and try it.

What model number is the LaCie drive ?

Let us know if that works first...

regards

Ric

 

[Cory Cooper]

Go

I just bought a LaCie d2 DVD?RW with LightScribe 16x...

You may just need to update the driver in OS X. Do the following:

1. Apple Menu > About This Mac
2. More Info...
3. Click Disc Burning
4. Select the LaCie drive
5. Copy and paste the info as follows:

TSSTcorp CD/DVDW SH-W162L:

Firmware Revision: LC00
Interconnect: FireWire
Burn Support: Yes (Vendor Supported)
Profile Path: /Library/DiscRecording/DeviceProfiles/LaCie.drprofile
Cache: 2048 KB
Reads DVD: Yes
CD-Write: -R, -RW
DVD-Write: -R, -RW, +R, +RW, +R DL
Burn Underrun Protection CD: Yes
Burn Underrun Protection DVD: Yes
Write Strategies: CD-TAO, CD-SAO, CD-Raw, DVD-DAO
Media: No

I will look at that and help determine what the issue is.

C

 

[Max88]

Thanks Ric and C for your help!

I tried making an alias of the DVD Player, but that didn't work. The same initilisation error occured as before.

There was an initialization error
A valid DVD drive could not be found. [-70012]

I was wondering if I might need to update the DVD driver software and assumed that since I recently did the 10.4.4 update it would have been included. According to Get Info, my DVD Player is running version 4.6.5.

The LaCie external DVD drive I bought is LaCie d2 DVD±RW Double Layer with LightScribe 16x and I am using the firewire port and have it plugged directly in to my PowerMac G4 firewire port.

The system profiler lists the following details for this unit:

TSSTcorp CD/DVDW SH-W162L:

Firmware Revision: LC00
Interconnect: FireWire
Burn Support: Yes (Unsupported)
Profile Path: None
Cache: 2048 KB
Reads DVD: Yes
CD-Write: -R, -RW
DVD-Write: -R, -RW, +R, +RW, +R DL
Burn Underrun Protection CD: Yes
Burn Underrun Protection DVD: Yes
Write Strategies: CD-TAO, CD-SAO, CD-Raw, DVD-DAO
Media:
Media Type: DVD-ROM
Blank: No
Erasable: No
Overwritable: No
Appendable: No

It is interesting comparing the details my system profile lists with those of Cory's. Could the Profile Path be the issue, I wonder?

Again, thank you both for your help!

Regards,

Max88

 

[Cory Cooper]

Go

Max88,

Same unit as me. I did install the latest software from LaCie:

LaCie DiscRecording Support 1.22 for Mac OS X 10.3.2 or later

Try that, and see if it changes yours to...

Burn Support: Yes (Vendor Supported)

 

[Ric]

If and when it gets fixed if anyone fancies writing a review of it in our new "Hardware review section"...

;-)

I'm after a LightScribe drive myself...

Regards

Ric

 

[Max88]

Thank you both, Cory and Ric.

Ric, I do really like my LaCie DVD drive with Lightscribe and would certainly recommend it to anyone.

Cory, thanks for your suggestion about updating the driver software, it certainly did work as you can see:

Burn Support: Yes (Vendor Supported)

I am still curious to know about whether I'll be able to view both my DVD's from the UK as well as DVD's I have from here in the US without regional issues. Any thoughts or suggestions about that. I sure hope that PAL and NTSC isn't an issue either.

Again, thanks a million.

Max88

Post Script.
I'm sorry if this isn't the best place to post this, but I wanted to give you a heads up. In an earlier post I mentioned that I'd been having all sorts of minor issues with Tiger, (issues such as: system not shutting down or restarting, System Profiler getting stuck, Disk Utility getting stuck, to name a few), well after some trial and error as well as some Apple help, I pin-pointed it to my Iomega HDD 160 GB Desktop Hard Drive USB2.0, which worked great when I was still using OS 9. Now that I've removed the Iomega HDD, my system and everything works brilliantly! I don't know if others have had this issue, but beware.

 

[Cory Cooper]

Go

Glad to hear it...I love mine as well.

As for the DVD region issue...DVD players need to have a region coding assigned. I believe the US is Region 1 and the UK is Region 5. Region 0 or ALL are universal discs that can be played worldwide.

As for the NTSC/PAL issue...depending on the brand/model, many of the newer home theater DVD players can play both - NTSC and PAL discs. I know my Denon DVD-2910 can. It's all up to your player's capabilities, as well as the display/monitor you connect it to. This is of course different with regards to computer drives.

In the case of a Mac, I remember reading that it will be set to either no region or the region in which it was sold in. It can be changed up to five times before becoming permanent. Guess they built a little leeway into it in case one moves about the globe. I am not sure about the Mac's NTSC/PAL compatibility.

Cheers