Bare Bones Software is pleased to announce the release and immediate
download availability of the “DVD Player Helper”.
Beginning with the Power Mac G4 AGP (“Sawtooth”) machines, Apple introduced
version 2.0 of the Apple DVD Player software. This version (and subsequent
releases) of the Apple DVD Player do not require DVD decoding and playback
hardware in order to play DVD video disks. However, at the same time, Apple
introduced a limitation into the DVD player: if you have MacsBug (Apple’s
machine-level debugger) installed, the Apple DVD Player will display an
error message, and then exit.
If you’re a developer, and you use your machine for both software
development and recreation, the error message is probably frustratingly
familiar.
Until now, the only way to watch DVDs using the Apple DVD Player has been
to remove MacsBug from your system folder, restart the machine, watch your
DVD video(s), put MacsBug back in the system folder, and restart the
machine again. An inconvenient process, to be sure.
The DVD Player Helper performs exactly one function: it allows you to use
the Apple DVD Player software to watch DVD videos on a Mac on which MacsBug
is installed. The Helper is for use on the Power Mac G4 AGP (“Sawtooth”),
FireWire PowerBook (“Pismo”), and iMac DV.
The DVD Player Helper is freeware, and is available immediately for
downloading from our Web site at:
(http://web.barebones.com/free/free.html).
