DVDs not playing in boxee?

[iamsuperman]

I'm not able to get any type of dvd media working in Boxee. I have an Intel Mac Mini 1.83 / 1 gb memory, etc.

Please advise.

[marcel]

hi

what type of dvd media have you tried ? what happened when you tried to play the files?

[iamsuperman]

standard dvd media from say netflix. when i play items which are already ripped i ahve no issues playing out of the video_ts folder.

ideas?

[tbtalbott]

I've not had a chance to do much testing with it, but all I got when trying to play a DVD was blank screen in the best of circumstances. In another case, I got the FBI Warning and then it was like two programs were trying to read the DVD. I saw that "DVD Player" was a process running. I killed it, but then it was just a blank screen.

ProductName: Mac OS X
ProductVersion: 10.5.5
BuildVersion: 9F33

Model Name: Mac mini
Model Identifier: Macmini2,1
Processor Name: Intel Core 2 Duo
Processor Speed: 2 GHz
Number Of Processors: 1
Total Number Of Cores: 2
L2 Cache: 4 MB
Memory: 1 GB
Bus Speed: 667 MHz
Boot ROM Version: MM21.009A.B00

PIONEER DVD-RW DVR-K06:

Firmware Revision: Q614
Interconnect: ATAPI
Burn Support: Yes (Apple Shipping Drive)
Cache: 2000 KB
Reads DVD: Yes
CD-Write: -R, -RW
DVD-Write: -R, -R DL, -RW, +R, +R DL, +RW
Write Strategies: CD-TAO, CD-SAO, CD-Raw, DVD-DAO

Graphics/Displays:

Intel GMA 950:

Chipset Model: GMA 950
Type: Display
Bus: Built-In
VRAM (Total): 64 MB of shared system memory
Vendor: Intel (0x8086)
Device ID: 0x27a2
Revision ID: 0x0003
Displays:
NTSC/PAL:
Display Type: CRT
Resolution: 1024 x 768 @ 60 Hz
Depth: 32-bit Color
Core Image: Hardware Accelerated
Interlaced: Yes
Main Display: Yes
Mirror: Off
Online: Yes
Quartz Extreme: Supported
Rotation: Supported
Television: Yes

[poprock]

I have a similar problem.

Put a DVD in the Mac drive (regular Region 2 DVD, purchased or rented) and nothing happens. If I navigate to the DVD as a movie source and press play, I get a blank screen and no sound.

Latest version of Boxee on an Intel Mac Mini.

This is frustrating as Boxee makes it difficult to even use Front Row to view the disc instead. The Apple remote is taken over by Boxee, so the only way I could get Front Row to launch was by changing my System Prefs to launch Front Row when a DVD is inserted. After doing that I still couldn’t use my remote, and had to use the keyboard to control Front Row.

Ideally, Boxee would play DVDs so that I don’t need to worry about the Boxee/Front Row/Apple remote clashes!

[SosiaIsOn]

I also have this issue, when I select play it doesn't do anything and when I go to "now playing" it has a blank screen. Hope this gets fixed as it is my primary place to watch DVD's.

On Lep iMac with super drive.

[pzosa]

I am getting the same thing with my Mac Mini...also with Ripped images...if I "fast forward" a few times the blank screen goes away but then I am stuck in the DVD menu and the Apple Remote will not navigate (see my similar comment in another thread)

[marcel]

thanks guys we will look into these issues..

[tbtalbott]

Just want to add that I am still having similar issues with the latest build on both a Mac Mini and a MacBook Pro.

The first major problem is that when I insert a DVD, DVD player starts up. So, apparently Boxee isn't registering as a player correctly. This causes lots of simultaneous reading of the dvd and it is painful getting out of the Boxee player. Somehow, FrontRow gets around this problem.

If I put the DVD in before starting Boxee on the Mini and quit DVD player after it comes up, then I can start the DVD playback in Boxee. This appears to be working ok on the Mini. On the MBPro, I either get garbled video or the player quits right after the warnings.

Both machines are fully updated to the latest Leopard, iTunes, QT, etc...

Model Name: MacBook Pro
Model Identifier: MacBookPro4,1
Processor Name: Intel Core 2 Duo
Processor Speed: 2.4 GHz
Number Of Processors: 1
Total Number Of Cores: 2
L2 Cache: 3 MB
Memory: 2 GB
Bus Speed: 800 MHz
Boot ROM Version: MBP41.00C1.B03
SMC Version: 1.27f1

Model Name: Mac mini
Model Identifier: Macmini2,1
Processor Name: Intel Core 2 Duo
Processor Speed: 2 GHz
Number Of Processors: 1
Total Number Of Cores: 2
L2 Cache: 4 MB
Memory: 1 GB
Bus Speed: 667 MHz
Boot ROM Version: MM21.009A.B00
SMC Version: 1.19f2

Thanks for all the great work and content. Getting DVD to work would be one less reason to have to kill Boxee (when it doesn't want to quit :).

[poprock]

Okay, this is odd. Looks like it could be region-related?

My Mac Mini’s DVD drive is set to Region 2 (UK). Boxee will not play Region 2 DVDs (black screen, no activity). I tried putting a Region 1 (US) DVD into the drive. Boxee played it just fine.

This is really strange. If I try to play a R1 DVD through DVD Player, or Front Row, I just get a message telling me that I’ll have to change the drive’s region setting and that I can only do so five times before it locks forever.

How come Boxee can play the disc? How come it can’t play a R2 disc like it should be able to?

[hermeneut]

Okay, this is odd. Looks like it could be region-related?

My Mac Mini’s DVD drive is set to Region 2 (UK). Boxee will not play Region 2 DVDs (black screen, no activity). I tried putting a Region 1 (US) DVD into the drive. Boxee played it just fine.

This is really strange. If I try to play a R1 DVD through DVD Player, or Front Row, I just get a message telling me that I’ll have to change the drive’s region setting and that I can only do so five times before it locks forever.

How come Boxee can play the disc? How come it can’t play a R2 disc like it should be able to?

So any news on how this can be fixed? I'm having precisely the same problem. VLC plays multiple regions on my un-hacked MacMini.

[nwistheone]

I had the same problem with Boxee not playing DVDs on my Mac Mini (1.83GHz). My regional settings on my Mac are set for USA, but I changed the regional setting in Boxee to UK and voila. It worked.

Hope this helps.

[poprock]

No luck for me. My Boxee region is set to UK, but it doesn’t play Region 2 DVDs. Only Region 1 discs play. I’m still having to revert to Front Row to play rented DVDs.

[macshome]

Hi all,

I'm having similar issues in Boxee with DVDs. Once I was sure to turn off DVD Player auto-launching in the OS I was able to test things on 3 different Macs.

All running the latest alpha of Boxee that I downloaded today. All Macs are running 10.5.6 and all Apple updates.

On a MacPro 8 core I get the FBI warnings and then a failure back to the Boxee UI. I get the same result on a MBP 17" 2.5. On my MacMini 1.6 I don't even get the warnings, just a fail back to the UI. The only real difference I can think of here is that the MacPro and MacBook Pro have SupderDrive units, while the Mini has a Combo.

Overall I'm really impressed with Boxee and very much appreciate the work being put into it. I've been playing with a Mini as a HTPC the last week and had settled on Front Row + Sapphire, but with all the streaming options in Boxee I can give up cable. :)

Right now I'm going to play with the Boxee launcher plugin for Front Row so that I can still have easy DVD access. With Netflix as a major source of media in the house, a simple DVD player is a must.

What can I do to help test this?

Update... I'm now using the FR launcher plugin that NewfD90 made (http://forum.boxee.tv/showthread.php?p=18993&posted=1#post18993) and things are pretty good. Would still like to help with testing that anyone wants done for native DVD playback on the Mac. I've noticed that other XBMC projects, like Plex, don't have DVD playback either...

[bdashrad]

i emailed in a log file pertaining to my issues playing dvds on my macbook. hope you can work these problems out, would love to use boxee even more.

[neilinglis]

FYI I posted a workaround in this thread. (http://forum.boxee.tv/showpost.php?p=53777&postcount=18)