Blurry DVD playback under Mac OS X 10.3.6?
MacFixIt reader Guy Kuo reports a problem with DVD playback under Mac OS X 10.3.6 for which we are seeking confirmation:
"Mac OS X 10.3.6 appears to contain a DVD playback flaw that affects my G4 Powerbook 12 inch Aluminum and a G4 Digital Audio with GForce2 Mx video card. Interestingly, this problem does not affect a G3 iBook running the same version OS and DVD Player application. The flaw appears if a DVD is played using the Apple DVD Player 4.0 application. Desktop video is not blurred, only video playback. The video image is blurred severely both vertically and horizontally. I design and create video test patterns that are in home theater calibration DVD's so I readily recognize this type of image degradation.
"Examination using image resolution tests on test DVD's shows that half the vertical and horizontal image resolution is lost due to this new blurring that has appeared with OS 10.3.6. The test patterns contain material up to the limits of DVD recording resolution and they are clearly lost under OS 10.3.6. Booting the same Powerbook from another drive that has a OSX 10.3.5 system allows it to play DVD's perfectly once again. Boot back into 10.3.6 and the blurring recurs. I even tried re-applying the 10.3.6 combo update in case an OS component was damaged, but that did not correct the problem.
"There is a large difference in how DVD playback is being done between 10.3.5 and 10.3.6, at least on my G4 machines. Given that a G3 iBook is not affected, I do not know how many different system configurations are affected. If you are unlucky enough to be so affected, the blurred playback is barely competitive with VHS tape playback and definitely no match for the increasingly improved Windows XP MCE competition.
If you are experiencing a similar issue, please drop us a line at late-breakers@macfixit.com.
Resources
DVDs full of JPEGs. For some stange reason the internal drive of my Ti book
rejected them (It is a combo drive) whereas my external La Cie D2 burner
displayed them both with no trouble. I am running 10.3.6
tearing (as with an LCD) on my Apple Studio CRT monitor and on the television
set via a DVI-DVI cable - The tearing effect worsens with increased image
movement. If I play the same DVD's on another G4 with 10.3.5 they play
smoothly with no image tearing.
I'm using 10.3.6 on a dual G4 1.42Ghz 2GB DDR SDRAM and an OEM ATi 9700
graphics card.
Yes, I have the same issue you have described. PB 15" G4, 1.25GB RAM. Only
since 10.3.6.
blurry playback on systems with NVidia video cards once they upgraded to
10.3.6.
eMac's Combo drive and took a quick look. Everything's just fine, as it's
always been.
Comment: Not that I'm bragging. I'm relieved. Also, my perception is that the
ordinary foot soldier eMacs (later models at least) seem to be far less prone
to problems after upgrades, security patches, etc. It's the higher-tech
models and the early adopters who take the biggest hits. (So far!) My true
sympathy - Mac users paying the premium for premium performance
shouldn't have to go through all this stuff. I hope this gets sorted out -
soonest.
- by 123 December 16, 2004 3:52 AM PST
- Looks like it's time to play with some .kexts.
- Like this Reply to this comment
-
(6 Comments)