24 Hours of Leopard: Improved DVD player

Feature: The DVD Player is almost all new, with video improvements, an Autozoom feature, and a new interface.

How it works: Strangely, this big update has gone relatively unnoticed. But it will be noticed as soon as you put a DVD in-- the app has a whole new fullscreen interface, including a time slider, and what Apple is calling an "Image Bar" (those are artist's renditions, so hopefully it'll look a lot better than that), which will let you access your chapters while watching the movie. There's an AutoZoom feature to deal with letterboxing, and it will "float" above your other applications, making it easier to watch movies while you're supposed to be working. Finally, videophiles will be happy to know that Apple is promising better video quality with "Adaptive Video Analyzation technology." Sounds good to us.

Who will use it: Anyone who likes movies is the obvious answer here, but I'm going to go a little more subtle-- anyone who likes movies and working on their Mac. So, you know, Roger Ebert. And the folks at Pixar.

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Source: http://www.tuaw.com/tag/24-hours-of-leopard/

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Analysis / Opinion Multimedia Software Video

Feature: The DVD Player is almost all new, with video improvements, an Autozoom feature, and a new interface.How it works: Strangely, this...

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ecobore

Now we just have get around this total Bullshit of only being able to change regions five times. Hell, I travel to more regions than that in a year sometimes! Am I just NOT ALLOWED to watch DVDs in these countries? This is SUCH CRAP!!!

November 16 2007 at 7:48 PM Report abuse Permalink rate up rate down Reply

Eric Elliott

@scott

"Would love to upgrade to Leopard but don't want to lose the ability to play DVDs on my 1.5 GHz PowerBook."

You can still watch DVDs with the new DVD player on your 1.5 GHz PowerBook, you just won't have the "improved deinterlacing".

October 27 2007 at 10:37 PM Report abuse Permalink rate up rate down Reply

R. Cabell

@Carlos

"Now if only there was support for HD-DVD and/or the lesser Blu-Ray Disc."

There, fixed it for you.

October 26 2007 at 5:23 PM Report abuse Permalink rate up rate down Reply

@Luigi193

You watch your school on DVDs?

What are you, a terrorist??

October 26 2007 at 9:47 AM Report abuse Permalink rate up rate down Reply

scott

Would love to upgrade to Leopard but don't want to lose the ability to play DVDs on my 1.5 GHz PowerBook. Can I use the version of DVD Player that I'm running now (whatever came with Panther) after upgrading to Leopard?

October 26 2007 at 9:23 AM Report abuse Permalink rate up rate down Reply

Luigi193

I've used this new feature, but they took away one thing... The little black floating box that tells you how much time is left (AKA the navigator). I watch my school on DVDs, and i always had the controller saying how much time has elapsed and tucked to the right is the navigator telling how much time is left...I don't know why, but i liked it because the navigator blended into the background. On this, it disappears after you move your mouse, and is to noticeable to leave up all the time...

This complaint will most likely only apply to me, but yeah...
BUT the slider fast forward is a HUGE "duh" improvement...now where is that freaking "go to" time option....

October 26 2007 at 9:10 AM Report abuse Permalink rate up rate down Reply

eliterrell

Does de-interlacing still sometimes make interlaced video look worse?

October 26 2007 at 8:55 AM Report abuse Permalink rate up rate down Reply

Dan Woods

@Carlos
Close; Microsoft can make good software, but they are too Chicken-S**t to say "that's a bad idea" to the MPAA and RIAA, just as they are too Chicken-S**t to say "our software will only support quality hardware" to OEMs.
Apple are brave enough to say "our Idea is better" to the MPAA and RIAA and say "your cheap Hardware won't work with MacOSX because it's cheap crap". That's why Apple products will always be better.

October 26 2007 at 2:35 AM Report abuse Permalink rate up rate down Reply

andrew

oops. what i mean is that i know that tiger can see the hardware (in system profiler) but the software to decode the commercial hd-dvds is NOT.

October 26 2007 at 1:19 AM Report abuse Permalink rate up rate down Reply

andrew

has anyone tested the xbox 360 hd-dvd drive on leopard yet? i know that Tiger will recognize the hardware, but the special software to actually decode the commercial dvds.

the good thing about hd-dvd is that there is no region coding for it.

October 26 2007 at 1:17 AM Report abuse Permalink rate up rate down Reply