MCE Combo Drive for Wallstreet

#1 Wed, 1 Feb 2012 - 01:31 68kMLA

http://www.macworld.com/article/19425/2001/10/mce.html

Does anyone have one of these?

Is it possible to get hardware assisted DVD playback with MCE's card under X?

As my WS is slowly turning into my main PPC machine, I'm looking into all upgrades possible and the possibility of hacking a slot loading DVD/CD burner into the WS is EXTREMELY tempting. }

EDIT:

Support pages, look under Xcarét Pro Expansion Bay CD-RW and CD-RW/DVD Combo Drives

http://www.mcetech.com/support.html

The DVD decoder card is also available for sale and is on clearance!

http://store.mcetech.com/Merchant2/merchant.mvc?Screen=PROD&Product_Code=DVDMPG2

#2 Wed, 1 Feb 2012 - 02:23 68kMLA

The DVD decoder card never worked under X - it's OS 9 only I'm afraid. If you have an upgraded WS however, try loading the DVD movies under VLC under X - you might be lucky in a windowed mode.

A slot-loading drive sounds good

You could probably cannibalise a good tray-load DVD burner from a generic PC laptop in there though with less fuss.

JB

#3 Wed, 1 Feb 2012 - 03:09 68kMLA

I went ahead and snagged one of the MCE decoder cards while I could. I don't have an apple card and DVD under 9 is better than DVD under nothing. (Wonders if card has Linux support...)

Do we know if there are differences between the Apple Card and the MCE card?

#4 Wed, 1 Feb 2012 - 03:18 68kMLA

It certainly looks the same as the Apple card, right down to the black sticker - wouldn't be surprised if it is

#5 Wed, 1 Feb 2012 - 03:22 68kMLA

Dang!

Oh well, still can't beat the price, especially since I haven't seen any here or on eBay.

Besides, like you said, the G4 500 might be able to software decode it anyway. (Once I get a fan and stop it overheating.)

#6 Wed, 1 Feb 2012 - 16:02 68kMLA

Hmmm now. I wonder if you could finagle that to work in a PCI-Cardbus adapter.