Hardware not installed error with Apple DVD Player
If you launch the Apple DVD Player from the RIT Mac OS 9 disk image on many models of Macintosh (including, but not limited to the Power Macintosh G4, iMac DV, iMac DV+, and PowerBook G3), you will see a "hardware not installed" error.
Apple's newer computers use a different version of the Apple DVD Player application than in the past. The new version supports only software decoding of MPEG video on DVD-Video discs. The DVD Player application installed on the Mac OS 9 image is currently one that requires a hardware decoder. The MPEG video hardware decoder is not an option on newer (year 2000) Macintosh systems.
While the applications support different types of encoders, the software encoder version required by new Macs uses the same application name and has a higher version number than the hardware encoder version. The software encoder version, however, does not support hardware decoders and does not work on systems that have that feature installed.
Therefore, the older DVD Player is installed for compatibility with older systems. It is installed as part of the "Universal Install" option in the Apple Mac OS 9 installer. The new DVD Player application is available as a free download from "Apple Software Update" Web site and, if installed, will replace the "older" hardware decoder version completely.
The next revision of the Mac OS 9 system image includes the latest software decoder-enabled version of the DVD Player program in the "Apple Extras" folder, so that at least you won't have to fetch it from the Internet to install it.
