[franksterling]

ohh . would have been too nice.
but thanks for the help!

[Primadog]

One problem you are facing is the atom processor is not powerful enough to smoothly decode a dvd, even if it's an image file. You're much better off just ripping the video.

[franksterling]

unfortunately i cant. the image contains 5 vob's each a bit more than 1 gig in size. the dvd contains about 100 short sequences. cutting the vob's in sequences is far too much work and very unpractical if the patient sits in the chair and watches the screen while i am browsing through the files trying to find the one i want to show.
video playback from dvd works fine on the 10v even with vlc but i have problems switching to the dvd menu in vlc while the videos are playing.

[minimalpc]

Originally Posted by Side.Step.Society

Negative. Just gives me the error.

I think it'll probably require an edited FakeSMC kext to get anywhere.

Did you try the supposed MacBookAir FakeSMC kext referenced in this post of the previously mentioned thread?

[humph]

AFAIK, no need for MBA version FakeSMC. All it does is cosmetic stuff related to SMC version # displayed in system profiler.

I have basic MacBookAir stuff in smbios.plist, and I can open DVD player w/o external drive, and "open" a DVD folder on HD, runs fine.
DVD folder created by eg: MacTheRipper. Not using an H264 or MPEG4 rip, a pure MPEG2 (std DVD) backup copy. I do have the (costs money) QT MPEG2 decode package however, and not sure if that's relevant. Didn't think it was relevant for use of DVD player, but is needed for some video edit apps.

Contents of smbios.plist:

<?xml version="1.0" encoding="UTF-8"?>
<!DOCTYPE plist PUBLIC "-//Apple Computer//DTD PLIST 1.0//EN" "http://www.apple.com/DTDs/PropertyList-1.0.dtd">
<plist version="1.0">
<dict>
<key>SMbiosvendor</key>
<string>Apple Inc.</string>
<key>SMbiosversion</key>
<string>MBA11.88Z.00BB.B03.0803171226</string>
<key>SMboardmanufacter</key>
<string>Apple Inc.</string>
<key>SMboardid</key>
<string>Mac-F4208CA9</string>
<key>SMfamily</key>
<string>Mac</string>
<key>SMmanufacter</key>
<string>Apple Inc.</string>
<key>SMname</key>
<string>MacBookAir1,1</string>
<key>SMproductname</key>
<string>MacBookAir1,1</string>
<key>SMsystemversion</key>
<string>1.0</string>
<key>SMserial</key>
<string>XXXXXXXXX</string> //not showing actual serial here..as it's from my real mac. these words not in the .plist of course.
</dict>
</plist>

---------- Post added at 07:23 PM ---------- Previous post was at 06:59 PM ----------

Originally Posted by franksterling

no. unfortunately i am not that into it that i would feel confident to experiment without knowing that it will work (failure would mean lots of work redoing the os and all the programs + data).
if there is no way then i probably just have to live with it.


regards

jens

Edits to smbios.plist are not going to make you mac (10v) unbootable, but may mess up some functionality. So worst case is you boot and restore (rename) the backup copy you'd made. But if you've got /Extra on a hidden EFI partition, then yeah, thats a pain to get mounted so you can even start to edit the file, and messing up EFI partition could certainly mean you'd need to re-run the installer to restore boot-ability. But very unlikely you'd do enough damage to need to reinstall everything.

[Herojam]

Hi there,
Actually i was the person who asked for help in the HP forum as i am also interested in getting my DVD player to work in my Dell Mini 10V.
I have the same problem as the writer of this thread as i'm not computer savvy and i am quite afraid to try doing the mods suggested. I tried the method by changing the DVD Player file using a Hexeditor by changing all internal occurrences to external in that file.I did not have any success as i think that procedure only works with the DVD player in Leopard but not OSX 10.6.2 (SL) . Most threads still point to this method in spite of the fact that its outdated and does not work every time someone asks for help regarding using an external DVD drive and the 10V. I wish the latest NBI and NBM can incorporate some programming to make the DVD player work but that remains a wish.
Well i hope that someone can come up with a modified program that we can just replace by a cut and paste in the DVD player. This will be really useful for us who have no knowledge of programming or computer codes.

I remain keen to follow this thread and hope i too can benefit and learn to solve this problem as for me even latest VLC does not work for some reason. I have to resort to Handbrake on my real MACBook pro to downsize DVD movies and then transfer them to my 10V where it works very well . No lag or slowness .

Hoping to find a solution.

Thank you

Herojam

[humph]

Originally Posted by Herojam

Hi there,
..... as i'm not computer savvy .... I tried the method by changing the DVD Player file using a Hexeditor by changing all internal occurrences to external in that file....
Herojam

Herojam, I'd say you are pretty computer savvy if you're using Hex Editors!!

So, this smbios.plist way is way easier, compared to hexeditting.

I found some tech notes on what NBI does in terms of installation. (I don't use it, so I can't just check my device). Looks like it just creates the /Extra folder on the main partition (and not on a separate hidden EFI one). I guess the Extra folder is set to be "hidden". That being the case, the process is very simple...

1. Download TextWrangler (latest is v3.1). Nice word processor with added capabilities. It's free. Install and also agree to installing the command line tools/admin options when it's first launched.

2. Launch. Use 'Open Hidden File" option, and you'll be presented with a file browser that shows hidden files as well as normal ones.

3. Navigate up to the top of the file structure ( ie /), and look for folder called Extra (/Extra). Look inside that for smbios.plist, select that.

4. First, make backup - do a Save As "smbios.plist.bak" or whatever you prefer, and save it back into the same /Extra folder. Text Wrangler will be able to write to hidden and admin-write-only folders, but it will ask you for your admin/su password.

5. Now, re-open the smbios.plist file, and make edits to the stuff as needed. You'll be asked to enter admin password. Edit references to model as MBA, and I guess references to boardID and biosversion to be safe; but not sure that they are even necessary. Save.

6. Reboot.

Check System Profiler/AboutThisMac+"more info.." to see if changes have been recognized.

EDIT this bit:
Tech Note: If you open, edit and then save smbios.plist in TextWranger, the ownership and permissions are retained.
If you create a new file (for example, you somehow trashed the original and had to restore from your backup using "save as" to become a newly restored smbios.plist), it will have modified ownership and permissions. But even the modified ownership/permissions does not seem to matter (I just tested it).
However, if you want to reset those, that's easy & safe anyway. In terminal:

cd /Extra
sudo chmod 755 smbios.plist
sudo chown root:wheel smbios.plist

Of course, there are other ways to go about this. But seems it's entirely possible to do this with nothing more than a nice text editor (TextWrangler).

[Herojam]

Hi There,
Thank you for your reply. Believe me i really am not familiar with all these stuff.
I have downloaded Text Wranger from Version Tracker.
Instruction 1 & 2 are Ok.

"Instruction 3. Navigate up to the top of the file structure ( ie /), and look for folder called Extra (/Extra). Look inside that for smbios.plist, select that. "

Which file structure do i look at? The whole MaxOSx file structure or the NBI file structure? I'm a bit confused here.

After making the back up of the smbios .plist , do i follow your smbios.plist and copy word for word or can i cut and paste as above as you have done of course omitting some instructions which do not apply.

I think i need some help here. as i really do not understand instruction 5. How do i edit and make amendments to the original smbios.plist.?

Sorry but please bear with me.


Awaiting your help.

Thank you.

Herojam

[humph]

Herojam,
np.

#3. I meant the complete file system, ie the "root" directory, where stuff like Users, Applications, System, kernel and bunch of other hidden stuff is stored. Should also be a "Extra" folder. Inside the Extra folder, should be stuff like DSDT.aml and smbios.plist. If you do have Extra folder, but do not have smbios.plist, then you can easily make one (see end of post).

#5. Assuming you have an smbios.plist, it may be safer to type in manually as some website forums have hidden characters in the text on screen, not just copy/paste from the post above. The only critical item you'd need to change is:

<key>SMproductname</key>
<string>MacBookAir1,1</string>

The other stuff even related to MBA is cosmetic, or at least does not have any impact on whether you can open DVD app. I tested that using smbios.plist from some iMac and changing only the SMproductname.

if you don't have an smbios.plist, then (using TextWrangler) copy all lines from above post; enter a serial number & delete the comment..or just delete the two lines <key> and <string> related to SMserial. Then save as smbios.plist into Extra folder.

[minimalpc]

I can verify that creating a /Extra/SMBios.plist file using the MacBookAir entries humph posted above absolutely DOES allow DVDPlayer to start on my Mini 10v without any drive attached and with no modifications to DVDPlayer required. I used humph's entries verbatim, except I deleted the SMSerial key and its X'ed out value (and the comment, of course). At least on my 10v, there was no existing SMBios.plist in /Extra (I'm assuming NBI doesn't install one), so no need to back it up. I am going to formally request that meklort consider adding this to the next version of NBI, as this small change does add value to the drive-less netbook by allowing use of the native DVDPlayer to play VIDEO_TS folders and DVD ISO files (when mounted).

Thanks humph!