Playing Windows DVDs on Your Mac

One of the joys of having a DVD-equipped Mac is being able to watch full-length Hollywood films right on your own computer screen. But as you may have discovered, not every DVD title that you rent from your local video store plays correctly. Turns out that some DVDs are encoded specifically for Windows machines. Pop one of these Windows-flavored discs into your PowerBook's DVD drive and instead of getting a full-screen movie, all you see is an error message stating that the Apple DVD Player is "having problems" playing the disc because it's "dirty or scratched."

Of course, the DVD is probably neither dirty nor scratched; it's just Mac-stupid. But here's a way to work around that nasty problem: Just press Command+Option+I while inserting your DVD. This forces the DVD to mount, ignoring any of the PC-specific code recorded on it. After the disc is mounted, Apple DVD Player will recognize it; you should be able to play it normally.