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DVD Playback

This comparison has been updated for Windows Vista and moved to our new website Mac vs. Windows

Overview

Both operating systems will play DVDs, although XP itself does not include a decompressor. DVDs may contain additional content aside from video, such as DVD@ccess web links, which both operating systems understand. Occasionally, DVDs may supply Windows software (for instance, the "Alien" DVD comes with a Windows screensaver). For obvious reasons, OS X can not play any Windows software supplied on DVDs.

Mac OS X

OS X comes bundled with the software DVD Player to view DVDs on a Mac.

dvd-panther.gif
DVD Player (horizontal mode, with side tray expanded)

DVD Player is pretty straightforward. Pop in a DVD and the player launches and starts the DVD, adjusting your screen resolution if necessary. Control it with the floating controller or via the main menu bar. In full screen mode, the control panel will disappear so that you can watch your movie without obstruction (if you have a Quartz Extreme-capable Mac, you can set the controller to fade out smoothly rather than simply disappearing). You can watch movies in a window as well, which can be resized. DVDs will continue playing if DVD Player is in the background. DVDs can be ejected directly from the controller.


DVD Player preferences

DVD Player has some impressive user settings. For instance, users can create their own bookmarks - useful if you like to jump to a specific spot on the DVD that is not a pre-defined chapter. Users can specify in DVD Player preferences whether to play discs upon insertion from:

  • The beginning
  • The last position played
  • A user-defined bookmark
Alternatively, you can set DVD Player to always ask this when you insert a disc.

Other useful features include the ability to enable closed captioning when the player is muted, and to mute or pause DVDs when connecting to an audio or video chat in iChat. You can select different languages for audio, subtitles, and the DVD menu. You can specify if you would like the movie to pause when the window is minimized, or continue playing live in the dock. If you have multiple displays, you can set DVD Player to dim the other displays while a movie is playing. The opacity of status windows can closed captioning can be adjusted; in addition, you can specify the font to be used for closed captioning, along with its size.

Finally, DVD Player has a "video zoom" feature that lets you manually adjust a DVD's aspect ratio. This is particularly useful when viewing widescreen DVDs on a standard display, as you can remove the horizontal black bars by zooming in on the video.

Windows XP

XP uses Windows Media Player for DVD playback. Although XP itself does not include a decompressor, virtually every machine capable of running XP has one installed. If your computer came with a DVD drive (or if you purchased a DVD drive) within the past 4 years, it will include a decompresser.

WMP can fetch all kinds of information about the DVD you are viewing. Chapter listings, cast and crew, the studio, and even the cover art are all retrieved. WMP can display your DVD either full screen or in a window.

wmp-dvd.jpg
DVD Playback in WMP10 (video not shown).

Conclusion

Disappointingly, XP lacks an included DVD decompressor. If you are unable to find an installed DVD decoder, you can purchase one from the same vendors from which PC manufacturers license theirs. Alternatively, there are some free DVD codecs that come with such free media players as VLC and mPlayer. While WMP bests DVD Player in its ability to provide in-depth movie information, DVD Player outshines it overall with its convenient extra features, such as the ability to create bookmarks and to manually adjust the DVD aspect ratio.

Mac OS X: 9
Windows XP: 1

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