How to Customize Mac OS X Snow Leopard's DVD Player

By Mark L. Chambers from Mac OS X Snow Leopard All-in-One For Dummies

Mac OS X Snow Leopard's DVD Player offers several extra functions for exploring the features and content provided with a DVD movie, such as changing languages, customizing subtitles, and controlling

To access Controller extras, double-click the small tab at the rightmost (or bottom) edge of the DVD Player Controller. A trick drawer slides out, displaying the extra controls. You can also display or hide the drawer with the Controls→Open/Close Control Drawer menu command or by pressing Command+].

Expand the Controller to view additional controls.

To fine-tune the DVD audio, choose Window→Audio Equalizer, and DVD Player displays a ten-band equalizer.

To open the DVD Preferences window, choose DVD Player→Preferences. This brings up the Preferences dialog that offers six panes:

Player: The Player settings take care of much of the automation within DVD Player:
- When DVD Player Opens: You can force DVD Player to play in full-screen mode.
- When DVD Player Is Inactive: This check box determines whether DVD Player automatically pauses while you’re working in another application.
- When a Disc Is Inserted: Make the DVD Player start playing a disc automatically when the application is running already.
- When Playing Using Battery: If you’re using a MacBook, you can conserve power while using DVD Player by selecting this check box.
- When Muted: If you press the Mute button on your keyboard while a movie is playing, DVD Player automatically adds the subtitles/closed captioning.
- During iChat with Audio: If you’re watching a DVD and start an audio chat in iChat AV, you can choose to mute or pause the DVD.
- When Viewer Is Minimized: Enable this check box, and DVD Player automatically pauses the movie when you minimize the DVD Player window.
Disc Setup: The second tab of the Player Preferences window consists of these controls:
- Language: Control the language for the audio, subtitles, and menus.
- Internet: Mark this check box to allow DVDs with DVD@ccess support to access information on the Internet.
- Audio: Click this pop-up menu to specify the default audio output signal to use.
Full Screen: These Preference settings control the default screen display settings within DVD Player:
- Controller: To set a delay period, click in the seconds box and type a new value.
- Displays: Specify how DVD Player shares your Desktop with other applications.
Windows: Configure the behavior of the Controller and status information for the Viewer window:
- Options: Mark the Display Status Information check box, and DVD Player adds a small text box to the Viewer window that shows the last task performed with DVD Player.
- Closed Captioned: Specify the color of closed-caption text.
Previously Viewed: This pane controls what happens when you load a disc that you’ve seen already.
- Start Playing Discs From: If you had to quit DVD Player the last time you watched, you can choose to begin watching from the beginning, from the last position, or from a default bookmark.
- Always Use Disc Settings For: Select these check boxes to specify whether DVD Player should use the same settings you used the last time you watched this disc.
High Definition: This panel specifies how standard DV and high-definition video from a disc you’ve created in DVD Studio Pro are displayed.
- For Standard Definition: Choose to display the actual video size by default, or to use the default size provided by the DVD.
- For High Definition: These options affect how a high-definition video signal is displayed. Your choices include the actual video size, a height of 720 pixels, and a height of 1,080 pixels.