VideoLan, a student project:
It's main goals are MPEG and DVD playing and broadcasting on the campus, but it also features a standalone multimedia player that can read DVDs and MPEG files.
With the latest release, they've provided a Mac OS X 10.1 Binary which provides DVD playback independant of Apple's player. It's still in early development, so keep your expectations in check... but it's a promising solution - especially for those who don't fall under the "supported" category with Apple's DVD player.
I managed to start a DVD playing and was able to drag the window from my Geforce 3 and Rage Pro videocards without problems. The video was smooth on both cards. Of note, when I tried to change to the next chapter, it stopped playback altogether... :)
Here are some details you'll need to use the player:
you need to run vlc from the command line. Change to the directory where you copied the vlc.app into, and do:
./vlc.app/Contents/MacOS/vlc dvd:/dev/rdisk1 the disk # may be different depending on your config. Check with "df -kl" from the terminal
vlc should open, and start playing the dvd. You can also try the new
QuickTime output plugin by starting vlc which
./vlc.app/Contents/MacOS/vlc -I macosx_qt -V macosx_qt dvd:/dev/rdisk1
this should give you smoother playback, but it currently has _no_ interface, and only supports full-screen mode.
