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I have a strange problem. I'm having to use an old PowerPC G4 in order to use DVD Studio Pro for a project I'm working on for a client. I have to use an old Mac and OS because the version of DVD Studio Pro I need to use in order to create the final deliverable is only available in DVD Studio Pro which doesn't work on Intel/modern Macs.

The specs of the computer are:

Processor: 800 MHz PowerPC G4
Memory: 1.25 GB SDRAM
Mac OS X 10.4.11

DVD Studio Pro was working fine up until recently and I can no longer open up the application. Every time I try to open the application it just hangs and I get the old loading spinner and it never goes away. The size of the project I'm working on is something around 6 GB so I figured it's just taking a while to load but I've left it running for several hours to no avail.

A couple questions:

  • Is there a way to determine where the program hangs? I'm not super familiar with application logs so I'm not sure exactly where to look for those. I'm sure those would give some insight. The app doesn't crash, it hangs and I have to Force Quit but I figure it couldn't hurt to look.

  • Could this possibly be a memory issue? And if so, are there any suggestions on what I can get to upgrade this computer so I can get through this project?

I tried to run the software through Parallels/Virtual Box etc and on a newer computer but there are a variety of reasons why that didn't work. I had it working fine (albeit very slowly) up until this past week.

Any help is greatly appreciate. Thanks!

Update

I turned on my Activity Monitor when I opened up DVD Studio Pro 3. To be clear, I opened up the application from the dock NOT by opening my project directly. I'm just trying to get the program to open up normally.

In the Activity Monitor, when I open up the application, these three processes start:

DSPX_AEncoderSer (Not Responding)
DSPX_EncoderServ (Not Responding)
DVD Studio Pro (Not Responding)

And as you can see they all stop responding. The DVD Studio Pro line item spikes to just over 50% CPU power and then stops responding. Nothing else on the system is eating up any resources.

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  • 2
    In Activity Monitor, select your stalling app - there should be a "Sample" button or command that causes AM to record the activity of the stalled app for a few seconds. Use that, then post the gist of that. It should tell us where the app is stalled internally, maybe giving us a clue.
    – Thomas Tempelmann
    Commented Apr 22, 2016 at 12:51
  • How much disk space do you have? 1.5GB of RAM is quite small, so OS X is going to be going to the HDD for swap. If you don't have enough space on your drive, your Application is going to crash.
    – Allan
    Commented Apr 24, 2016 at 21:07
  • Login as another user, disconnect any wired / wifi networks, unplug all external disks and accessories… then try to launch DVD Studio Pro. I remember spending ages tracking down a single font file (just on a mounted disk, not installed in the system) that caused Motion to crash on launch.
    – alexkent
    Commented Apr 26, 2016 at 18:30
  • Have you disabled/removed any fonts that DVD Studio Pro uses as a default? Are you using font management? Another thing you might want to try is opening a project file directly. DSP might be trying to open an autosaved file that no longer exists.
    – Allan
    Commented Apr 27, 2016 at 13:19

1 Answer 1

Reset to default
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You can look up the specs on a particular Mac at Everymac.com, which would tell you whether you can add RAM, and what the maximum is. The Everymac site allows you to look up a Mac by serial number, which you can get from the Apple Menu, About This Mac, then "More Info...", which opens System Profiler. It will also tell you the Machine Model, which might be something like "PowerBook6,8", which can also be used to look up a given Mac's specs.

If you go down to "Memory" in the System Profiler list it will tell you the type of memory installed.

You also might want to watch Activity Monitor as you open the program to see what it does with memory usage. Can you open the program without loading the project you are working on, to make sure the program is OK, then try to open the project?

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  • I'll try the Activity Monitor. The application does not open up even if I just try to load the application directly (without opening the project).
    – MxmastaMills
    Commented Apr 20, 2016 at 6:33
  • I just updated my results from the Activity Monitor in the original question. Thanks!
    – MxmastaMills
    Commented Apr 21, 2016 at 4:43
  • Normally when I have a program that won't load properly the solution is to delete the program and reinstall it. Ideally you would use an "uninstall" option in the program's installer that would remove all the settings files and any caches. Even if the program itself is OK, if there are settings (preference) files or support files that became corrupted they could cause the program to hang. There are good instructions on removing all the preference and support files here: MacRumors Guide to Uninstalls**bold**
    – all41_14all
    Commented Apr 22, 2016 at 1:34
  • Ugh. The forum software here is unforgiving. Only 5 minutes to do edits. And I keep hitting return to get a space, and it posts. Click on this: MacRumors Guide to Uninstalls
    – all41_14all
    Commented Apr 22, 2016 at 1:40
  • Some program installers come with an uninstaller, often as a separate application, but sometimes built into the installer. If DVD Studio Pro does not offer an uninstall, use the MacRumors Guide I linked to. Then reinstall. Just dragging the program itself to the trash will not remove the preference or support files.
    – all41_14all
    Commented Apr 22, 2016 at 1:45

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