Latest Interactual OS X Player: As of 5/18/2005, Versiontracker listed a v1.7.1 player but the Interactual website Mac Downloads page still lists v1.4. (That may be corrected by the time you read this - I don't use this player personally.)
Version 1.7.1 changes listed at VT are:

• Added support for GPRM events if running under Mac OS 10.3.5 or greater.
• Added preliminary Tiger support.
• Added support for the IA_Open command
• Miscellaneous bug fixes and stability improvements.

The D/L page includes links to (2004 dated) Release Notes and Macintosh Player FAQ.

Reader Feedback: (most recent first)

I didn't know where else to post this so adding it here. (See his later comments saying the DVD didn't use the interactual DVD player code - although I first suspected it did)

(added 5/6/2005 from 5/4 mail)
"Ever noticed how most Hollywood DVDs that include DVD-ROM content always have the line "DVD-ROM features not available on Apple Macintosh." printed somewhere on the packaging. Blade Trinity is no exception, as it says the same thing on the packaging, but this time it's only partially true. The DVD-ROM feature "Interactive Viewing Experience" on the Unrated Edition of Blade of Trinity Disc 1 is fully Mac compatible. (also see previous reports below on using the Interactual DVD Player for Macs-Mike) Here's how to access the unsupported feature:

1. Insert the DVD "Blade Trinity Disc1: The Film" into your DVD-ROM drive equipped (800Mhz G4 or better) Mac running Mac OS X 10.3 or newer.
2. Most likely the Apple DVD Player will launch. Hit cmd-q to quit the Apple DVD Player.
3. Double click on the DVD icon, then double click on the icon "Start_IVEX_mac.osx" and enjoy.

4. No installation needed - it just works. Much like the Mac. :)

The Interactive Viewing Experience feature on Blade Trinity includes the following:

• Live transcript with hyperlinks
• Searchable script
• Synced storyboards and photos with indexes
• Extended scene finder
• Character biographies
• Full DVD controls
• Synced kill count that shows who made each kill and with what weapon

All fully functional on the Mac! Particularly interesting is that there is a playback control slider that works with the DVD, this is a feature I always wished the Apple DVD Player included.
(he later wrote)
Actually my company developed the feature, but I didn't want it to seem like I was fishing for publicity. And to answer your question we did not use the Interactual Player at all, we wrote custom code.

We wanted to make sure it was fully cross platform, and Interactual Player didn't offer the full features we needed on the Mac.
-Jeremy N.
Here's a screen shot of the interface: "

(added 4/23/2003)
"I called Interactual and asked about the Interactual DVD Player on Harry Potter, Chamber of Secrets DVD

1) This player is keyed to the Harry Potter disk and will work ONLY with this disk.
(NOTE: This not true per the comments below from someone that's actually using the player with other DVDs such as this previous report - the features like website links/potter links of course are specific to the Harry Potter DVD.-Mike)

2) The player is a custom version of the Apple Mac OS X DVD Player required by the producers of the DVD. It will NOT work under Mac OS 9.

3) NO, there is not a version of the Interactual DVD Player available (maybe in the future...)
(not sure what he means by that comment, but I asked for a better explanation.-Mike)

4) The reason for the lack of a player is the lack of an API to control DVD playback and have DVD playback appear in a non-player window. Basically, you can't use the Apple DVD Player as a "service" under Mac OS X.
-Jay W. "

(added 4/22/2003)
"Thought you might be interested in a few more trivial details about the InterActual Player on the Harry Potter Chamber of Secrets DVD (Widescreen.) Only had a few moments to test these features, but I'll be very interested in whatever anyone else has to say.

It can be found on Disc 2, "Special Features" in a disk image at the root level of the DVD.

It only lists English under language support.

It doesn't support play from external DVD drives. Tried using a patch meant for Apple's DVD Player, but it made InterActual crash immediately on launch.

You have to let DVD Player 'run' first, then quit to use InterActual, or set it as the app of choice to run when DVDs are loaded in System Preferences. If you run InterActual first, then pop in your DVD with DVD Player as the default, DVD Player quits with a #70002 error, something about DVDPlayback already being in use.

When you launch the InterActual Player from Disc 1, entitled "Movie," it opens up a web page in Explorer. If you use the Internet System Preferences and switch to Safari or another app as default, the InterActual Player ignores the choice and Internet Explorer just gives you its usual 'want to make me your default browser?' window, followed by a new window in Explorer. Launching IAP with Disk 2 just gets you the additional scenes menu.

The title web page is loaded directly off the DVD; additional pages are either being accessed directly from the Warner Bros. site or are diverted from 'redirect.interactual.com.'
-Peter S. Chin
Computing Support Specialist"

Another recent reader comments on the player:

(added 4/22/2003)
" Hi Mike, Great website. I tried the InterActual DVD player and found another bonus. It allows the movie to be played on a monitor other than the main screen. This is great for machines running multiple monitors. I may be wrong (haven't got it to work for me), but Apple's DVD Player only allows the movie to be played on the main monitor. I'm running a B&W G3 400MHz with a Radeon 7000 PCI driving two CRT's.
Kingston L. "

(Comments from Friday's news page follow)

Thursday's news had a note from a reader that the Harry Potter Chamber of Secrets DVD had a Mac version of their Interactual DVD player. Here's the latest reader comments on using it:

" Hi Mike, Went out and bought the Harry Potter DVD as soon as I saw the post about the Interactual DVD player. It works GREAT. I am using it in a Beige G3-333Mhz, with cpu upgraded to G4-500Mhz & Radeon PCI videocard. I have been frustrated for years as every time that I get apple dvd player to work apple breaks it in the next system update.
I have 10.2.5 installed and the Interactual player works great. Many thanks to you and whoever it was that sent the original post.
Regards, Cal "

Another beige G3 owner comments (note he said he tried it with several DVD movies):

"Mike,
I have installed the Interactual DVD player from the new Harry Potter DVD on my Beige G3 300 with a Radeon 7000 videocard running 10.2.5.

The DVD playback is just fine and would appear to support ATI DVD acceleration. Unaccelerated DVD playback on this computer is unwatchable. The only issue worth mentioning is that it doesn't appear to like the Quartz Extreme PCI hack. (OS X 10.2.x hack to enable Quartz Extreme with PCI Radeon cards noted on this previous article, which has some drawbacks.-Mike)
I have tried it with several DVD's and they all work great.
Thanks for the heads up,
Trevor M."

The reader that sent the original news item later wrote with more comments (in reply to my comments on the interactual player on a PC vs WinDVD in yesterday's news):

"I acutally like the InterActual Player better than WinDVD. WinDVD has more advanced features, but the versions I have used have been a little quirky. The InterActual Player doesn't have all the bells and whistles but does enough to play the DVD movies I watch. Most of the time I watch movies on my Windows Laptop while flying so I don't interact a lot, just start the movie and go. What I do like about the InterActual Player is that the Movie Companies that make "PC Friendly" DVDs try to integrate websites into the DVD to move the DVD experience online. InterActual is the player that the websites are optimized for. The Mac version supports some of the basic features of this online integration. When I launched the InterActual player with the Harry Potter DVD loaded it launched the Harry Potter website automatically. I'll admit it was a bit annoying, but the InterActual Player version is 1.0.4 if I remember correctly, so I'd assume more features will be coming in later versions that might be useful. It will let the Mac users get access to the additional content that the Movie Companies are putting on the DVDs. Even the disclaimer at the bottom of the DVD package has been changed to say "The extra content of this DVD *might* not work on an Apple Macintosh computer." Before I believe they always said the extra content *won't* work on a Mac.

(I had asked what mac model he had, and if anyone with a RageII/RagePro based mac could run the player (since Apple's DVD player requires a rage128 or later graphics chip/card)-Mike
I have a QuickSilver 2002. I think the InterActual Player is based on the source for the Apple Player. InterActual most likely licensed the source. If you do a "View Package Contents" they both look very similar, based on the same DVD Framework. The player most likely won't enable users who previously could not view DVDs on their machine to view them, but it might give some additional features that Mac users have been missing out on.
-Chris "

(Thursday's original news item on the player follows)

Reader Comments on Interactual Mac DVD player on Harry Potter Chamber of Secrets DVD

" I bought the Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets DVD today (widescreen) and it has a .dmg file on it that contains a MacOS version of Interactual's DVD Player Software. I have tested it on MacOS X, but not on MacOS 9. It looks quite similar to Apple's DVD Player, with a few features missing and a few added. People are often asking about options for DVD Player software for the Mac. Just thought I would let you know about this one.
Thanks for running a great site!
Chris D."

I wonder if this player relies on Apple DVD support files or if it supports a pre-Rage128 graphics chip (where the Apple player requires a rage128 or later graphics chip/card.) If any reader with an older graphics chip (not supported by the Apple DVD player, like a RagePro or RageII) tries this player let me know if it works with the older graphics chips.
I once had a PC that had that player/addon installed (from the Matrix DVD I think) and from then on it was the default DVD app, and didn't have all the features of WinDVD (it seemed more ad/marketing focused - but I have not tried the Mac version).