Powerbook with a standard DVD-ROM drive/decoder board................
macworld.zdnet.com
Marquee Performance
The PowerBook G3/300, which represents the high end of the portable line, is the only Apple notebook bundled with a DVD-ROM drive and an MPEG PC Card, both of which are needed to run DVD movies. If you have a different PowerBook G3 model, you'll need to buy a DVD kit for movie playback, and none were available as we went to press, even though one is on Apple's price list for $499. Due to supply constraints, Apple suspended the build-to-order option for PowerBooks at least until October, but the company says it does not plan to offer the DVD kit separately at that time. Once the kit ultimately does become available, it will work with all PowerBook G3 models introduced since last May--as long as they have an active-matrix display. (Passive-matrix screens can't properly support DVD due to their lower refresh rates.)
Luckily, this PowerBook configuration is an exceptionally good value: a 300MHz PowerPC G3 with a 1MB backside cache; an 8GB hard drive; 64MB of RAM; 4MB of SDRAM for video; and, of course, the DVD-ROM drive and MPEG PC Card--all for $4,999. Compare this with the same configuration of the 292MHz G3 portable that this machine replaces, which cost $600 more and didn't include the DVD kit.
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