My hint about using the Tiger version of the DVD Player to enable the AppleScript menu under Leopard was recently invalidated by the Mac OS 10.5.1 update.

Under 10.5.1, the OS does version-checking of various applications, including the QuickTime Player and the DVD Player. If the version that you're trying to run isn't authorized then the OS won't let it run and will pop up a warning to that effect.

So far as I can tell, there's no good reason for Apple to have done this. People keep old versions of many applications handy for all sorts of good reasons, such as licensing and compatibility issues. Apple is now arbitrarily deciding what programs we're allowed to run without telling us why and that's a dangerous precedent.

The solution to the problem is probably obvious to many of you. Open up the application packages in both the old (Tiger) and new (Leopard) versions of the program (right-click on the application icon and select "Show Package Contents") and then copy the "Info.plist" file from the "Contents" folder of the newest version of the program to the "Contents" folder of the old one, overwriting the old version's previous "Info.plist" file. This will make the old DVD Player application look to the OS like the new DVD Player application.

It's possible that just editing the "Info.plist" file to change the version of the application would do the job, but I that didn't work on my Mac for some reason, so I chose to do the next easiest thing.

As always, it's a good idea to work on a copy of the program that you're modifying. Note that having already attempted to launch the original (Tiger) DVD Player application from your Applications folder, the OS will refuse to launch it thereafter. A fresh copy, however, won't have this problem. Changing the path will also work -- you could simply move the application to a different folder before running it.