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Mac Forum / General / Hardware / October 2007Replaced optical drive doesn't play DVDs
I replaced the Super Drive on my G5 Mac Power PC after getting constant errors on both reading and writing CDs and DVDs. The replacement is a Sony DRU-840A that is supposed to support numerous formats including DVD Dual Layer. The new drive read audio CDs, reads & writes data CDs and reads data DVDs that I made on the old drive. I haven't tried burning DVDs yet. The problem that I encountered is that commercial movie DVDs are not recognized. It says the disk is "not readable by this computer." Any ideas? Is there a hardware problem? Do I need to load different drivers? Or does DVD Player not work with this drive? Additional info: Power PC dual 2GHz G5, 1.5 GB of RAM Mac OS X 10.4.10 iLife 8 DVD Player version 4.6.5 System Profiler gives me this info disc burning: SONY DVD RW DRU-840A: Firmware Revision: SS00 Interconnect: ATAPI Burn Support: Yes (Unsupported) Profile Path: None Cache: 2048 KB Reads DVD: Yes CD-Write: -R, -RW DVD-Write: -R, -RAM, -RW, +R, +RW, +R DL Burn Underrun Protection CD: Yes Burn Underrun Protection DVD: Yes Write Strategies: CD-TAO, CD-SAO, CD-Raw, DVD-DAO Media: Media Type: DVD-ROM Blank: No Erasable: No Overwritable: No Appendable: No > I replaced the Super Drive on my G5 Mac Power PC after getting constant > errors on both reading and writing CDs and DVDs. The replacement is a Sony [quoted text clipped - 38 lines] > Overwritable: No > Appendable: No Try VLC <http://www.videolan.org> If it plays the DVDs, then the hardware is OK. Try a different user account. > Try VLC <http://www.videolan.org> > If it plays the DVDs, then the hardware is OK. Try a different user account. VLC does play several commercial DVDs that I tired. Thanks for the tip. I still get the initial error when I load a VD and would like to understand why DVD Player does not recognize the discs. > The problem that I encountered is that commercial movie DVDs are not > recognized. It says the disk is "not readable by this computer." > > Any ideas? Is there a hardware problem? Do I need to load different drivers? > Or does DVD Player not work with this drive? The prime suspect is that the drive's region code does not match that of the commercial DVDs you are trying to view and that DVD Player cannot reset it, perhaps because the region code has already been set more than four times. A little freeware app called DVD Info X displays the region codes of attached DVD burners and how many changes they have left. >> The problem that I encountered is that commercial movie DVDs are not >> recognized. It says the disk is "not readable by this computer." [quoted text clipped - 7 lines] > four times. A little freeware app called DVD Info X displays the region > codes of attached DVD burners and how many changes they have left. OK, I hadn't thought about the region code. But how is that set? This is a brand new drive and I don't remember being queried about the region code. > >> The problem that I encountered is that commercial movie DVDs are not > >> recognized. It says the disk is "not readable by this computer." [quoted text clipped - 11 lines] > OK, I hadn't thought about the region code. But how is that set? This is a > brand new drive and I don't remember being queried about the region code. IIRC, Apple's DVD Player application should ask you to set it the first time you launch it with a new DVD drive installed.  SignatureNote: Please send all responses to the relevant news group. If you must contact me through e-mail, let me know when you send email to this address so that your email doesn't get eaten by my SPAM filter. JR > OK, I hadn't thought about the region code. But how is that set? This is a > brand new drive and I don't remember being queried about the region code. The region-change dialog comes up in DVD Player when you try to play a region-specific DVD on a drive that has never been set or when you try to play a DVD that is encoded for a region other than the one the drive is currently set to. I don't know of any way to invoke the dialog manually, but another way to see the drive's region setting and remaining changes is by choosing Get Disc Info from DVD Player's File menu. I didn't find any user reports at Accelerate Your Mac for your precise Sony model number, but there is one report that a Sony DRU-800A drive wouldn't work with DVD Player. See <http://www.xlr8yourmac.com>. On 10/19/07 5:58 PM, in article C33EAEC2.2F8455%rlhaar@comcast.net, "Robert Haar" <rlhaar@comcast.net> wrote: >>> The problem that I encountered is that commercial movie DVDs are not >>> recognized. It says the disk is "not readable by this computer." [quoted text clipped - 10 lines] > OK, I hadn't thought about the region code. But how is that set? This is a > brand new drive and I don't remember being queried about the region code. Some DVD's will play in all Regions so you might want to seek out one of those to check out if you have a Region Code problem. You should also be aware that DVDs recorded on one unit will often refuse to play on another. The manuals for my Pioneer DVD Player and for my Toshiba DVD Recorder both note this. Sometimes there are playback problems relating to particular brands of discs. I don't know how rental DVDs avoid all this, but it is fairly common with 'home made' recordings on DVDs. -- |
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