DVD player wont read DVD

Howard Stern

Howard Stern

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i have a G3 500mghz iMac with 384 RAM and it plays most DVDs without a problem. But it wont plays my Hidalgo DVD, which i purchased from Best Buy.

-i checked the disc and it is not scratched or damaged in any way.
-the DVD plays on my home DVD player without a problem

but it doesnt play on my mac. whats the deal? how can i solve this?
 
What exactly does DVD Player do when you try and play the DVD? Any error messages? Does the DVD "mount" on your desktop like other DVDs?

Also, try this: open DVD Player, then hit Command-O to open a VIDEO_TS folder. Navigate to the VIDEO_TS folder of the Hidalgo DVD and highlight it and press "Open." Will the DVD play that way?

Have you changed the region code of the DVD drive by using DVDs from different regions?
 
Your iMac is 4 years old or more, after that length of time, dust can be coating internal parts, giving you possibly intermittent reading of some disks. You could try a DVD cleaning disk (sold for this purpose at most electronics or office retailers) which may help.
 
I'm surprised no one has mentioned this yet. There are some discs that have errors built into them (like some audio CDs) that prevent them from being played on computers.

I know for a fact that at least one DVD "The Pirates of Penzance" (in Australia) has such errors on them that prevent playback on computers. I tried it on my sister's Acer, my Powerbook, home PC and none of it works. The DVD is put in the drive, drive whines a little, and nothing happens. Drive doesn't even mount.

Playing it on a standalone DVD player is alright though.
 
the DVD reads on a PC DVD player, but it doesnt on my mac.

what happens is, when i put the DVD into the slot, it takes it in and i can hear the drive making wierd noises as it is trying to read it. kind of like a grinding noise. it spends about 20 seconds trying to read the DVD and then pops it back out automatically. the DVD never mounts. I'm assuming that the disc is unreadable on a mac? but I'm wondering if this can be fixed.

When i was watching the special features on my home DVD player, it says that there is a special feature that can only be seen when you put the DVD into a computer that can read DVDs.

I wonder if there are any software or firmware updates for my DVD drive that will enable it to read the DVD.
 
If your drive reads some DVDs and not others, then software (or hardware) updates will probably not help. VLC software can let you view the movie, but doesn't always work, either.
Was there any improvement after running a cleaning disk through the drive? I would try 2 or 3 clean cycles.
If cleaning does not help, then replacing the drive is likely the only option.
 
Some of my thoughts:
  • Will Best Buy let you exchange it, even though the package is already open? Hopefully the will if you tell them why you want to exchange it, and that you want a different copy of the same product.
  • Have you tried playing the movie on any other Macs, especially those from the same era as yours? My iMac's 400 Mhz, about the same era as yours, so should I choose to watch Hidalgo on it (saw it in theaters... pretty good, but not my usual cup of tea) I'll report on it.
  • Does the package say anything about the DVD being "protected" like some audio CD's are, like what Viro described? If so, you may need to resort to something hackish or simply not watching the movie on your Mac.
Hope this helps!
 
Different Mac have different DVD readers, with different drivers. A driver update may help on my opinion, but probably the DVD will play on some readers and not play on others. Unless you want to buy a new DVD reader, I see not many solutions. Try to update the drivers.
 
The movie Mansfield Park plays fine on a regular (non-computer) dvd-player but the disc is not even recognised on my PB 15 from 2004, or my DP G5. Upon insertion of the dvd the DVD Player starts up and then nothing happens. Hitting the play button only gives the message "Supported Disc Not Available". The dvd cover states that the dvd is copy potected but fails to mention that it is only playable on a standalone player. Disk Utility will locate the dvd but it does not appear on the desktop. VLC, however, will play the movie on both machines.

What is going on/zob
 
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