DVD or CD Sharing Setup Update for Mac/PC

How to enable it for other Macs/PCs?!

This would be a lot more practical if it was usable for other Macs/PCs besides just the Air... Seems like wasted potential just for one device -- where's the backwards compatibility?!

There is a DVD/CD sharing option in the OSX sharing preferences (at least in 10.5.2, I never noticed it before).

I just tested it and I can read the CD in my Mac Mini's optical drive on my Mac Pro.

PS. There is no eject control from the networked computer, it appears it has to be done by the computer which owns the drive.

Edit: Or do you guys mean sharing a stand-alone drive? I imagine it could just be connected to one Mac on a network and accessed via that way by other Macs.

Doctor Q said:

Is there a technical reason that sharing a remote optical drive couldn't be made available for all Mac models?

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You've always been able to share optical discs via file sharing. This just provides a simpler way via Bonjour.

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Why is this listed as working with 10.4 if it's only available for MacBook Air (10.5)?

You don't install it on the Air. You install it on the computer that has the optical drive you want to share.

awmazz said:

There is a DVD/CD sharing option in the OSX sharing preferences (at least in 10.5.2, I never noticed it before).

I just tested it and I can read the CD in my Mac Mini's optical drive on my Mac Pro.

Click to expand...

How? I've got a CD in my Mac Mini with DVD/CD Sharing enabled, but I don't see how to access it through Remote Disc from my MacBook-- I'm pretty sure the non-Airs cannot do Remote Disc.

bstreiff said:

How? I've got a CD in my Mac Mini with DVD/CD Sharing enabled, but I don't see how to access it through Remote Disc from my MacBook-- I'm pretty sure the non-Airs cannot do Remote Disc.

Click to expand...

I've since found DVD/CD sharing doesn't work (for me at least) unless File Sharing is also active (I assume to access the files on the disc in the optical drive just like any other shared hard drive on the hosting Mac).

No connection appears to be possible with just DVD/CD sharing active, but File Sharing inactive.

So it's just a standard 'connect to server' routine.

awmazz said:

I've since found DVD/CD sharing doesn't work (for me at least) unless File Sharing is also active (I assume to access the files on the disc in the optical drive just like any other shared hard drive on the hosting Mac).

No connection appears to be possible with just DVD/CD sharing active, but File Sharing inactive.

So it's just a standard 'connect to server' routine.

Click to expand...

That's not Remote Disc; that's just plain File Sharing. (It works regardless of whether DVD/CD sharing is on or off.) File Sharing just shares out every volume on the machine, whether they be internal hard drive partitions, inserted discs, or attached Firewire/USB disks.

bstreiff said:

That's not Remote Disc; that's just plain File Sharing. (It works regardless of whether DVD/CD sharing is on or off.)

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That's what I figure too, so I can't figure out why DVD/CD Sharing has its own option when it doesn't work on it's own (at least for me) without File Sharing being enabled too.

If it's just part of File Sharing and needs FS enabled to even work, why is it a separate option?

Well, I'd imagine that Remote Disc works differently; based on my playing around with the protocol (it's not too difficult, just a HTTP transport), you can actually get the entire filesystem from it; I was able to grab the entire ISO9660 image for a disc that I was playing with (some motherboard driver CD, it was the first thing in my drawer.) This is different from the way File Sharing works (it abstracts away the underlying filesystem).

The driver functionality, however, seems to be restricted to the Air-- reading documentation on it, 'Remote Disc' gets its own device entry in Finder, etc. I'm just wondering if Apple will add it to OS X in general, as it seems like it could be very useful, especially if, for instance, it eventually offers things like being able to burn discs (so that not every machine needs to have a DVD burner to burn a DVD).

bstreiff said:

I'm just wondering if Apple will add it to OS X in general, as it seems like it could be very useful, especially if, for instance, it eventually offers things like being able to burn discs (so that not every machine needs to have a DVD burner to burn a DVD).

Click to expand...

word. That would come in awful handy... but how would that work? Would it use up some of your processing power, when you could just copy the files over to the other machine and tell it to burn on its own? I mean, I'm all for the lazy solution and everything, but my mini is slow enough as it is! Maybe when i get that new iMac it won't be a problem, though...