iMac won't play DVDs

[goatrealm]

when i got my new imac (24", 2.8GHz, 3GB RAM, 1TB HDD, with a build-to-order evil-empire dark apple logo ), one of the first things i did was pop in a lord of the rings DVD to check out the machine's moobie-playing capabilities. the movie played just fine.

since then, i've ripped multiple CDs and played neverwinter nights, which requires the installation CD to remain in the optical drive. no problems there.

tonight, i tried to insert movie DVDs (all legit, all playable on other machines), and my imac doesn't completely recognize them. the DVD player will start up automatically once a disc is inserted--but it'll say there's no supported DVD. there's no DVD image on the desktop or the left side of the finder window. but if i press the media eject button on the keyboard, the disc does eject.

my guess is there's a system software problem.

anybody else have this problem, and does anybody know of a workaround, aside from waiting for OS 10.4.11?

 

[goatrealm]

wait, there's more!

inserted a pristine-as-the-day-it-was-purchased copy of LOTR: F'ship o' da Ring DVD, and it won't play, though the DVD player was cruel enough to tease me with an automatic launch.

but a beatles CD was recognized, and itunes started up automatically.

so the optical drive is functioning; whatever software/firmware manages the DVD, not so much.

(an aside commentary: the easiest way to put the beatles on itunes seems to be: buy the CDs and rip 'em. itunes store bypassed, beatles 'problem' solved.)

 

[goatrealm]

addendum

the only thing i could have done to radically upset the internal harmony of my imac is this: a few days ago, i renamed my hard drive. (i gave it a william gibsonish name, for you curious types.)

anyhoo, i found this thread:
https://forums.macrumors.com/threads/326112/

and i tried repairing disk permissions. now the DVDs mount & play! huzzah!

 

[nlivo]

have you tried the first LOTR dvd, the one that worked when you first got it.....if that still works then the ONLY thing i can think of is the other dvd's aren't the right DVD region. I'm not good at troubleshooting!!!

 

[goatrealm]

it doesn't seem to be a region issue. all the discs i've tried sport region 1 encoding.

i don't really feel like trying this tonight (i've had enough imac empiricism to last me awhile), but perhaps someone else can do some experimenting: try changing your hard drive's name to see whether this messes with DVD recognition.

 

[Dave Marsh]

Changing your hard drive's name will have no effect on playing DVDs. Personalizing your hard drive's name is common, and expected.

A new iMac shouldn't have any permissions errors (which can prevent some programs, including system applications from running properly if they're wrong). That said, if you ran Software Update after setting up your Mac, it must change permissions on some files to update them. The update program is supposed to return those permissions to their correct state when finished, but sometimes the programmer forgets. To assure all is OK, after allowing Software Update to update everything, be sure to startup Disk Utility, select your startup volume, and click on the Repair Permissions button. It will then run through your hard drive, checking the permissions set on each Apple application file component and match it against the permissions recorded in the Receipts file that was saved when the application was last updated. If there's a mismatch, it will correct the permissions setting on the errant component.

So, you were doing exactly the right thing when you ran Repair Permissions to fix your DVD Player application's misbehaving.