having a difficult reading DVDs - does the external DVD drive make a difference?

[wfriedwald]

I have a big stack of home-made (private content) DVD-Rs that were burned in Europe over the last ten years.

Some of these are data discs, some are regular DVDs (with a VIDEO-TS folder) I believe, but I can not read any of them?

I am trying to read them on my Mac system - I actually tried two different drives on three different systems, the newest of which is an M1 MacBook Air running Sequoia.

I was thinking of getting a newer DVD R drive - even the most expensive ones are ony about $35 - is that worth trying?

The alternative is to either bring them to the house of a friend who has a Windows system .... or buy a cheap ($300) windows system myself!

Any suggestions? Help! Grateful for any feedback!

w

 

[HobeSoundDarryl]

I just recently cleared out some old clutter and came across a bunch of old burned discs sans labels. I put them into an external attached to a Mac Studio and most of them opened just fine. I am using a Blu Ray drive with great flexilibyt to read & write most of the drive types. Those that were actually DVD burns opened DVD player in Applications and those that were data discs opened in finder. There was ONE type (gold in color instead of usual silver) that would not open.

Modern Mac should read/play most of your discs. I'd assume your drives are at fault though two distinct drives certainly paints a questionable picture. I'd try one more good quality drive and whatever that fails to open probably will need the borrow a PC plan.

 

[Bigwaff]

Any suggestions? Help! Grateful for any feedback!

Obviously the discs do not mount, but, when inserted, do the disks appear in Disk Utility? Do your optical drives appear in System Report when attached?

 

[wfriedwald]

Hey thank you for the feedback - I mentioned that these were burned in Europe, which means if they are DVD-video discs they will be in PAL format, but if that is the case they should at least mount, right? (and data DVD discs should definitely mount)

Darryl - I have ordered a $40 DVD R drive from amazon - the most expensive one they had! Let's see if that works.
(this one.)


Bigwaff - right, the discs do NOT appear in disk utiilty, there's no sign of them whatsoever ANYWHERE - they at least should show up somewhere right>

Okay, so I will try this new DVD R drive and then try getting them to the house of a friend with a Windows-PC system.

thanks!

w

 

[Slartibart]

if they’re self-burned it depends more how they where stored in my experience. If you can see some discolouration or color differences (e.g. due to sunlight) on the DVD disc it will probably affect readability. Same for labelling - depending on the type of marker (and where it was written on) through time their composition can affect the DVD. Anectdotically I find Verbatim self-burned DVD on Verbatim media much more “time sensitive” than other brands. YMMV obviously.

As @HobeSoundDarryl mentioned a BluRay-drive might offer the best options here, as probably also any other drive. For nostalgic reason I have a few old Macbooks or Powerbooks which actually come quite handy in the described scenario. An old G4 PB reads a self-burned CD or DVD, while an MBP with superdrive does for some reason not.

Otherwise: after extracting the videos you can easily use e.g. Handbrake to change format specifics like converting PAL to NTSC if really needed.

 

[Fishrrman]

bart makes a good point in #5 above.

How OLD are these DVD's?
What brand media were they originally burned onto?

If the new DVD drive you ordered doesn't help, then I suggest you take some of them (that won't mount) over to the friend's house.

Try them there. If they STILL won't mount there... I'd suspect "the media" and "possible age deterioration"... not the Mac or DVD drives...

 

[MacCheetah3]

I have a big stack of home-made (private content) DVD-Rs that were burned in Europe over the last ten years.

I mentioned that these were burned in Europe, which means if they are DVD-video discs they will be in PAL format, but if that is the case they should at least mount, right? (and data DVD discs should definitely mount)

I think, region coding only applies to copyrighted DVD video discs/content. Homemade discs (e.g., CD-R, DVD-R) shouldn’t have any coding.

Obviously the discs do not mount, but, when inserted, do the disks appear in Disk Utility? Do your optical drives appear in System Report when attached?

Bigwaff - right, the discs do NOT appear in disk utiilty, there's no sign of them whatsoever ANYWHERE - they at least should show up somewhere right>

https://forums.macrumors.com/threads/owc-mercury-pro-optical-drive-stopped-working-with-sonoma.2412642/post-33111728

if they’re self-burned it depends more how they where stored in my experience. If you can see some discolouration or color differences (e.g. due to sunlight) on the DVD disc it will probably affect readability. Same for labelling - depending on the type of marker (and where it was written on) through time their composition can affect the DVD. Anectdotically I find Verbatim self-burned DVD on Verbatim media much more “time sensitive” than other brands. YMMV obviously.

How Long Do CDs/DVDs Last? The Truth About Lifespan, Mold, and Rot

Your CDs and DVDs are plastic, but they may or may not last forever. Here's what you need to know about expected lifespan and how long they'll last.

www.makeuseof.com

 

[PotentPeas]

"does the external DVD drive make a difference?"

Yes. I have some old recordable DVDs and CDs that can be played in some external drives but not others. I discovered this as I was going through a process to make images of them all because I have the storage for it now. I think as they begin to age and degrade, they're not going to stop working in all drives at the same time; "better" drives will be able to read them for longer.