HELP - Mini only reads old DVDs?

[lowercaseperson]

I have a mid-2010 Mini I recently decided to setup in my bed room as a DVD player/Netflix streamer. So today I put in the new movie from Netflix (DVD rental) and it wouldn't work. I tried it in my DVD player downstairs and it worked just fine. So I grabbed some old movies I own: one released in 2011 and one released in 2006.

Only the DVD from 2006 will play, or even register that it was placed in the drive. The other (newer) movies just spin and the drive makes some noises and then spits them back out, the Mini doesn't even acknowledge that I put anything in the drive. No, "Disk Unreadable" or other kind of error message. Just spins the disc and spits it back out.

Any ideas about what is happening?

 

[lowercaseperson]

So it appears this is the dreaded copy protected DVDs - which means my Mini is essentially useless for watching any DVD I rent from Netflix?

 

[Micky Do]

I have a mid-2010 Mini I recently decided to setup in my bed room as a DVD player/Netflix streamer. So today I put in the new movie from Netflix (DVD rental) and it wouldn't work. I tried it in my DVD player downstairs and it worked just fine. So I grabbed some old movies I own: one released in 2011 and one released in 2006.

Only the DVD from 2006 will play, or even register that it was placed in the drive. The other (newer) movies just spin and the drive makes some noises and then spits them back out, the Mini doesn't even acknowledge that I put anything in the drive. No, "Disk Unreadable" or other kind of error message. Just spins the disc and spits it back out.

Any ideas about what is happening?

Dunno what's happening, but…..

I have found the internal optical drive somewhat unreliable and picky about what it plays and what it doesn't. I now use an external optical drive for the occasional DVD or CD I use these days.

If the iLife DVD Player doesn't want to play for any reason, VLC usually does the job.

 

[fa8362]

So it appears this is the dreaded copy protected DVDs - which means my Mini is essentially useless for watching any DVD I rent from Netflix?

Not if you rip it. Then, not only can you watch it, you can return the disc, and watch the movie at your leisure.

 

[lowercaseperson]

Not if you rip it. Then, not only can you watch it, you can return the disc, and watch the movie at your leisure.

How can I rip a movie if it won't even register in my drive? Even opening and watching Disc utility or VLC nothing ever registers in the optical bay - unless it's an old movie or CD

 

[Cherrysoda]

How can I rip a movie if it won't even register in my drive? Even opening and watching Disc utility or VLC nothing ever registers in the optical bay - unless it's an old movie or CD

Turn off autoplay for CDs/DVDs then try VLC.

 

[fa8362]

How can I rip a movie if it won't even register in my drive? Even opening and watching Disc utility or VLC nothing ever registers in the optical bay - unless it's an old movie or CD

I have a 2009 mini which reads every DVD, whether it's old, or a new release. You could have a hardware problem, a software problem, or the discs that won't play could be defective. It's not uncommon for Netflix DVDs to be defective/damaged.

 

[lowercaseperson]

Turn off autoplay for CDs/DVDs then try VLC.

Maybe I'm not sure what that means, but I'm pretty sure auto play is off. In system preferences when I insert a DVD I have it set to ignore.

Still just eats the DVD makes noises and spits it out. Am I missing something?

 

[lowercaseperson]

I have a 2009 mini which reads every DVD, whether it's old, or a new release. You could have a hardware problem, a software problem, or the discs that won't play could be defective. It's not uncommon for Netflix DVDs to be defective/damaged.

I've tried a bunch of different discs. Any ideas on troubleshooting hardware vs software?

 

[fa8362]

I've tried a bunch of different discs. Any ideas on troubleshooting hardware vs software?

Try an external DVD drive. If it plays the discs in question, then you have a hardware problem.
If you always keep your Mac Mini software/firmware updated via software update/the App store, then you likely don't have a software problem.

 

[Micky Do]

Maybe I'm not sure what that means, but I'm pretty sure auto play is off. In system preferences when I insert a DVD I have it set to ignore.

Still just eats the DVD makes noises and spits it out. Am I missing something?

I have had the same problem; sometimes works, often doesn't.

I've tried a bunch of different discs. Any ideas on troubleshooting hardware vs software?

As suggested already by several posters, including me, get an external drive and use VLC if iDVD doesn't want to play. Folks have freely given sensible advice; why not try it?

This is what I use:

http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B00AWRTXVS?ref_=zg_bs_1292112011_1

It works fine with my 2009 Mac Mini.

 

[Fishrrman]

Agreed with poster above who suggested that you try an external drive.

If you REALLY need to read those DVDs, doing this will probably make things much easier...

 

[lowercaseperson]

I have had the same problem; sometimes works, often doesn't.



As suggested already by several posters, including me, get an external drive and use VLC if iDVD doesn't want to play. Folks have freely given sensible advice; why not try it?

This is what I use:

View attachment 574865
http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B00AWRTXVS?ref_=zg_bs_1292112011_1

It works fine with my 2009 Mac Mini.

Thanks for the hardware recommendation, we'll see in a few days how it works.

 

[California]

Thanks for the hardware recommendation, we'll see in a few days how it works.

For what it's worth, the oem drive in the 2010 mac minis were always problematic. Had a couple replaced under Applecare.

 

[lowercaseperson]

New optical drive works, I guess it was my internal drive. Thanks everyone for the suggestions.

 

[California]

New optical drive works, I guess it was my internal drive. Thanks everyone for the suggestions.

Interesting, I don't know if it is a heat issue or if there was a run of bad optical drives that happened to get into the 2010 mini. I personally have not seen the same optical drive failure rate in the 2009 Mac Mini's.

 

[lowercaseperson]

It's still strange to me that some discs work just fine - consistently. While others, consistently, won't work. All the discs worked in the new drive.