Dualdisc cd side won't play on my mac mini intel core duo w Superdrive

Question

Shakira Fijacion Oral DualDisc "CD" side will insert and then automatically reject from my Mac Mini - Intel Core Duo. The DVD side plays fine. Unfortunately iTunes not smart enough to work with DVD side. There is a query in IPOD forum about Springsteen DualDisc also failing on intel mini mac that is listed at "answered" but for the life of me, I can't tell if you are supposed to just not buy DualDisc or else take the Mac Mini back for a new drive.
mac mini (intel core duo)   Mac OS X (10.4.7)   2GB RAM

Answer 1

Mac Mini Intel Core Duo's did not ship until 2006 which seems plenty of time for Apple to announce 'we have a problem' and what their recommended solution.
Why would they do that ? I mean, they don't have a problem. The inventors of DualDisc made a type of disc that won't play in all players, and Apple can't really do anything about it. Superdrives are not made by Apple, it's just Apple's name for a DVD burner; the Superdrives that are found in various Macs come from several different manufacturers, and although Apple probably ensures that the Superdrive and the Mac work well together, they won't test whether it works with each type of disc (usually, the manufacturer will).
However, that is probably limited to redbook/standards-compliant discs; since a DualDisc's CD side doesn't comply with any standard other than "DualDisc", and because it is not considered important enough to be officially supported by most (if not all) manufacturers, they probably won't test them since they're bound to get mixed results anyway.
Similarly I don't remember seeing a "strictly redbook only" disclaimer on any of the media available from Apple describing the capabilities of its Superdrive when I was making my mac mini buying decision.
You didn't see one because it is not required. Asking that Apple (or any other company) warns you that their players won't play non-redbook CDs is a bit like asking that they tell you everything your optical drive won't play. Apple claims that their Superdrives will read CD-R/RW, DVD-R/RW, DVD+R/RW, DVD-R DL, which aren't only a bunch of weird-looking letters, but also correspond to a standard. When you see a CD logo on a drive, it means that it will play redbook-compliant CDs. Your Dell player simply does more that what it is supposedly capable of, but because one (or many) optical drives will play DualDisc doesn't mean that they all have to.