DVD player doesn't play some DVDs

I've had my macbookpro for several months now. I've been mostly satisfied, but the DVD player seems to be messed up. I have never had a problem with software or CDs, but every once in a while, the DVD player will not play movies. Most of the time, these are Netflix movies which, understandably for shared discs, sometimes have blemishes. However, these same discs have no problems playing on my cheap dvd player hooked up to the tv. I've taken it into the mac store, but they told me nothing is wrong. Has anyone else had this problem? Is there a way to upgrade or change the dvd player? Thanks.

First, welcome to the discussions.
This issue is not a suprise because of the Optical drives and the Fimware that Apple uses in there computers.
Apple has much higher standards for there Optical Drives, and therefore they are very very picky about the Media that they will accept and burn and read.
My quess is that the Movies you are getting are either scratched or smudged and they will either eject from your Mac or will render you an error message.
On some occasions there will be a problem with Optical Drives. If you can read and write with New Good Media, and you are able to use the DVD Player with New Commercial DVD Movies then this tells me it is the Netflix DVD's are of poor quality.
Don

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DVD Player won't play some DVDs

My DVD Player won't play certain DVDs. Presumably all commercial DVDs should be playable in the software. Fox discs are a problem. I can get Player to turn on, but after the menu, the screen flashes a reading error, from which it could not recover. Yesterday I tried to play a Paramount disc, and nothing happened. The computer didn't even acknowledge that there was a disc in the tray. A Wolfe Video wouldn't read at first (I got a dialogue box that the disc was blank) but I put it in again and that time it played.
Also, on a side note, I would like future editions of DVD Player to add the feature of allowing the viewer the ability to go backwards a frame at a time, as well as forwards.

Hi, Doug.
This is starting to sound like a different problem. Your original report seemed to apply only to specific DVDs. Now it's with all DVDs. Before we get into how to reinstall DVD player, let's try a few other things that are more likely troublemakers with DVD Player.
1. As a general check, run the procedure specified in my "Resolving Disk, Permission, and Cache Corruption" FAQ. Perform the steps therein in the order specified.
2. Reset DVD Player. Peform all of the following steps before attempting to launch DVD Player again:2.1. Trash the com.apple.DVDPlayer.plist file in your Home > Library > Preferences folder. This file is the preferences file for DVD Player.
2.2. Using Get Info, make sure you are the Owner and have Access of Read & Write on the following folders on your account:• Home > Library > Application Support.
• Home > Library > Application Support > DVD Player.
• Home > Library > Application Support > DVD Player > Settings.If not, correct the permissions accordingly using the Owner and Access pop-up menus in the Details sub-panel of the Ownership & Permissions panel of the folders' Get Info windows.
2.3. Trash the contents of your Home > Library > Application Support > DVD Player > Settings folder.3. If none of the above sorts it out, let's see what Console can tell us: After the problem occurs, make note of the time, then immediately check the ends of these Console logs for clues that may have been logged when the problem occurred.
4. Note that none of the above rules out the possibility that your optical drive has become defective.4.1. Can you burn DVDs, e.g. even data DVDs from Finder?
4.2. See if the freeware VLC Media Player (nee VideoLan Client) can play the DVDs.Good luck!
Dr. Smoke
Author: Troubleshooting Mac® OS X
Note: The information provided in the link(s) above is freely available. However, because I own The X Lab™, a commercial Web site to which some of these links point, the Apple Discussions Terms of Use require I include the following disclosure statement with this post:
I may receive some form of compensation, financial or otherwise, from my recommendation or link.

DVD player doesn't play movies with .avi extension

My friend recently gave me dvds that had movies burnt off the net. They're all files with .avi extensions. When i tried to open the file, it said i needed a higher version of quick time player, which i downloaded off the apple site.
After all this, i still can't play my dvd. What's happening here? The drive also makes these weird noises, like there's something seriously going wrong with the dvd. I tried playing it through dvd player on my mac book pro, but i couldn't open any file on it. It keeps sayin " NOT PERMITTED" . Funny part is, my friend could easily watch all these movies on his windows xp computer...
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I think it is unforgivable a DVD player won't play DVD's that are not actually DVD's at all but data disks. I am still mad my DVD player will not paint my house.
Windows uses the one size fits all WM Player and it plays DVD and data disks or files etc.
Use Quicktime and Perian (free) to play those pesky files either from the DVD or from a drag and drop to the desktop first.
Message was edited by: A Train Car Full of Escaped Convicts

DVD Player doesn't play on TVy

I hooked up my Mac Book to my Toshiba LCD TV but I get no input. I use the DVI to HDMI adapter and then to the hdmi input. But no picture when I switch to the hdmi input on the TV. Is there something in the computer that has to be turned on or selected?
(it would be nice if there was a separate forum for DVD Player rather than burying it in Leopard.)

Did you try having your MB detecting displays first?
With your TV connected, click on the apple icon on the upper left and select 'System Preferences...' from the drop-down menu. Click on the 'Displays' icon, then find and press the button that says 'Detect displays'. I don't have my external monitor hooked up at the moment, so from there you're on your own. If I remember correctly, the next thing you'll have to do (assuming your TV is being properly detected) is select the screen resolution. You should select the option to have mirrored displays.
By the way, you do realize the DVI out is just going to put a picture on your TV with no audio, right? The sound is plugged in separately.

DVD drive does not play some DVDs properly

Hi,
My Macbook was purchased in 2007; So it is a bit old. I haven't used the DVD drive very often.
I bought two new DVDs from Amazon recently. However, when I played them in my Macbook using DVD Player, the disk pauses and skips very often, making it impossible to watch the DVD. In addition, the Player would display the "Skip over damaged data" warning.
I thought it was a problem with the software (DVD Player); so I installed the VLC player. Problems occurred as well. Disk would pause and then simply stop (the screen closes).
I thought that perhaps it was the problem with the Amazon DVD disk. So I played some other DVDs in my Macbook, with both DVD Player and VLC Player. There was NO problem at all with the other DVDs.
Then my conclusion was that the Amazon DVD was faulty. I requested a replacement, which they sent to me promptly within a day.
However, the same problem occured. The replacement DVD would not play properly in either DVD Player or VLC Player in my Macbook. It would pause and skip very frequenntly.
Now I began to suspect that maybe the Optical Drive was faulty. So I brought the DVD to my school and tried to play it in two computers: one PC (with VLC); the other Mac (DVD Player). To my surprise, the DVD played flawlessly in those two computers.
Now my conclusion is that the optical drive of my Macbook is faulty.
However, after doing some preliminary research on the internet, I find that replacing the internal optical drive is a difficult process. The alternative seems to be buying an external drive. But there seems to be concern about booting the computer (when the need arises) from an external optical drive.
Questions:
1. Is my conclusion justified? (That I have a faulty optical DVD drive)
2. If the optical drive is faulty, then why do some DVDs play with no problem in my Macbook?
3. Would you recommend replacing the internal drive or puchasing an external optical drive? What are the advantages and disadvantages to both?
Thanks a lot!

Thanks again. I went ahead and deleted the DVD Player folder and the plist file.
The result is that it appeared to temporarily improve the playback of the DVD. For the first two hours, the DVD paused considerably less and each pause was of a relatively short duration. There was much less skipping. So the playback was almost tolerable, if I lower my standards.
However, after two hours, it reverted to its old ways. The pauses and skipping became so frequent and long (as before) to make the DVD simply unwatchable.
I don't know what to make of this.

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I suggest that you create 15-second silent audio slug that you can use to move the audio the same amount you have moved the video.
John Link

Why is my macbook DVD player no longer playing commercial DVD's that it used to play perfectly? It reads the disc, but then says not permitted when I hit play. It is much older than 12 months warantee so I hope there is an easy fix?

The macbook reads a disc, and opens up DVD player but then says not permitted when I hit play, or any other button. Sometimes the initial music plays, but the screen remains black and then it all stops. These are shop bought DVD's that have previously worked on here, and work in DVD players, but have suddenly stopped. The computer is much older than the12 months warantee so I hope there is an easy fix? Thankyou!

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2. Perform an SMC reset:
Resetting the SMC (System Management Controller) on Intel-based Macs:
http://support.apple.com/kb/ht3964 and
http://support.apple.com/kb/HT1237?viewlocale=en_US
Resetting your Mac's PRAM and NVRAM:
http://support.apple.com/kb/ht1379
If you are using a Wireless Keyboard:
http://support.apple.com/kb/TS3273
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http://www.videolan.org/vlc/
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DVD player doesn't read Tiger DVD

I am running Panther and I am trying to upgrade to Tiger so I bought the Tiger DVD from the Apple Store. My G5 wouldn't recognize the DVD. I tried other DVDs that I own, both commercial and burned from other computers, and they all worked fine on my computer. I took back the Tiger DVD and got another one and the new one did the same thing. I don't want to bring in my computer to be fixed (especially as every other DVD works). Any suggestions? I can stick with Panther I guess.
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Audio doesn't play in DVD player

Hello,
First post here, so be gentle.
When I burn a DVD, there is no sound when I play it on my dvd player. It plays fine when played on my Mac.
Here is what is going on:
1. capture HD video in imovie 06.
2. add chapters, no external audio or photos
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4. check video in idvd, all looks good, includes audio
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Message was edited by: Bill Wilson
Changed Title

If it plays OK in your Mac, iDVD 'has done its thing'.
Not all set top like writable media - this might be your problem.
More likely, your problem involves a high level of burn errors resulting from low quality media and/or a high burn speed. Instead of going directly from iDVD to writable media, create a disk image file (an option under FILE). Use Apple's DVD Player to verify the mounted (by double-clicking on the disk image icon), then use Apple's Disk Utility or Roxio's Toast to burn the disk image to writable media. Use good quality media (Maxell or Verbatim) and burn at a low speed (4x or slower).
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I have a 2 year old MacBook Pro and the superdrive has stopped working, it won't take discs in as if there is one already inside but iTunes or the dvd player doesn't recognise that there is a disc inside and if there is it can't be ejected

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It might be a huge coincidence but the drive was working fine before i installed lion?

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DVD player doesn't play some DVDs

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