IMac 2008 OS10.9.1 external dvd won't play movie DVD's

iMac 2008 OS10.9.1 external dvd won't play movie DVD's. Other DVD/CD's are recognized.
My internal DVD/CD p-layer/burner stopped working 3 years ago like many other iMacs did.
Any help would be greatly appreciated. This is all red because I am ******!

I have discovered, no thanks to Samsung techs, what the problem is, and it might be revealing for others, as well. It seems that DVD Player, which is the app Apple provides in OS x for (naturally) playing videos, doesn't work with external drives if the computer has an internal drive – even when, as in my case, the internal drive is dead.
I have learned, however, of the existence of a couple of alternative, free applications that run video and audio disks with external optical drives, and one of them, at least (VLC), seems to be widely acclaimed. Does anyone know whether bypassing DVD Player could be a bad idea? There were some gripes from one or two reviewers about awkwardness with playing audio DVDs with iTunes, but I'm not sure what they meant when they said that you have to click on individual items in a selection. Would that mean, for example, having to click on each movement of a Mozart trio? That I couldn't play an entire album's contents of another kind of music without clicking on each song?
Getting the internal optical drive replaced would be prohibitive, even if the parts could be obtained, so I guess I'm stuck trying to deal with the external drive I have and finding the best replacement for DVD Player that I can find. The interesting thing is that the drive works beautifully with a MacBook Air I tried it with, so I guess that is because the Air doesn't have an internal drive?
Wouldn't you think that Samsung techs would know all this? The one I spoke to told me to make sure that my system preference for CDs and DVDs was set to open automatically with DVD Player and sent me all kinds of FAQs, plus a way to get an RMA number for a return. Not a word about difficulties with Macs having an existing internal drive. And all after spending a very long time talking with me about what was going on, what the error message was, and so on. I guess the message hasn't gotten to them.
I hope this information will be helpful to someone.

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My 3 year old MacBook Pro, with OS 10.7.1, won't play movie DVDs I burned on Panther. Why?

My 3 year old MacBook Pro, with OS 10.7.1, won't play movie DVDs I burned on Panther.
Why?

But to answer your question, you might be able to create a ISO of the DVD and burn that to a new DVD.
Insert your DVD.
Open /Applications/Utilities/Disk Utility.app.
In the left side of the window, select the “DVD”.
Click “New Image” from the Disk Utility toolbar and select where you want to save the temporary image. For “Image Format”, choose “DVD/CD master” and for “Encryption”, choose “none”.
The image extension in the “Save As” box will be .cdr (this is what you want) — click “Save”.
Once the temporary image is created, it will show up on the left side of the Disk Utility window. Select it.
Insert a blank DVD (I prefer Verbatim discs).
Click “Burn” from the Disk Utility toolbar.
Another problem could be that you burned the DVD using a codec that your new machine doesn't have.
Install Perian, VLC and Flip4Mac, that combination will play anything.
Also install Flash for web content and Silverlight for Netflix.
http://flashbuilder.eu/flash-player-version.html

I have a mid 2007 iMac and the internal superdrive audio cd won't play, the DVD works. Can I purchase an external cd drive that will work with my iMac?

I have a mid 2007 iMac (Model A1224 iMac 7,1) and the internal superdrive audio cd won't play, the DVD works. Can I purchase an external cd drive that will work with my iMac?

Welcome to the Apple Support Communities
Any external optical drive will work with your Mac. If you want an Apple USB SuperDrive, see > http://www.tuaw.com/2012/04/02/use-the-macbook-air-superdrive-with-any-almost-ma c/
The best option is to take the Mac to an Apple Store and get the Mac's SuperDrive repaired

External optical drive won't play movie DVD

The SuperDrive on my very late 2009 MacBook (OS 10.5.8, Leopard) died, and I got a well-rated CD/DVD player/writer, Samsung SE-218BB) instead. It is meant to be compatible with my Mac. It works with things like Disk Warrior, but recently, I tried to play a video disk and got the message "Utilization error. A valid DVD player could not be found (-70012)." I've read a lot of other messages about this same error and have done what was recommended (throwing out the appropriate plist file from DVD player, for example). The messages were for other Mac models and/or versions of OS X, so maybe there is some advice that is specific to my Mac that would pertain? By the way, the DVD does show up in the Finder in a generic kind of way (that is, I think it is the kind/manufacturer of the disk,but it certainly isn't the name of what is on it), and when I click on that, it opens a bunch of separate files that don't seem to have much to do with watching the movie.
I also tried one of the tips given in the DVD Player manual (dragging the file to the DVD Player icon. All that did was make the DVD disappear. I had to restart,, with the mouse "button" (really not a button) on the Mac pressed, which released the DVD from the external drive.
I don't think the problem's with the hardware, since I can play Disk Warrior in it (that opens automatically after I insert the DVD. So what's with the movies? I've checked Software Update, and my software (DVD Player 7.7) is up to date for my Mac and OS version. I don't even know whether I should be using DVD Player for movies. (I haven't tried a music DVD, but I suspect that should open in some other app.) I don't remember playing movies on my computer when the internal SuperDrive was still working, so I can't make that comparison.
I hope you can help me. I'd be very sorry if I had to give up on playing the DVDs I now have. My VHS/DVD player-recorder used to be just fine, but my cable company set it back up wrong when they installed a new cable box, and now they want $50 even to look at it, so for now (until I find some company, say, the manufacturer of the player, that can tell me how to set it back up) the only way I can play and burn movies is with my computer.
Thanks,
jenny

I have discovered, no thanks to Samsung techs, what the problem is, and it might be revealing for others, as well. It seems that DVD Player, which is the app Apple provides in OS x for (naturally) playing videos, doesn't work with external drives if the computer has an internal drive – even when, as in my case, the internal drive is dead.
I have learned, however, of the existence of a couple of alternative, free applications that run video and audio disks with external optical drives, and one of them, at least (VLC), seems to be widely acclaimed. Does anyone know whether bypassing DVD Player could be a bad idea? There were some gripes from one or two reviewers about awkwardness with playing audio DVDs with iTunes, but I'm not sure what they meant when they said that you have to click on individual items in a selection. Would that mean, for example, having to click on each movement of a Mozart trio? That I couldn't play an entire album's contents of another kind of music without clicking on each song?
Getting the internal optical drive replaced would be prohibitive, even if the parts could be obtained, so I guess I'm stuck trying to deal with the external drive I have and finding the best replacement for DVD Player that I can find. The interesting thing is that the drive works beautifully with a MacBook Air I tried it with, so I guess that is because the Air doesn't have an internal drive?
Wouldn't you think that Samsung techs would know all this? The one I spoke to told me to make sure that my system preference for CDs and DVDs was set to open automatically with DVD Player and sent me all kinds of FAQs, plus a way to get an RMA number for a return. Not a word about difficulties with Macs having an existing internal drive. And all after spending a very long time talking with me about what was going on, what the error message was, and so on. I guess the message hasn't gotten to them.
I hope this information will be helpful to someone.

Burns DVDs, WON'T play commercial DVDs

So I seem to be having the REVERSE problem from everyone else. My iMac G4 (17", 1GHz processor, 512 MB RAM), which I just bought for a piddling $200, will play and burn CDs / CD-RWs just fine. It will also correctly identify blank DVDs that I stick in the drive. It will BURN DVDs. In a few hours, I'll be able to tell you if it will read data DVDs.
The ONLY THING it won't do is play COMMERCIAL DVDs. I pop in a video DVD, it spins up, tries to read it, then spits it back out. Now, I know the not playing DVDs problem is not a unique one, but in reading on these forums, that seems to always be a symptom of the DVD laser diode having gone bad, which is certainly NOT the case here (as it's merrily burning away).
My GUESS would be that--somehow--my installation is missing the CSS library necessary to decode commercial DVDs. I had a similar problem getting my iPod Touch to talk to iTunes. But is that even possible? And, if so, how do I go about rectifying this issue?
Any help would be greatly appreciated.

I FIXED IT!!!!!!
I read somewhere else on this forum about someone having a similar problem to mine. He took the iMac to a service depot, but when he got it there, they couldn't replicate the problem. He took it home, and HE couldn't replicate the problem. As in, it was now fixed. Turns out that just unplugging the unit gave the Superdrive a chance to "reset."
So I unplug my iMac to test this out, as well as to see if I can unscrew the access panel to determine how easy it'd be to upgrade its RAM. Well, I could only get one of the screws out, but when I plugged it back in, turned it back on and popped in the collector's edition of "2001: A Space Odyssey," DVD Player came up and began playing the disc! Never has "Thus Sprach Zarathustra" sounded so amazing!
So, thank you, John Westwood1! Thank you!

Burned DVD won't play in DVD player?

I burned a video I purchased on itunes to a DVD using Finder (dragging and dropping onto disk). It burned fine, but won't play in my DVD player. It will play on my computer though.
Are there different formats you can burn it in? Am I not using the correct format?
I am using a DVD-RW disk.
Any help is appreciated! Thanks.

In iTunes you create a Playlist from the tracks you want and then select it and 'Burn Playlist to disc', just dragging the files in the Finder is just copying the files across and not making a playable CD.

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any advice would be appreciated.

Hi, I recently made a 500-picture slideshow in iMovie, imported it into iDVD and then burned it. the dvd plays on computers and in my playstation, but won't play on my sony dvd player, which usually doesn't have a problem playing projects that i made on my computer.
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Hi All,
I am new to DVD Studio Pro; I made the jump from idvd......!
I just finished my first DVD, and it won't play in my dvd player; it plays fine on my computer with the DVD player. could it be because the dvd player is about 6 years old?
TIA!!

How did you burn the DVD and what media? That can aalso cause issues, Which version of DVD SP are you using and what machine?
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I think I'm doing everything just as I used to..
Thanks
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Like I said..work's in the PS2....Weird

When you say DVD Player (standalone) or do you mean Apple DVD Player? Could be many things from a bad burn to the drive you are trying it in is going bad/dirty. When you are copying it with Toast why are you trying to copy it, why not just burn another copy off the build?
Anymore details on the process, what brand of media, how you burned it could point to where the issue is.

Many File Types dragged to iDVD, burned to DVD, won't play on DVD player

I have made a recording on Camtasia (video, pictures and audio). My goal is to make it into a DVD that plays on standard players. Any format I have saved the file to is not working.
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Then I did an Advanced Export and saved the file as Quick Time. Moved it into iDVD, burned the disk and again the disk won't play on either of my DVD players.
I have done another Advance Export and saved the file as an AVI but now only the first 3 minutes of a 30 minute video are being captured.
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Hi Vicadea
Welcome to apple discussions. I've never tried Camtasia for Mac. Apparently it's not working very well for you even when you export as a QuickTime movie. I don't know what to say other than it seems like fairly pricey screen capture software ($299) just to have it not work as you expected on multiple attempts.
For much less money and much more reliable results I'd recommend the following for screen capture instead:
http://www.ambrosiasw.com/utilities/snapzprox/
Hope this helps but if not just come on back. Good luck.
Disclaimer: Apple does not necessarily endorse any suggestions, solutions, or third-party software / products that may be mentioned in this topic. Apple encourages you to first seek a solution at Apple Support. The following links are provided as is, with no guarantee of the effectiveness or reliability of the information. Apple does not guarantee that these links will be maintained or functional at any given time. Use the information above at your own discretion.
Message was edited by: SDMacuser

DVD Studio Pro DVD won't play in DVD player

I created a movie in Final Cut Pro 7, sent it to Compressor, and created a DVD using DVD Studio Pro. When I try to play the DVD on my DVD player it says that it "can't play the disc." The movie files from Compressor are "Sequence 1- Dolby Digital Professional 2.0.ac3" and "Sequence 1-MPEG-2 6.2Mbps 2-pass.m2v." The project is set to SD DVD, being put on DVD+R discs, and I haven't had any warnings in the Log while creating the DVDs.
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You need to start a new DVDSP project for the setting to change from HD to SD.
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I burn on a Macbook Pro, OS 10.5.8, using the following protocol:
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Also, try burning using either a slower speed and/or using DVDSP.
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DVD-R works fine.
It was working fine a few weeks ago. There was an OS update since then.
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Also, I wanted to test using the "lesser" video card, but I forgot how you switch. I don't see anything in Preferences for this.
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The 3rd time, it went through whole process and it actually completed and ejected the DVD, but when I put it in our player I got a "disk error" message.
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Sharona
Did you create a slideshow on iDVD, or create one in iPhoto and put that into iDVD or create a slideshow in iMovie? How many photos are in your slideshow? Some DVD players will not play more than 99 photos, and other players will stutter/skip/pause for a few seconds and then resume playing.
Did you do it like this?
From iDVD Help:
+Creating a slideshow in iDVD+
+Using the slideshow editor in iDVD you can create slideshows from images in iPhoto or from images stored in other places on your hard disk or a connected server. You can also include movies in your slideshow.+
+To create a slideshow in iDVD:+
+Make sure the menu that the slideshow will be accessible from is showing in the iDVD window.+
+If you want the slideshow to link from the main menu, for example, the main menu should be showing in the iDVD window.+
+You can proceed in one of two ways:+
◼
+Click the Add button in the lower left of the iDVD window, and select Add Slideshow from the pop-up menu. A button labeled My Slideshow appears on the menu.+
◼
+Drag an album to the DVD menu. This automatically creates a button that links to the slideshow. The button has the name of your iPhoto album and, if the button is an image button, it automatically displays the first slide in the slideshow.+
+Double-click the button to open the slideshow editor.+
+The iDVD window changes to show the Photos pane if it is not already selected.+
+If you started by adding a My Slideshow button to your menu, the slideshow editor is empty, so you need to drag images to it from the Photos pane, described below.+
+If you started by dragging an album to your menu, the slideshow editor shows thumbnails of the photos in the slideshow. To view photos as a list instead, click the list icon in the upper right of the iDVD window.+
+Add, arrange, or delete photos or movie clips from the slideshow to create the sequence you want.+
◼
+To add images, drag individual photos or folders from the Photos pane or from elsewhere on your hard disk or a connected server to the slideshow editor.+
◼
+To add movies, drag individual movies from the Media pane or from elsewhere on your hard disk or a connected server to the slideshow editor.+
◼
+To reorder the images or movies, select the ones you want to move, and drag them to a different position.+
+If you add a photo album and do not reorder the images, the slideshow displays your photos in the order they are organized in the photo album.+
◼
+To delete an image or movie, select it and choose Edit > Delete, or press the Delete key.+
+Click the Settings button (shown below) and select the settings you want for the slideshow:+
◼
+“Loop slideshow” makes the slideshow repeat continuously until the viewer moves to a different part of the DVD.+
◼
+“Display navigation arrows” shows navigation arrows on the screen. It’s most helpful to display arrows when you set the slideshow to progress manually, which means the viewer controls movement from slide to slide. These arrows are simply a visual cue; the viewer must use the remote control to advance the slideshow.+
◼
+“Add image files to DVD-ROM” adds copies of the photos and movies to the DVD disc so viewers can download them to their computers.+
◼
+“Show titles and comments” lets you add titles and comments to the photos and movies. These are visible in the slideshow.+
◼
+“Duck audio while playing movies” silences any soundtrack you have added to the slideshow while the movie in your slideshow play. This ensures that the slideshow soundtrack and movie audio do not play at the same time.+
+Click the Transition pop-up menu and choose a transition to smoothly move from one image to the next. Only one transition can be applied to a slideshow.+
+To preview a transition, click the Preview button (shown below). The iDVD remote control appears. Use your pointer to click the arrows in the remote control, which highlights buttons on your menu. Highlight the button to which you have added a transition and click Enter on the remote control. Click Exit to return to the slideshow editor.+
+Click the Slide Duration pop-up menu and choose the length of time you want each slide to stay on the screen. (You cannot set a custom duration time, and the duration you select applies to all slides in the slideshow.) Be sure to allow enough time for the transition you selected.+
+To let the viewer advance through the slideshow manually using a remote control, choose Manual. If you want to add a soundtrack to your slideshow, you don’t need to set the slide duration.+
+The slide duration you set does not apply to movies you add to the sideshow. Movies in a slideshow play in their entirety before the next slide appears.+
+Click the Return button to exit the slideshow editor.+
+The duration of your slideshow, in minutes, appears at the top center of the slideshow editor. As you add and remove images, transitions, and so on, you can keep track of how long the slideshow is.+
+When you add RAW images from iPhoto, the RAW files appear in the slideshow as JPEG images. If you choose to save the photos to the DVD-ROM portion of the disc, so that viewers can download them to their own computer, iDVD saves the RAW files, not JPEG images, there.+
+To learn how to add a soundtrack to your slideshow, see Related Topics below.+
+NOTE: A slideshow that you create in iDVD does not show up in the Media pane and is therefore not accessible for use in other iDVD projects.+
Did you create a disk image with your iDVD project? That can often help pinpoint burning issues.
From iDVD Help:
+You can test your project before you burn it by saving it as a disc image. The disc image of your project is a fully encoded version of the project that you can play in DVD Player (which comes on your Mac) or burn to a disc later. You can preview the disc image to make sure your project plays correctly and then make changes, if necessary, before burning a disc.+
+To create a disc image of your project:+
+Choose File > “Save as Disc Image.”+
+Type a name for the disc image.+
+Choose where you want to store the disc image.+
+Click Save.+
+Double-click the disc image icon when the disc image is ready.+
+Launch DVD Player, in your Applications folder.+
+Your DVD project begins playing on your computer. Use the controller to navigate to and view all the content on your DVD. If everything works, the DVD you burn will work in most newer consumer DVD players and computers with a DVD drive.+
You may also find these helpful:
http://support.apple.com/kb/TA23794?viewlocale=en_US
http://support.apple.com/kb/TA23793?viewlocale=en_US
Be sure to use a good brand of DVD-R disks, such as Verbatim or Maxell. Choose a burn speed of 4x or less.
Post back if none of this helps.

Shapeshifter themes may prevent DVD Player from playing movie DVDs

A user on Apple Discussions reported that every time they played commercial DVDs they got an
"Error: `nilP`"
When trying to play DVDs on their DVD Player software. Turned out the problem was a certain theme they had installed to use with http://www.unsanity.com/ 's Shapeshifter product. At the point of the writing of this FAQ, it is unknown which themes cause this issue. However, if you get this issue, please report the problem to the theme author and Unsanity so that the problem may be fixed. Always be sure that when you install system modification utilities like these that they are up to date for the operating system you are about to update to before updating to that operating system, and checking how to uninstall them if necessary before updating the operating system.

Reset the NVRAM/PRAM and Reset the SMC, then try again.

IMac 2008 OS10.9.1 external dvd won't play movie DVD's

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