Intermittent DVD read/play problem?

Recently, my Mac Mini is not reading my nice DVDs. It does not read new (fresh out of the box) DVDs. I was all set for 'Grapes of Wrath!'. However, some do play and I have no idea why this should be, bearing in mind the machine is less than 2 years old?

Welcome to  Discussions!
Despite the relatively 'young' vintage of your mini, the drive could be dirty depending on its location and conditions of use. If airflow is limited or there is a significant amount of dust in the area, the mini could gather dust quickly. The drive could also be failing, as Apple devices are not completely immune to defective parts (as high quality as they may be). If you use the mini to play DVDs a great deal of the time, this also generates a lot of heat and could quickly shorten the life of the drive.
Do the DVDs even mount and show up on your desktop or in Finder, or are they just ejected?
If they mount but can not be played via DVD Player or Front Row, check the region code of the DVD. If it is not Region 2, it will not play in your mini if (as would be normal) it was set to your local region.

Similar Messages

DVD files playing problem

hi... i have a K8T Neo@ F/FIR board wid 1.8 3000+ series amd processor. 512 RAM and Radeon 7200 Graphic card
now the problem that i am facing is that when even i m watchin a dvd movie on my computer, after i m done wid da movie and i cross the software to close it, my system halts after 3 seconds.
not only a dvd but even if i have a dvd .vob file in my hard drive and i play it from there, and when i close the software, the system halts. i have changed my 3d card but the problem is still ther. have used many dvd playing softwares, like VLC, power dvd, windvd and intervideo. but all have the same problem.
the system halts some 3-5 seconds after i exit the software or stop the movie playing.
please give me some solution...
waiting..
thanx

>>Posting Guide<<

Burnt DVD's Playing problem

I put a DVD my friend gave me of anime and it wont work its just a white screen and the video screen, and it saysyou need updating even though i have updated to 7.11.1 updat whats going on?

If this is a video DVD, QuickTime Player won't handle it (unless you have the MPEG-2 Playback Component, and even then it may not work). Try using DVD Player instead.
If it's a data DVD with video files, then you'll need to determine what compressor was used to create the videos. Ask your friend and then post back and perhaps someone here can tell you what you'll need.
For a quick solution, you can try VLC Media Player.

DVD Playing Problems

Lately, I've been having problems occasionally playing dvds on my Powerbook G4 laptop. Usually I put in a dvd and eventually the DVD Player opens up and the movie loads up. But lately i put in a dvd and nothing opens up. If I open DVD Player myself a message says "Disc Not Available or Supportable." But yet the same dvd has worked in the past. What can I do to get this dvd to play if this happens?
thanks in advance!
-chris.

Might try one of those cleaning Disks, it's been the savior for a few, and a waste of money for others.
Also Using Disk Utility to Verify the HD & Repair Permissions, then reboot may help.
Or, mysel, I'd use Applejack...
http://www.versiontracker.com/dyn/moreinfo/macosx/19596
After installing, reboot holding down CMD+s, then when the prompt shows, type in...
applejack AUTO
Then let it do all 5 of it's things.
At least it'll eliminate some questions if it doesn't fix it.
The 5 things it does are...
Correct any Disk problems.
Repair Permissions.
Clear out Cache Files.
Repair/check several plist files.
Dump the VM files for a fresh start.

Hi I just updated from Snow Leopard to Mountain Lion. I write DVD's using Final Cut Pro, creating a DVD that plays HD and Standard Definition on one disk. My problem is when I used load the disk on my G5 it would ask if you want High Definition or Standar

Hi I just updated from Snow Leopard to Mountain Lion.
I write DVD's using Final Cut Pro, creating a DVD that plays HD and Standard Definition on one disk.
My problem is when I used load the disk on my G5 it would ask if you want High Definition or Standard Definition, now it just defaults to Standard Definition.(I'm using Apple's DVD Player)
Can I fix this problem?

Addendum: I read on a post here (http://forums.macrumors.com/showthread.php?t=420169) about removing some kext files in order to trick OSX into thinking that there were no FireWire ports.
I followed the instructions and removed from /System/Library/Extensions/ the following files:
IOFireWireSerialBusProtocolTransport.kext
IOFireWireAVC.kext
IOFireWireFamily.kext
IOFireWireIP.kext
IOFireWireSBP2.kext
I restarted and BAM...Snow Leopard booted crazy fast and the mouse and keyboard worked instantly.
The System Profiler says "No FireWire ports were found."
So this tells me that the FW port is probably the culprit and is messing up the installation.
So how do I hack the Mountain Lion installer and tell it to ignore the FW port, which is obviously quite dead? Or is there something I can do to the Base system that is similar?

CD burner unable to read or burn CD's- DVD's play and Burn fine???

My Mac pro is less than 6 months old. I have burned less than 10 CD's since I've had it.
Recently CD's no longer cue up or burn.
The drive just spins then spits it out.
I tried several brands of CD's- all with the same result.
But I can still play and burn DVD without any problem.
Isn't the CD and DVD drive the same drive? Why does it burn one and not the other?
Will Apple send me a new drive? I can't bring it into the shop because I use it everyday for work.
If not I'll eat the cost of a new one- but is it easy to replace?

I just realized that I have the same problem (been a while since I put in any sort of CD, so don't know when it started or what might have triggered it). My Mac Pro's Superdrive recognizes DVDs, blank or not, but no CDs, blank or not, commercial software or burned discs.
Resetting PRAM didn't help. Would like to know if this is a software/settings problem or hardware problem before I take any drastic measures.

I have three dvds that play in a dvd player. One of the three plays in my imac but the other two say they are blank. How do I get my imac to read these other two dvds?

I have three dvds that play in a dvd player. One of the three plays in my imac but the other two say they are blank. How do I get my imac to read these other two dvds?

My iMac is very picky about any dirt or smudges on the DVD.

I am trying to burn DVDs from iPhoto slideshows. My pictures number in the hundreds and we know that iPhoto captures 99 and then "starts over". This plays fine from the Mac Book but glitches arise on the DVD when playing it on a DVD player. Any suggsts

I am trying to burn DVDs from iPhoto slideshows. My pictures number in the hundreds and we know that iPhoto captures 99 and then "starts over". This plays fine from the Mac Book but glitches arise on the DVD when playing it on a DVD player. Any suggestions on how to overcome the 99 "Chapter limitation" that IPhoto has? Has anyone heard or tried an app called Vilisoft? I read good things but I am not sure if it will do what I want.
Jim

Then use multipel 99 picture slideshows.
You can have up to 8 or 9 slideshows per menu. If you add a sub menu reduce that by 1 and add 8 more to the sub menu. The top menu can have links to up to 8 or so submenus (depends on the theme) and each submenu can have up to 8 or so slideshows.
However, converting a very large slideshow to a QT movie as Terence suggested does not envoke the 99 slide limit in iDVD. It just becomes a single video/movie file. So you should not have a problem with exporting at the large size, 720 x 540,
and dragging the resulting file into the iDVD menu being sure to avoid any drop zones.
OT

DVDSP 3 somewhat BLOCKY look on DVD when played back

I have been shooting my home footage on a Canon GL2
editing in FCP 4.5
and when I have a finished sequence to be placed on a DVD, I have been exporting the Self Contained Quicktime w/ chapter makers.
I then importing these Quicktime files into DVDSP-3
I have experimented with serveral of the encoding setting (Bit Rate, 1 pass VBR, 2 pass VBR etc...)
I have been told in forums before not to go above 8mps on the bit rate in order to ensure that my DVD will play on most players.
So, the best setting that I have found is the 2 pass VBR, 7.5 average, 8 max bit rate, and Best on the motion estimation...
But, I have still been somewhat frustrated when watching these DVDs back because of the blocky look I am seeing in some of the scenes.
Is there a better way I should be compressing?
Should I be using compressor instead... strait from my FCP timeline... to MPEG 2?
Shorter GOPs? Would that effect how the DVDs will play on some players?
I appreciate any help!!!
Thanks, Greg

Greg
You may want to try an alternative Encoder ! A bit drastic but I have had so many problems with MPEG2's using Compressor and encoding through DVDSP (probably down to me not understanding the 'black art'!) that I bought BitVice Vers 1.6 from Innobits. It is not cheap (£215/$317) and only encodes MPEG2's but the results I am getting are very acceptable just using the default settings but changing the target bit rate to 5.5. Very easy/simple to use. The pictures have a real 'punch' to them and there are no artifacts/blurring etc - which is a major bonus! You can download a trial version which encodes as normal but places a watermark over the top of the final output. Even so, it does give you an idea of what it can do and it made me purchase the encoder straight away!

After using video capture device to copy VHS to DVD, burnt DVD will play on computer but not

After using video capture device to copy VHS to DVD, burnt DVD will play on computer but not on DVD player. Tech support for the VCD said my HP DVD burning software has to burn "DVD Video and not DVD data" and to check with HP. How can i check myself.

Grahamster, welcome to the forum.
I recommend trying CDBurnerXP for burning video CD's. I have been using it for years without a glitch. I use it mainly for burning ISO's, but have used it for all types. Please let us know if it works or not.
Signature:
HP TouchPad - 1.2 GHz; 1 GB memory; 32 GB storage; WebOS/CyanogenMod 11(Kit Kat)
HP 10 Plus; Android-Kit Kat; 1.0 GHz Allwinner A31 ARM Cortex A7 Quad Core Processor ; 2GB RAM Memory Long: 2 GB DDR3L SDRAM (1600MHz); 16GB disable eMMC 16GB v4.51
HP Omen; i7-4710QH; 8 GB memory; 256 GB San Disk SSD; Win 8.1
HP Photosmart 7520 AIO
++++++++++++++++++
**Click the Thumbs Up+ to say 'Thanks' and the 'Accept as Solution' if I have solved your problem.**
Intelligence is God given; Wisdom is the sum of our mistakes!
I am not an HP employee.

DVD Player plays DVDs but will not play VIDEO_TS files from my hard drive

When logged into my home account DVD Player plays DVDs but will not play VIDEO_TS files that are on my hard drive. I get an error message: "there was a problem opening the media. Media type is not supported." When logged in as "root" DVD player does play these same files. Also, when logged in to my home account, I can play these same files in VLC.

Go this this thread for more details:
http://discussions.apple.com/thread.jspa?threadID=1075814
But the gist of the fix is to delete or rename "~/Library/Preferences/com.apple.DVDPlayer.plist" and let the DVD Player build a new one. It seems that this is caused by a migrated PPC preference that borks DVD Player 5 on Intel Macs, which is what just happened to me. Hope this helps.

DVDSP DVD's play fine in macs but not in standalone players...

This might be attached to my previous problem, but I thought I would give it a new topic as it is now a new problem.
The DVD's I have made in DVDSP play as they should in DVD Player when inserted into the two iMacs we have, however when we insert the discs into a standalone/set top player, the DVD plays the main track first and THEN goes back to the menu.
What should happen is that a short intro video plays (first play) then onto the Menu where, of course, the viewer makes their selection.
If I stop the DVD by hitting th STOP button on the standalone player several times, I eject the disc and then re-insert it, the DVD plays as it should; showing the first play video and then going to the menu.
Would anyone know a solution to the problem apart from telling the client to hit stop first, ejecting and then re-inserting the DVD?
Cheers,
Spookola

I can only tell you what I'd start doing because I don't know what is happening here any more than you do. First I'd buy some other brand -R dvd blanks. Next I'd make some minor change to the DVD SP setup and burn a new set. You should know that burning dvd's on a Mac or PC is not as foolproof as commercially burned dvd's. You CANNOT guarantee compatibility. If you sell 50 copies you WILL find some people that can't play yours because of compatibility issues. For them you can try burning a +R dvd or buy another external burner and try that too. No single solution will guarantee compatibility when burning from a computer and playing on a commercial dvd player. some folks "never have a problem" but in general I think that's because they don't burn that many dvd's for that many people. sooner or later most folks that burn dvd movies on their mac or pc will find somebody that can't read their dvd.

Video portion of Nightwish DVD not playing correctly on Quicktime. It is not a smooth playback. Can I correct this?

Video portion of Nightwish DVD not playing correctly on Quicktime. It is not a smooth playback. A little jerky. Is there an easy slution to the problem?

I worded my question incorrectly. It isn't a DVD I'm having the problem with, it' s a Nightwish concert download form iTunes I am having the video portion of the video that plays not smoothy. Like it is moothing it short little segments, not a steady flow!

Will PAL dvd player play my NTSC DVD-r?

I'm trying to figure out if I need to convert several NTSC dvd's into PAL format to send to a friend's mom in Israel (she's very sick and would like to see these soon).
Since I've never converted between these formats, I've been doing lots of research and keep getting more confused. I downloaded JES Deinterlacer (i think thats what its called) but I'm not sure I need it since I read the following on an imovie FAQ website:
"I have an NTSC project and want a PAL DVD.
The good news is: You can just send an NTSC disc. Any PAL set top DVD player capable of playing DVD-R discs can also play NTSC discs. All that is needed is a fairly new TV, built in the last 8-10 years or so."
Could this be true? Can I really just send the NTSC dvd's to her? I hate to waste time here...please help...
Thanks so much in advance.
Jenny

That´s right; NTSC DVDs will always work on PAL players when the player is compliant to the DVD specs. Those players do give out the regular NTSC signal and/or convert to PAL60. Some players can even convert to PAL50. The problem is the TV set.
My German TV is 14 years old and cannot handle PAL60 or NTSC; I would need one of those rare players that convert to PAL50 (usually with poor results).
But NTSC DVDs will always work on a PC (when it is an all-region DVD).

DVD recognition/ejecting problem.

Hi,
The DVD player on my old Powerbook Titanium (purchased 6-7 years ago)no longer works. I recently popped in a commercial DVD (which played on it fine for many years), and suddenly the computer doesn't recognize the DVD at all. It is sucked in, and nothing happens. But after a few more tries, it finally recognizes it and plays the movie...only to be unable to reject it after that! I have to press down on the surface of the DVD player in order for it to spit it out.
Today, it won't even suck in DVDs anymore. I'll put it in, and it'll suck it in for a few inches, only to stop midway, whereupon it'll make some clicking noise. I click eject, and it'll push the DVD out. I just can't it to take it in.
Any idea what might be the problem? Thanks.

Hi, iPodGirl. The drive is failing mechanically, or has now completely failed. No one repairs them, so you'll need to replace it.

Intermittent DVD read/play problem?

Similar Messages

Maybe you are looking for