French_Chris

Q: Set up external dvd drive on iMac

Hi,

My superdrive started acting funny (not ejecting discs and then not reading them), so I bought an external dvd player/drive.
Everything worked fine until I installed an SSD in the place of the superdrive.
Now, when I go to play a DVD in the external drive DVD player says "There was an initialisation error, a valid dvd player was not found"

Other apps do not recognise the dvd either, as they used to.

Disk Utility will find the dvd if one is in the player but will not find the player if there is no DVD.

 

Is there something I can do to make the iMac recognise the DVD player as the player by default?

Thanks

 

iMac 24inch early 2009

El Capitan updated

Samsung SE208 portable DVD writer

Posted on May 23, 2016 12:46 AM

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Q: Set up external dvd drive on iMac

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  • by Mike Sombrio,Solvedanswer

    Mike Sombrio Mike Sombrio May 23, 2016 3:18 AM in response to French_Chris
    Level 6 (17,226 points)
    Apple Watch
    May 23, 2016 3:18 AM in response to French_Chris

    With no disc in the DVD drive there is nothing to recognize. That's normal. Apple's DVD player software doesn't work on my 2009 iMac with the original SuperDrive in an external case because I also installed an SSD in the optical bay. I use VLC to view videos. My disc burning software, Toast, recognizes the external just fine.

  • by French_Chris,

    French_Chris French_Chris May 23, 2016 3:19 AM in response to Mike Sombrio
    Level 1 (20 points)
    Desktops
    May 23, 2016 3:19 AM in response to Mike Sombrio

    Thanks Mike. I tried with VLC and it worked to view! My bad.

    I don't remember the las time I burned a DVD but I'll remember Toast if I do.

  • by Mike Sombrio,

    Mike Sombrio Mike Sombrio May 23, 2016 3:37 AM in response to French_Chris
    Level 6 (17,226 points)
    Apple Watch
    May 23, 2016 3:37 AM in response to French_Chris

    You mentioned "other apps" not recognizing the drive, what other apps are having problems? Everything works fine with mine except Apples DVD player.

  • by French_Chris,

    French_Chris French_Chris May 23, 2016 3:39 AM in response to Mike Sombrio
    Level 1 (20 points)
    Desktops
    May 23, 2016 3:39 AM in response to Mike Sombrio

    MPlayerX would open and quit automatically. I tried it several times. I thought I had tried VLC too, but it worked first time just now.

    I have MplayerX as my default player for most video content.

    However Handbrake and iTunes to recognise it, ...

    Thanks a lot for taking the time to help me. Much appreciated.