Making a 3rd Party Superdrive Work

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Level 1

8 points

Making a 3rd Party Superdrive Work

I purchased an "External DVD Drive Type-C Optical Drive Slim Slot-in CD/DVD+/-RW Burner Player USB C Superdrive for MacBook/ Window" from Shenzhen Sengulink Technology company, China through Newegg. I plugged it in my new MacBook Pro 13" (Apple chip) and loaded a CD. It automatically opened Music and played the CD. I loaded a DVD I had purchased. It opened the DVD player app and nothing happened. What do I have to do to get it to play my movies? I don't even see any indication that the computer even recognizes that the unit is attached.

MacBook Pro 13″, macOS 11.2

Posted on Apr 20, 2021 2:34 PM

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Answer 1

Old Neophyte Author

Level 1

8 points

Apr 20, 2021 6:29 PM in response to HWTech

I found the region setting. It came set to region 2. After I realized I had to unlock the setting first, I was able to change it to region 1. Now everything works perfectly. Thank you.

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Answer 2

HWTech

Level 9

69,212 points

Apr 20, 2021 5:58 PM in response to Old Neophyte

DVDs are complicated. You need the SuperDrive to be programmed for your region. Most DVD players prompt you to select your region the first time you attempt to play a DVD and the DVD drive will then lock itself to that region after so many DVDs are played. I'm not sure how you check this setting on macOS. The issue is further complicated because movie DVDs are protected by DRM (Digital Rights Management -- aka copy protection) which perhaps the DVD player you purchased does not support or somehow changes something.

I would be skeptical of using any no name electronic device for multiple reasons since unfortunately many Chinese products are poor knockoffs or absolutely horrid fakes, but even more so when connecting them to a USB-C Mac where the external device can damage the laptop quite easily.

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Making a 3rd Party Superdrive Work

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