Looking for a good DVD player app for iMacs

Question

Looking for a good DVD player app for iMacs

I watch movies my iMac from DVDs. The latest updates on iOS apparently did away with my ability to use the DVD player app that come with the Macs. I have a brand new Mac M1, and it cannot play my old DVDs -or my new ones either. I was told by an Apple adviser to download a DVD player app from the internet, and he suggested VLC. I downloaded VLC, but the visual quality is awful: my DVD movies that used to play sharp, crisp and color-balanced are playing fuzzy and in awful colors with VLC. No visual pleasure there. And I don't see settings in the VLC app that can be tweaked for higher visual experience. I need a quality DVD player app! Who can recommend me a good app for my purpose? Thank you.

iMac 21.5″ 4K, macOS 11.2

Posted on Oct 16, 2021 3:51 PM

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Answer 1

Best reply

tbirdvet

Level 6

13,893 points

Oct 17, 2021 8:54 AM in response to PercyMortimer

Big Sur 11.6 broke the Apple DVD player from auto playing when the DVD is inserted. Most are using VLC which is what I have been using and the video is fine. Not sure why your video is not. You can use the Apple DVD player but need to state to have it use Rosetta for M1 Macs.. Here is how (thanks to rei0429):

Go to

/System/Library/CoreServices/Applications

and find DVD Player

2.

Right click DVD player, get info and check the box "open using Rosetta"

When starting the dvd you may have to open DVD player again so make a shortcut for DVD player and put into your dock

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Answer 2

Oct 16, 2021 4:18 PM in response to Meg The Dog

Thanks for your reply, MtD. I do have the Apple good old DVD player app in my Application folder, and it opens when I insert a DVD as usual. But it refuses to play the DVD. The black screen sits there dark with the menu ready to be clicked on, but clicking on "play" or anything in it gets you nowhere. The good old reliable Apple DVD ap is now useless to play standard DVDs. Or it plays only 1 out of 5 -I tried a bunch of my DVDs to verify this. I called Tech Support and they told me about this update that basically tells iMac users to get lost and get another app if they want to play DVDs. I am not happy about that, trust me!

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Answer 3

Oct 16, 2021 4:22 PM in response to Meg The Dog

I will add: the iMac does recognize the DVD I inserted, because it shows up on my screen with the name of the movie on it, but the Apple DVD Player refuses to play it. Hence the need to find an app that will play. VLC does, but it produces an inferior restitution of the original material in the DVD. The Apple DVD Player was great..while it worked!

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Answer 4

ku4hx

Level 7

23,532 points

Oct 17, 2021 5:16 AM in response to PercyMortimer

I'd surmise you have underlying problems other than a fuzzy VLC output. We've got it on three iMacs (2020,2020,2015) and two MacBook Pros(2020, 2016) and the visuals are outstanding on all. The same can be said for every Windows computer we've ever owned and there were many before we saw the light.

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Answer 5

Oct 17, 2021 1:08 PM in response to tbirdvet

OMG, THANK YOU: 1) you identified the problem and 2) solved it. The Apple Care support I got on the phone, even when escalating the issue, barely knew what I was talking about. I guess most people don't watch movies on DVD from their iMacs, but I have been enjoying that viewing experience for many years as the visuals on a Mac screen are better than most TV sets can give, and I don't mind being close to the screen as it allows me to control subtitles or scene choices quickly with a mere mouse. I love learning foreign languages from movie dialogues!

I will follow your prompts in a minute.

As for VLC, I found out since yesterday that it does have a control window for colors, size etc, but it certainly requires more efforts than the original Apple DVD Player, if it ever does. When I insert a movie DVD in my old iMac (which is running the old APPLE DVD player without the Big Sur 11.6 update), I get crisp visuals and gorgeous subtle colors- it is easy for me to compare those to the garish/fuzzy version VLC gives me of the same DVD. APPLE, what a shame...

I

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Answer 6

Oct 17, 2021 2:01 PM in response to PercyMortimer

I just called APPLE support to help me follow your prompts (I could not find on my own how to access /system/library etc. I am no APPLE expert), and even as the Apple guy who helped doubted your solution would work, it totally fixed the problem, and in 2 seconds. You nailed it! Thank you so much: I can watch my DVDs with the clear&sharp Apple DVD player again.

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