I connected my new Apple USB Superdrive to my MacBook Air, inserted a DVD. I can hear and feel the DVD spinning, but nothing appears on my AirBook screen. The SuperDrive simply ejects the DVD??? What is needed to play the DVD?

The DVD Player app is for some odd reason hidden. Why I have no idea. You can find it however with spotlight by entering: dvd player app. into the search field. After you launch the app you can lock it to the Dock by right clicking on DVD Player > Options > Keep in Dock. Once locked on the Dock it'll play a DVD as soon as you put a disc in the drive. To eject the disc, right click on the player's desk top icon then tap 'Eject'. Hope that helps.

Play a DVD or DVD movie file in DVD Player on Mac - Apple Support (CA)

DVD Player User Guide for Mac - Apple Support (CA)

A slight correction, I stated above a DVD will start as soon as you put a disc in the drive. That is incorrect. What I should have said is after putting a disc into the Superdrive you have to launch DVD Player before you can play the disc. Sorry for the confusion.

Is the SuperDrive connected using the Apple USB-C to USB-A adapter?

Various third-party USB-C to USB-A adapters can’t provide sufficient power for SuperDrive.

The Apple adapter can provide enough power.

Make sure the SuperDrive shiny side is up and the logo side is down, and try a different DVD. DVDs are amazing, having spent years working with them and writing recording software for them. Amazing that they work at all, much less as well as they usually do, that is.

lynnfrompolson Said:

"Why does the DVD not play? I connected Apple USB SuperDrive to my Macbook Air via Apple adapter. Inserted a commerical DVD. The DVD spins, nothing appears on the screen, and after about a minute, the SuperDrive ejects the DVD. How do I succeed at playing a DVD? Thanks"

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For reference...

Third Party Optical Drive & Burner:

What I Use: Verbatim External USB 3.2 All-in-One Optical Writer (71094). Works like a charm on my M1 Macs and Intel Macs. The software is quick and easy to use.

Apple ditched all optical drives about ten years ago, at OS X 10.7, and right around the attempted industry transition from DVD to Blu-Ray (or to the failed Blu-Ray competitor known as HD DVD), removing the internal optical drives from all Macs.

Optical drives tended to be failure prone, too. Still are. Most of the Macs I had back then needed the internal optical drive repaired.

Apple never added a Blu-Ray media player, either.

Unfortunately, the industry does sometimes require reading spec sheets, as much as many of us would prefer otherwise.

But you’ve resolved your problem here.

Apple has never made a blu-ray player in any of there devices hence why the software is called a DVD Player. As for the lack of descriptions I suggest you leave feedback with Apple.

Keep in mind you yourself never mentioned anything about blu-ray in your opening post. If you had it could have been cleared up earlier.

Product Feedback - Apple

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