Mac Mini won't play some DVDs

Dr_Scott wrote:

I have a Mac Mini that has suddenly become finicky about the DVDs it plays. And we are talking about original retail DVDs, not copies. It will load and play some, but completely rejects others after ruminating on them for a little while. I can't make heads or tails of it. Any suggestions?

With regards to difficulty playing some discs rather than all, I would tend to point the finger at either those discs being damaged (scratched or dirty), or the actual DVD drive lens being dirty. You can get special lens cleaner discs although I have never used one in a slot loading type drive as used in a Mac mini and would worry it might get stuck. You could blow through the slot ideally with a bottle of compressed air.

Overall I would normally suspect the discs.

Dr_Scott wrote:

It's not the disks. Some of them are pristine, never-been-played disks. All rejected disks work fine in other computers and regular DVD players. If it were failing to load all DVDs, I would blame the drive. This is a new development. I use the Mac as THE DVD player on my big screen TV and it has never rejected disks in the past. It always rejects certain disks and always loads certain other disks. I've tried zapping the PRAM and fiddling with the preferences. But I cannot find a solution. What on earth would cause such selectivity?

If not the discs then it could be the drive lens being dirty. This would particularly affect dual-layer discs i.e. ones containing more than 4.7GB of data. Sometimes but not always the DVD jacket will say in small print whether it is a dual-layer disc. I would therefore suggest you look in to cleaning the lens.

This is rather strange, as we too have a Mac mini and are having a similar problem with a wide range of DVDs including those we burned ourselves, NetFlix movies, and new DVDs direct from Target. Could this be a wider problem than just a dirty lens?

We started experiencing the exact same problem just a few weeks ago. SOME DVD's that previously worked no longer will (Mac Miniand others are just fine. I've used canned air to try and clean the lens however it's not helped. I've not seen the DVDs marked as dual layer as previously mentioned. Has the issue that's caused this problem been identified yet and, if so, is there a fix?

I've got the same problem....Dr Scott was your issue ever resolved? I'm just about to get rid of the Mac Mini....

define "not work properly"

does the dvd not play in dvd player?

can you try playing the dvd with vlc ?

you can get this from videolan.org

does the optical drive just spit the disk out?

this would mean that you may need to replace the drive or clean the lens

can you try making a mp4 with handbrake from handbrake.fr?

some specific movies or some recent developments in copy protection, might confuse the dvd player

have you tried playing the same disk in a similiar mac?

I've been having the same issue. My mini would only play certain dvd's and would only burn at the lowest burn speed some of the time - most times it would not complete. I read somewhere that it might be a dirty lens.

Turn off computer and used some compressed air in the slot as well as wrap a soft glasses cloth around a credit card and stick into slot. Compressed air a few more times....

After a turning back on dvd's are reading and burning fine again. We'll see how long it lasts... 🙂

Dr_Scott wrote:

No. Sorry. Apparently, the only fix is to buy another computer.

Not really. If you don't want to/can't open your mini to replace the drive, you can always use something like this:

http://www.amazon.com/External-CD-RW-Combo-Drive-Writer/dp/B002782LTG

When I read this I thought it was stupid but since I tried everything reasonable I gave it a shot. Whats broken can't be broken. I did what you said and entered a DVD. For the first time in 2 years my old Mini read a DVD! Thanks!!

tred md: I did exactly what you posted and everything is back to normal. Thank you very much.

Thank you tred md. It worked!