Supported disc not available

Scott I've followed these steps through until the step where you control click the newly created disc image and click "burn disc". I don't see the "burn disc" option. I've included a pic of this. Obviously this is a 4yo post, so I'm considering this a shot in the dark.

Because Apple is a pale shadow of it's former self who no longer care about "It Just Works" instead, are focused on increasing their already insane profits but now at the expense of their loyal professional customers as iOS now gets all the love.

shinsundo: You did not post your issue. Did you try calling Applecare? Apple got rid of DVD drives in many of their computers years ago in favor of video streaming and downloads. It is understandable that they would not want to support DVD drives much any more, particularly when our machines are over 5 years old. That is where third party computer service can come in and help if you are willing to pay a service fee.

This can be caused by many problems. Bad discs. Broken or out of line players. The error messages just means that DVD Player can't read it as a DVD movie that automatically plays on DVD Player on the Mac.

One common problem occurs if you are burning your own CDs from the finder. The Finder burn function does not format DVD as movie DVDs playable by the DVD Player. It only formats a DVD disc as a data DVD disc not a movie DVD disc. A DVD disc burned from the finder will play on most standalone DVD players you attach to your TV but will not play in a DVD burner attached to your computer. Even though the only files on the DVD are video files, some Macs do not recognize the DVD as a playable DVD on DVD player although the DVD will show up in the finder on the desktop just like a regular data disc. For some reason a DVD player attached to a TV assumes the disc is a DVD movie disc then finds the video files and opens them automatically and plays it anyway since it doesn't recognize data DVDs anyway. A Mac can use both movie and data DVDs and assumes it is a data DVD not a movie DVD.

A Movie DVD is formatted with special formatting even though when you look at it in the finder it seem to have the same folders and files in them as a data disc with movie files on it. In fact a "movie" DVD that was burned from the finder looks the same as a DVD that was properly burned as a movie DVD using the special movie DVD burning method not the finder burning method. The finder does not burn movie DVDs that play automatically in DVD Player even if you tell the disc to open in DVD player and even if when the disc is inserted you click the option "Open in DVD Player" you still get the error messege "Supported Disc Not Available". However you can play the movies on such a disc by draging the Video TS folder from the disc to the DVD Player. The movie will then play even though dragging the whole disc to the DVD player won't start the movie.

So now you know that you cannot burn a movie DVD from with the Finder burn function that will automatically starts up on a Mac when you insert it or drag its image to the DVD Player. A properly playable movie DVD has a special code in it that tells the Mac to automatically begin playing it in the DVD player when you insert it. If it doesn't have that special code it assumes it is a data disc and won't automatically start playing. Apparently the Finder burning function does not insert that special coding to allow it to play automatically on a Mac even though it will automatically begin playing on a regular TV DVD player.

So how do you burn a movie DVD that automatically plays when inserted in the Mac or when its image is dragged to the DVD Player. The answer is that must burn the disc with the Disk Utility application not the finder burn function.

If you do not already have a properly formatted disc image you have to first create a special disc image of the DVD you are copying. You can use the Disc Utility application to do so. Open Disc Utility. Select the disc you want to copy. Then select the "New Image" button in the top menu bar. In the dialog box that occurs make sure you chose the "Image format option": "DVD/CD Master". Select the location on your Mac where you want the disc image to be created. Then click create. This will create an image with ".cdr" extension at the end. It will take a while to do so.

After it is done creting the "cdr" image, in the left hand column in Disk Utility select the "cdr" image you just created. Then control click that "cdr" image. In the resulting contectual menu select "burn disc". Insert a blank DVD and click "burn". This will burn a movie DVD that has the right coding in it that will automatically play on you Mac when you put it in. You won't notice any difference in this type of DVD versus the type you burn directly from the Finder. They both have exactly the same video files and folders in them. But the one burned from Disk Utilities will play automatically and the one burned from the finder won't.

That raises two questions.

1. Why isn't the Mac Finder burning function smart enough to understand you are burning a movie DVD and not a data DVD with movie files on it and that you wan't it to burn it with the codes to automatically play when inserted into your Mac? Who knows.

2. Why can't the Mac automatically start up a data DVD with movie files on it when you drag it to the DVD player or tell it to open in DVD Player. A dumb TV DVD player can do that automatically. The Mac can even play the movie a data disc with movie files on it if you drag the Video TS folder from the disc to the DVD Player. So why can't it just open the Video TS folder when the disc image itself is dragged to the DVD Player or when you select Open Disc in DVD Player? Who knows.

So if you intend to burn a movie DVD that automatically starts up and plays when inserted in your Mac or when the disc is told to open in DVD Player you cannot use the Finder burn function but must use the special functions in Disk Utility or in a third party DVD utility.

It is surprising that a Mac is so dumb when trying to duplicate a movie DVD disc. There is no reason for it being so complicated when you are duplicating personal movie file DVDs and not commercial DVDs.

What a well written, helpful post! Thank you Scott.

I have this problem as well because I allow the computer to sleep with a disk in the internal drive.

It has nothing to do with the disk quality.

Apple still has problems with its procedures for scanning for drives when waking from sleep.

I have to shut down/restart to have the computer rescan for available drives.

After restart, and before it goes to sleep again, I can start DVD player up and watch the movie disk without the error.

I have been having this issue with Mavericks and a number of the last MAC OS versions (Mountain Lion, Snow Leopard).

I have yet to upgrade to Yosemite MAC OSX 10.10 so I do not know about that version of the OS.

I have always used DVD Studio Pro to create DVDs. I build and formatted the DVD and it said it was successful. It is not playing in my Super Drive (Macbook Pro 15 inch retina). I tried it in a DVD player too and it is not working. I am using a DVD-R disc. I have never had this problem before. Any reasons why this could be happening?

Thanks! Shutting my mac down did the trick. Dvd player immediately played the disc I inserted.😎

Brilliant - MANY thanks for that superbly written and VERY helpful explanation! Just when I was beginning to tear what's left of my hair out!

Great explanation and instructions. Thanks!