Why is DVD Player app 'grey' and not functioning on my macbook air / mavericks 10.9.1 ?

There is NO FRIGGING WAY that I will "Reinstall Mavericks" just to fix a single problem with DVD Player!

Besides that, I discovered something interesting. When I have mt AppleTV as my 'second display' I get that grey screen in DVD Player. But if I "disconnect AirPlay Display" (in the menu bar when I right-click the Air-Play icon) after a few seconds the grey window in DVD Player returns to normal.

And if I have the video playing in DVD Player and then connect my AppleTV as my second display, the DVD Player screen turns grey in the middle of playing the video while the sound continues to play.

Just for grins I tried dragging the grey DVD Player window over to my second display (connected to my AppleTV) and when I tried to drop it over there I got a message to the effect "DVD Player has encountered a System Error"

This is a bug in DVD Player! Plain and simple. DVD Player is not handling sytem resources related to video properly.

This is with OSX 10.9.2 and DVD Player version 5.7

When I hookup a second display with a cable DVD Player works just fine. So it's not just a "second display" problem. And when I move the DVD Player window to the second display it works just fine as well.

It MUST be something about using AirPlay. DVD Player does NOT play nice with AirPlay enabled. (at least on MY computer)

I am having this issue as well. I installed Mavericks (10.9.4) 2 days ago on the 27" 5 y.o. iMac that we run our projection media off of at my church and neither the DVD Player app, nor the DVD app within our projection program (ProPresenter) shows anything but a gray screen when playing a DVD. The sound plays, but there is no video.

Given that I had several other issues with Mavericks on this iMac, I'm not about to do a reinstall and would like some kind of fix.

What version of DVD Player do you have? This is what I have

Can you post a screenshot of what you see when you try to launch DVD Player?

Also open the Console application and watch it when you launch DVD Player.You should get something akin to this:

07/23/14 2:27:07.007 PM DVD Player[1506]: Initializer-based scripting additions are no longer supported. "/Library/ScriptingAdditions/Adobe Unit Types.osax" not loaded.

07/23/14 2:27:07.010 PM DVD Player[1506]: AppleEvents/sandbox: Returning errAEPrivilegeError/-10004 and denying dispatch of event ESIM/load from process 'SIMBL Agent'/0x0-0x74074, pid=1065, because it is not entitled to send an AppleEvent to this process.

Mine opens as expected with the messages above. Maybe we can learn what's amiss from what you get in the Console's All Messages window.

Also if you have to reinstall the system with Mavericks it's a very easy operation and quick depending on your internet speed.. With my VIOS optical connection it took about 1 hour to complete the process. Time for me to go get a cup of coffee and take a cat nap. 🙂

Hello chris.lambe

If DVD player is not functioning and opening then you will need to reinstall OS X Mavericks by following the steps in the article below.

OS X Mavericks: Reinstall OS X

http://support.apple.com/kb/PH13871

Regards,

-Norm G.

Same problem here, just discovered it.

I usually watch videos with VLC, but I just burned a DVD for a friend and wanted to make sure it played on a DVD player.

Sound is fine but no video, just a gray screen.

I'm on an iMac running 10.9.3.

I've found that if another computer on my home network is using Screen Sharing, DVD Player on the main machine shows these symptoms. In my case its when my MacBook Pro in the living room is using Screen Sharing to access my iMac in the office.

It's just like a switch, I gain full access to DVD Player on the iMac as soon as I stop Screen Sharing on the MacBook Pro.

Fiddling with the display resolution seemed to do the trick for me. I was dealing mirrored displays with a Mac Mini and an external projector. I presume that making ANY change to the display settings will help. I'm guessing there is a corrupt preference file that gets overwritten by a clean file when you make a change, thus fixing the display issues.

My specific solution was this:

Open System Preferences > Displays

Enable Display Mirroring

Switch the "Optimize For:" setting to the alternate display option

Change the resolution to something else

Switch the "Optimize For:" setting back to the original display option

Set the resolution where you want it

I was having this issue too. I think the gray screen is a symptom of DRM trying to save us from pirates - if DVD Player thinks that something else could be capturing the video output, it turns the output gray.

In my case, the solution to the problem was to go into System Preferences -> Sharing and disable "Remote Management" and "Screen Sharing" - DVD Player immediately started working again. I suspect that many screen capture apps will cause DVD Player to go gray, so try disabling any you can find.

Thanks for your suggestions, but this was not the solution.

However, today I found out that the DisplayLink USB Graphics Driver 2.2 (www. hisdigital.com) caused the grey screen of the DVD player application. After de-installing that driver the DVD player worked fine again. Unfortunately I need that driver for a second extern monitor. That's why I installed the driver again. And now the screen is grey again...

Regards

Steffen

Try VLC (http://www.videolan.org/vlc/download-macosx.html)

It seems to be a good work-around as I also have a second external monitor attached to my 2009 iMac via a EVGA UV+39 which is a USB Display interface and uses the DisplayLink driver.

DVD playback is only any good on the displays not attached via USB, it can still become a little choppy on occasion though.

I'm told by Apple that it's because the USB connection is not actually designed for high speed video. I have the problem of it going gray when I am trying to use a projector (I can see the DVD movie on my computer, but NOT from the projector, when the projector is connected via a USB connection). Any other display from the computer works just fine to the projector (slides, internet, desktop, etc).

When I hook up the projector via the Thunderbolt-to-VGA adapter, no problems...displays fine through the projector.

I don't know enough about USB technology to be able to understand why it doesn't work using a video from the DVD player. I do notice that even when I am using a small video on my computer (mpeg), and trying to display it to the projector via the USB connection, I get a problem with graininess and the video/audio tracks being out of sync.

VLC worked for me but I had to directly connect the TV to my computer. Otherwise it was too choppy. A pain in the neck as if we ever want to watch a DVD we have to do this. None of the other fixes helped here but using VLC.

Try downloading and applying the OS X Mavericks 10.9.5 Update (Combo) updater. See if that will affect any improvement.

I am having the same issue. There has to be a solution

I've got the same problem. After installing Mavericks on my 2011 MacBook Pro the screen of the DVD player is grey, it plays the sound only. Is there a solution?

Steffen