How do I play DVDs on my MacBook Pro?

Whenever I insert a dvd into it, nothing shows on the screen just the dvd comes out. When I insert the dvd, I hear the sound that something is going on inside. What's wrong with it? can I play cd as well? and can I write on cv or dvd?

Common issues are:

1) The lens is dirty. If it can't read an inserted disk, the computer/drive spits it back out. Without taking everything apart, you can purchase a cleaning disk. They look just like a normal CD or DVD, but have a small brush glued to the disk. You put it and let the disk spin for 5 seconds or so, then eject it. The brush cleans dirt off the lens.

2) The laser has gone out. Could be one, or both. A DVD drive has a laser for CDs, and a separate one for DVDs. Try a few CDs. If they all appear on the desktop, then try a few DVDs. If none of them appear, there's a good chance the DVD laser has died. But, the drive could still just need a good cleaning. The DVD laser is a narrower beam, so it would take less dirt to cause problems.

Hi.

In principle the DVD should start to play when you enter it while the macbook is on. I would not know what would cause it not to start playing automatically when you insert the disk.

However:

The OP says he/she's a completely new Mac user, and the replies so far were not really addressing that.

So here goes: If you see the CD-icon on your desktop, clicking on it will not start the DVD, that is not a technical error. I have always found that weird, it is bad UI design. The logical thing would be for the DVD player to start playing when you click that icon. Even worse is that right-clicking will also not get you to something like "open with DVD player" which you would expect. Instead you have to completely ignore the disk on your desktop and start the application called DVD-player. NB A handy trick to quickly get to an(y) application that you are looking for without browsing through the finder folders (and when it's not in the bar at the bottom) is to press cmd (to the left of the space bar), hold it, and then space. You get a search window. In it you type anything you need. For example DVD. You immediately see "DVD player" as one of the options. Go to it with the arrows and hit enter. The DVD will start to play. (ps: esc, or cmd-0 (zero) will pull back DVD-player from full screen mode, which is also handy sometimes and double clicking the dvd player window will make it full screen again)

If these are commercial movies on DVD, no one here can tell you how to do this as this is called DVD "ripping" (just like "ripping" CDs) and the topic of copying/"ripping"DVDs is still a controversial one and in most cases, considered an illegai activity and as such is against this communities Terms of Use (ToU) that we all agreed to when signing up to use the Apple product troubleshooting communities.

The only thing I can provide for you is to search online for an app called Handbrake.

Do your own web search to get your own answers on how to copy commercial movies to your computer.

Good Luck to You!

DVD Player app should be in the Applications folder.

Apple has its own DVD player and I find this for you

Mac Basics: Use DVD Player to watch DVD movies on your Mac - Apple Support

Or you can choose some other free 3rd party software. I got one that reviewed by a CNET editor, not bad

http://download.cnet.com/Macgo-Free-Mac-Media-Player/3000-13632_4-75958446.html

Sounds like you purchased a used Mac that the previous owner left in a mess.

If it is used, hold the Option button down and click on the Apple at the upper left. Choose System Information. From the app that comes up, copy only the top four lines and paste them into a new post here. Like this:

That's all we need to see exactly what model you have so the answers you get from this point won't be based on things you can't do.

Hello Kurt,

I'm experiencing the same problem. I followed your instructions and here is my information. I purchased a refurbished MacBook from Amazon.

Model name: MacBook Pro

Model identifier: MacBook Pro5, 4

Processor name: Intel Core 2 Duo

Processor speed: 2.53GHz

That's tells us your Mac is this specific model.

You mention having the same problem. So an icon of the inserted DVD appears on the desktop, but you can't do anything with it? If you launch DVD Player in the Applications folder, the DVD does not play?

Model Name: MacBook Pro

Model Identifier: MacBookPro7,1

Processor Name: Intel Core 2 Duo

Processor Speed: 2.4 GHz

Yours is a 2010 model and includes a DVD drive, listed as an 8X DL "SuperDrive".

What is the drive doing, or not doing?

How do I save my movie on my MacBook Pro