Can't play imported CD on old iMac.

Question

Can't play imported CD on old iMac.

I have an imported CD of a rock music album in which you can download the music on iTunes only if you're in the U.K. or Australia (or possibly the European Union), but is not available for U.S. iTunes users. The CD is from the E.U. I can play the CD on my U.S.-based offline stereo system (consisting of a ten-year-old Sharp boombox), but I can't play it on my old iMac and it kicks the imported music CD out, which still has Snow Leopard and the version of iTunes that can only play on Snow Leopard. My new iMac does not have a CD drive.

So what is the cause of this? Is it that U.S.-based Apple computers are not programmed to play imported CDs or is it that the OS on my old computer is so antiquated it won't play any CD? About a year ago, I tried to put in my old iMac a CD that contained spreadsheet documents of registered voters from my U.S.-based county's election division, but that it also kicked the CD out without reading it, just like it kicked out my imported music CD.

iMac, macOS Sierra (10.12.3), Avid Media Composer v8.8

Posted on Mar 20, 2017 4:59 PM

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Answer 1

Top-ranking reply

poikkeus1

Level 4

2,467 points

Mar 20, 2017 8:00 PM in response to Orange County California

While region coded DVDs and CD-ROMs are relatively common, there's no such thing as a region coded CD.

I can't speak to your problem with the spreadsheet document, but the ejection of the disk may have resulted from incompatibility.

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Answer 2

Mar 21, 2017 2:23 AM in response to Orange County California

Hi,

Is it possible there is a fault in the cd drive? Can you play other discs?

When was the cd released? In the early 2000's, a number of discs were issued with copy protection and would not play in computer cd drives.

Jim

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Answer 3

Mar 21, 2017 11:43 AM in response to Jimzgoldfinch

The CD in question is a 1997 album that was remastered in 2011.

In the past, with the same computer, I was able to play Amy Winehouse's album "Back in Black" back in 2008 and Lorde's "Pure Heroine" album that released in 2013 in 2014.

My younger brother thinks the fault lies with the CD drive. He doesn't think there is anything wrong with the CD since I was able to play it in my 2007 boombox. My old computer is almost ten years old and is using Snow Leopard. The OS hasn't been update in six years.

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