Netflix DVDs and Macs
 

I have two separate iMacs (10.6.8) that are unable to MOUNT Netflix DVDs. The disks just buzz and burble, and then get ejected. These same disks mount easily on my PowerMac running 10.7.5 and also mount easily on a stand-alone DVD player. The DVD drives on the iMacs work fine writing to blank disks, and reading those disks thereby written. Some, but not all commercial disks are readable by them.

I have done head cleaning tricks, including a Maxell head cleaner disk. No joy.

On the web, there are occasional complaints like mine, but they are dismissed with "bad disk", and "Netflix copyright protection" replies. That strikes me as BS.

My question is, unless I have TWO superdrives that are strangely buggered to not work with some commercial disks, is this an OS issue? If so,maybe this is the wrong forum? What can I try to figure this out?

Do the iMacs use a slot-load DVD drive? And does the PowerMac use a tray-load DVD drive? I believe that Netflix DVDs are physically thicker than non-Netflix DVDs, because Netflix had trouble with DVDs breaking in the mail and lobbied the movie studios for thicker product. Perhaps the slot-load drives can have issues with the thicker DVDs?

Trevor

And just to be sure... these aren't accidentally Blu-Ray disks, are they?

My apologies. It's two iMacs and a MacBook Pro. Typing faster than I was thinking. And, of course, they both have slot-load drives. Interesting about thickness differences, though.

They are not Blu-Ray disks.

It has to be coincidence then, because there is nothing unusual about DVDs from Netflix.

Thanks. But I'm not quite sure what "coincidence" we're talking about. Both iMac DVD drives work. I can write DVDs with them, and I can read DVDs with them (the ones that I wrote at least). I can mount many other commercial DVDs on them. But they won't mount Netflix DVDs that my MBP can. So one can say it's a coincidence that they both have the same Superdrive bizarre hardware fault that they find Netflix disks distasteful, OR one can say that there is something about 10.6.8 that doesn't like Netflix disks.

If anyone has any ideas about how to diagnose the situation, I'd appreciate hearing them.

But the point is that there is no such thing as a "Netflix" disk. DVDs are all the same. You can't blame Netflix any more than you can blame the US Postal Service for handling the same disks. The only difference might be the wear and tear on the disks from Netflix. But really, I think you just coincidentally got a string of bad disks, which isn't surprising given the amount of abuse they take.

Well, Trevor above says otherwise about Netflix DVDs being the same. And even if they are physically the same, I one could imagine the DVD could be formatted differently. Nope, string of bad disks it isn't. These are the same disks that play just fine on other players. So we'd be taking about two Superdrives being especially sensitive about wear and tear on disks.

One strategy, I suppose, is to copy the contents of a disk onto another disk using my MBP, and try to read that latter one. Not even sure that's permitted, though.

Interesting. I use Netflix DVDs in my 2011 MBP quite often. I just tested 'Parker' and 'Dark Shadows' and both work as expected.

For example, the LA Times wrote an article on Ted Sarandos, the Netflix Chief Content Officer, and said:
Trevor

"sturdier" should not imply "thicker" (although I suppose that's likely), nor should that sturdiness affect playability...

If this is restricted to just a couple of different discs, then the playability (or non-playability) is likely anecdotal, and being netflix DVDs is simply a random coincidence.
Assuming that other commercial (non-netflix) DVDs also occasionally are rejected, but are playable in other drives or players, then you have some marginally faulty disks (burning your own copy will likely yield a playable disk, assuming the original allows the copy), or you simply have two drives that are less reliable with disks that may also be "almost" flaky. Unlucky, but still possible, particularly with slot-loading drives.
On a related note, I tend to rip DVDs to my hard drive. Running that movie direct from the hard drive relieves your worry about whether the drive will read the DVD disk, and is a good solution for keeping a good copy for your own collection.

What OS are you using? My MPB is running 10.7.5, and it mounts them fine. The iMacs are running 10.6.8 and they don't. I guess I'm trying to establish whether this might be an OS issue.

Again, it's not a matter of being able to READ the disks, but a matter of being able to MOUNT the disks. I'm hard pressed to rip them to my hard drive since I can't mount them.

That's a fair point about other non-Netflix disks. It may not be a Netflix issue. Buut the fact is, I NEVER have problems mounting a blank disk, or one that I've written. All disks being the same physically, that strongly suggests that my OS or drivers don't like the way the commercial disks are usually written.

I know not satisfying but note you can buy for around $35 dollars an external DVD player/Burner on Amazon or newegg etc. Filter for 4 Star reviews.

Have you tried to rip those disks on a Mac that WILL read them?
I suggest that making a copy COULD give you a reliable view, when the original might not.

That is a generalization that I can't agree with. Other than at least attempting to comply with industry standards, the disks themselves may not always be identical, with minor defects that generally allows successful play - but some combinations of disks and player may be just on the edge, and either produce errors, or not read properly at all.
And - that's where a ripped copy might be successful, where the original is not.

Your other standard is also backwards, in my opinion. If the player can't read the disk, it won't mount. Reading comes first. (Or maybe the order is not significant :D )

There have been DVDs from Netflix that I could not read on my MBP or MacMini (with superdrive) and I sent them back to Netflix stating the disks were unreadable. They sent new ones out and those worked fine.

Keep in mind, these DVDs get thrown through the mail with very little protection and they will get misused as well. Wear will happen, and they eventually will go bad. A DVD player hooked up to a TV may have more tolerance than the one in a computer, allowing them to read and play a more worn out copy.

Just contact Netflix about the disk being bad, they will ship one out that day and you just return the one you have. I have done it plenty of times.

I'm at 10.8.4.

Yes, as I said, I can easily rip all of these disks on a MBP running 10.7.5. So these are all slot-readers. But no, I have not tried to rip, then copy on the MBP, and then read on the iMacs. That would, I guess, be interesting.

As to reading and mounting, when I slip a disk in, the first thing that has to happen is that it mounts. The reading that is done is not reading the files I want to read. Once it mounts, I have reading access to the files I want to read.

And yes, a cheap external reader is the way I will go. That would be an excellent way to test whether the problem is with the iMac drives or the OS.

Good ideas, even though I don't yet have the answer. Thanks!

Heh.

OK, I receive a new Netflix DVD in the mail. So I say, let's do that test. So I put it in my MBP, and copy the audio and video folders to a blank DVD. Then I put that new DVD into my iMac and, well, of course, it won't play. You can't just copy a commercial disk like that. But that new DVD mounts in my iMac. As in, it mounts, and I can see the two folders, but I can't read it! DVD Player launches, so it recognizes that media is there somewhere but says that "Supported Disk Not Available".

So then I take the original Netflix DVD and pop it into my iMac, just to prove it won't mount. Aaack. It mounts. It launches DVD Player, and it plays the movie. Repeatedly. WTF??? This is the first of a dozen Netflix disks that mounts on this 10.6 iMac machine.

So the lesson appears to be that there is nothing written in these Netflix disks that prevents reading in a 10.6 iMac. I guess, as here suggested, the other disks are just poorer quality than this one, and my iMac drive is just less forgiving than my MBP drive. Not sure what would make it less forgiving.

Life is like that, eh! :D

Apple's DVD Player app (for years) usually does not support external drives.
So, you would need to use other video player software, such as VLC. http://www.videolan.org

true
 

True about dvd player.. Macsales sells some that do support apple dvd player. Nothing wrong with VLC. Note too that if the disc mounts then you can point the dvd player or vlc to the appropriate dir and play that way at lest as a test of unforgiving dvd.