Extracting Blu-Ray, DVD, etc. using MacOS Big Sur

[stereoptic]

Is there a setting, software, line command, etc. required to read an external drive on a Macbook Pro running Big Sur Operating System?

My old 2010 macbook pro never had a problem recognizing either external drive that I have, a SeaTech and a Samsung SE-506BB. The highest version software for that was High Sierra.
Unfortunately, the hard drive got corrupted and despite several attempts to revive it, I couldn't get it to reload the OSX. Besides, the screen had 2 cracks in it, so it was time to go.

So I switched over to a 2017 macbook pro running Big Sur. I can't get either external drive to get fully recognized. I can get the drive spinning, and to see it appear in FInder, but the disk just spins and spins. CDs work fine. DVD content is visible in DVDAudioExtract, but I get an error that it is 'unreadable'.

I have a hunch that it is related to the power supply. I have a few splitters, for data and power, and several different USB chargers. Of course, I tried several different cables as well. I get slightly different results with each, but nothing gets the disks to read.

I also have the official mac Superdrive, which works perfectly but it does not do Blu-Ray! The Superdrive just uses one cable, as well (USB-C) and doesn't require any special additional power.

Any suggestions would be appreciated!

 

[Strilo]

It sounds like hardware issues with your drives. I have Big Sur and no issues with any external drives, be they hard drives, the Apple Superdrive or a new external Blu Ray drive.

 

[stereoptic]

It sounds like hardware issues with your drives. I have Big Sur and no issues with any external drives, be they hard drives, the Apple Superdrive or a new external Blu Ray drive.

Thanks for confirming that. I have to do some more trial and error.

 

[ar surround]

It sounds like hardware issues with your drives. I have Big Sur and no issues with any external drives, be they hard drives, the Apple Superdrive or a new external Blu Ray drive.

I hope so. My system keeps needling me to upgrade from OS 10.15.5 to Big Sur, but I am terrified that doing so will mess up a bunch of stuff.

 

[JediJoker]

Pedantry ahead: Big Sur is no longer "Mac OS X." It's macOS Big Sur, which is version 11.

 

[Strilo]

Yeah it’s just macOS now. Not MacOS X.

 

[stereoptic]

It sounds like hardware issues with your drives. I have Big Sur and no issues with any external drives, be they hard drives, the Apple Superdrive or a new external Blu Ray drive.

I'm curious as to which model player you are using. If it is inexpensive enough, I may try for another.
The weird thing is, this one will recognize CDs, not DVDs.

 

[Strilo]

I got this:

LG External Optical Drive

 

[stereoptic]

I got this:

LG External Optical Drive

Thanks for that.

I've discovered that the external drive is working for BluRays with good ol' MakeMKV! So, in any event, I can use this for CDs/BluRays, and the SuperDrive for CDs/DVDs.
I would sure like to troubleshoot why the DVD is not working, though! I'll try some other software. An odd thing is that while the drive is spinning with a DVD, DVDAudioExtract is not populated, but once I eject the disc, or remove the power, DVDAe populates, but also displays an error. I guess that it is reading the table of contents successfully, but not the contents itself?

 

[wilberforce55]

Same structure as you, 2017 Mac Book Pro, Big Sur, and i have been having lots of problem with the mac Superdrive not recognising discs, and just spitting them out after they go into the slot

So i am using a Panasonic Blu ray reader/writer. Used to need two USBs for power, but seems to run fine off the USB-C

 

[stereoptic]

Same structure as you, 2017 Mac Book Pro, Big Sur, and i have been having lots of problem with the mac Superdrive not recognising discs, and just spitting them out after they go into the slot

So i am using a Panasonic Blu ray reader/writer. Used to need two USBs for power, but seems to run fine off the USB-C

Thanks for the reply.
I've read about a few problems with the SuperDrive while I was searching for solutions.

 

[jimfisheye]

SATA DVD/bluray/CD drives are usually class compliant and thus don't need a proprietary driver install. The maker of any said drive should tell you all about it on their webpage. And then the drive itself will be compatible with the formats it's programmed for. I've never seen proprietary drivers or firmware updates for disk drives FWIW. But if that kind of product is out there, they'll have their system and offer downloads for what they support.

External drives can be another matter. Now we introduce the external enclosure and the data connection (eg. USB, thunderbolt). And there could be proprietary drivers needed. External bluray drives usually need USB 3 speeds minimum. DVD can run over USB 2.

I'd be more concerned with the "brick bug" introduced in 10.15.7 (or ANY version of 10.15 depending on who you talk to) and continued into 11.x Big Sur. This was allegedly fixed with the 11.5 update. I'm staying put in 10.13.6 for the time being. Since they're killing off MacOS 11 after only a year, I'll vet the new v12 one of these days. (If I don't see too many weird complaints.)

FYI, the MacOS installers started blacklisting older but fully hardware compatible machines a few years ago now. Most of that started around the 10.12 release. (The installers have a white list.) There are resources online and "hacked" versions that add compatible machines to the white list. Dosdude1 is one of them.

Frankly, I think 10.13 will be supported for the next 10 years by most software to come along. Everything still works and nothing needs to be broken. Keep your important installer files (especially including OS installers) and avoid the subscription scams. I'm seeing the audio and video pro app makers starting to release native Linux versions the last couple years. Looks like noteworthy writing on the wall.

SSDs are really affordable nowadays. Upgrading an older machine with a new SSD is usually a lot of bang for the buck. If the machine handled all your tasks before, now it's finally running at full speed with a SSD. I've seen people downgrade machines just because their old hard drive (a consumable) died and then they couldn't afford as fast of a machine to replace it. Careful out there!

 

[stereoptic]

Excellent info, thanks!