Thank you for being a valued part of the CNET community. As of December 1, 2020, the forums are in read-only format. In early 2021, CNET Forums will no longer be available. We are grateful for the participation and advice you have provided to one another over the years.

Thanks,

CNET Support

Question

How do I get my MacBook Pro to read DVDs???

Jan 14, 2015 10:10AM PST

•Running OS X 10.9.5 Mavericks
•Received several burned DVDs which had been verified.
•Got "you've inserted a blank disc" messages on all.
(computer reads my commercial DVDs just fine)
*Read about the problem on forums, saw mention of "64 vs 32 kernels", so tried rebooting while holding down 32.
•That didn't help. Probably because "about this mac" tells me "Kernel Version=Darwin 13.4.0", i.e. no mention of 32 or 64.
So...anyone have any insight? any suggestions?

Discussion is locked

- Collapse -
Answer
Sounds like they were burned incorrectly.
Jan 14, 2015 10:12AM PST

I'd try these on other PCs to test.

- Collapse -
I plan to!
Jan 14, 2015 10:17AM PST

As soon as I have access to another computer, I def. plan to check these DVDs.
I understand they were checked before they were given to me, and were OK at the time.

- Collapse -
Here's the deal.
Jan 14, 2015 10:41AM PST

They would look fine on the machine that created if they used a drag to media recording software. But those often and something close to 100% fail on other PCs that don't have said software.
Bob

- Collapse -
How the DVDs were made:
Jan 14, 2015 2:27PM PST

They were created using the drag-to-DVD burn option built-into 10.9.5, the same version that I run.

- Collapse -
That is rarely transferable.
Jan 14, 2015 2:52PM PST

Thanks for confirming.

- Collapse -
Answer
Here's how I make sure data/video DVDs have a chance.
Jan 15, 2015 12:36AM PST

Always closed session recording. Better yet, SINGLE SESSION recording. There are tomes on the web about what multi and single session is on the web so I'll skip all that.

It's a common enough problem. But since folk don't use this media as much the lessons and such are not brought up too often.
Bob