will my imac play double-sided dvd?

New model bought xmas '09.

Received Netflix dvd on which the first side of the disc's menu claim's that if you flip it over, there is more content. I'm guessing my dvd player is too old to access it, but I figured since my imac is new, it probably could. But when I flipped the disc, nothin doin.

I'm not sure if the disc is not really double sided and perhaps netflix just sent me a copy of the first side, or if my imac just doesn't read both sides.

Will this imac read double-sided dvds?

thanks

Your iMac is able to read and write to DL DVD media which is dual layer media. As far as I know double sided media can be read and written to by any DVD optical drive that can read and write to DVD+R or DVD-R media. So yes, your iMac should be able to read the disk if it is in fact recorded on both sides.

Regards.

Some two sided movie discs will have the widescreen version on one side and the 4:3 version on the other. Those will play on your Mac like any other.

Some two sided discs, have a Windows only application on the 2nd side, particularly the ones that tell you from side 1 that there is more content on side 2. Ex. - some Disney discs have a game on the 2nd side. In which case, no, it won't work in OS X. The disc should still mount on the Desktop when you put it in though. So, you could still open it up in Finder to check what's there.

This was "supposed" to be a dvd of Gaslight that had the 1944 version on side one, and then had the 1940 version on the back. Since it can't read the flip side, I'm guess Netflix shipped me a copy of side one without being a true double-sided dvd with content on the back. I got jacked.

thanks to all for the help

If there is a full label on one side, then it's a single sided disc, if not it should be a two sided disc. Ex. Almost all of Steven Seagal's earlier DVDs are double-sided with a different version on each side.

All the double sided discs I've seen, will have labeling around the outside perimeter of the disc denoting what is on that side. If that disc has this type of labeling, then I'd suggest you try cleaning it before giving up.

You do realize that Gaslight has been put out on disc probably no less than half a dozen times. Netflix is not going to carry every one of those releases If you check the Netflix site, you'll see that they do have both versions of Gaslight, on two separate DVDs from an earlier release.

It could also be that the individual distributor, required Netflix to break up these two movies into separate rentals, as I have seen a lot of dual sided discs from Netflix over the years.