imac high Sierra DVD issue

[mistersupernova]

Hi guys, I thought I would try the DVD player, I have some old classics I thought I would try.
Every time I inset a DVD the Mac has a think and spits it out. I have tried several, all with the same result.

 

[techiesteve]

Hi guys, I thought I would try the DVD player, I have some old classics I thought I would try.
Every time I inset a DVD the Mac has a think and spits it out. I have tried several, all with the same result.

Even if you have never used your iMac's optical drive they can still fail as yours has. You could try using a can of compressed air squirted in through the OD slot, it may or may nor resolve the issue. If not the most practical solution is to purchase a USB external optical drive. The newest your iMac can be is a 2011 model. Since then no newer iMacs have had optical drives.

 

[IWT]

@mistersupernova

Now, please do not think I am taking the "Mickey", but are you inserting the DVD the right way up? Believe me, this has happened in these forums on a few occasions in the past. Most often it is the Player which is upside down.

Ian

 

[RadDave]

@mistersupernova

Now, please do not think I am taking the "Mickey", but are you inserting the DVD the right way up? Believe me, this has happened in these forums on a few occasions in the past. Most often it is the Player which is upside down.

Ian

Always a good point! Hope the air 'blow out' helps - also curious if you've tried to play a CD? DVD players can read both formats either with two lasers or hardware/software that can change the focus/wavelength of a single laser. Of course, you've given us no specifics as to the vintage of your machine (age and model) and macOS installed. Also there use to be lens cleaning discs for these machines, assume still around? Dave

 

[mistersupernova]

Thank you for your reply guys, @RadDave it's OK, thank you, I did try both ways for inserting the disk

 

[Jimmysb]

On my old Win PC, I had an almost new (new when fitted) DVD drive, but only used a couple of times, next time I tried to use it a couple of years later, nothing, it had failed, probably dirt on the lens.

 

[Rod]

Is the old DVD readable on anything else? They do deteriorate over time, it may be that the DVD is unreadable. Do you have a new blank DVD you could test the Drive with?

 

[Jimmysb]

Is the old DVD readable on anything else? They do deteriorate over time, it may be that the DVD is unreadable. Do you have a new blank DVD you could test the Drive with?

Very valid, I copied a number of my old LPs to CD many years ago (also saving to hard drive), and after about 5 years about 50% were unreadable to varying degrees.