It’s been my experience that the Superdrive only works when connected directly to a Mac, and not through hubs, primarily because of the non-standard way it is requesting the additional power it requires - any hub that conforms to standards will not provide the requested power.
That having been said, I have seen articles talking about ways to hack a (Linux or Windows) system to allow use on a standard USB port. The result mostly works, but can get unreliable when burning discs - which is probably when it requires the extra power.
Well I had one working off my TB4 Elements hub just fine. So I know it doesn’t have to be hooked up directly. And other people have reported using it off some other docks or, back in the day, off of display hubs. But we also have plenty trustworthy reports of that not working the way it should. It’s simply an odd beast, as @glennf’s piece also mentions.
I have no doubt the most sure way to get it to work is directly hooked up to a Mac, we know there is some odd discrepancy between what it claims to draw and what it actually needs. But that also doesn’t mean it can’t ever work off of anything else.
I would take a pragmatic approach here: assume it will not work and have a plan B ready, but certainly first try to get it to work hooked up to whatever device you’d want (as long as said device doesn’t specifically say its incompatible, eg. IOGear). I think Apple is basically suggesting the same when they explicitly recommend:
If your SuperDrive doesn’t respond when connected to an external display or USB hub, connect your SuperDrive to a USB port directly on your Mac.
But all of this is completely beside the point. This thread is about DVD Sharingto modern Macs. Let’s keep this thread to that. The other discussion can certainly take place in its own thread.
