I have one of these and it also has a mini-USB on the device side and a short USB-A cable I use to my 2018 MacMini. It worked with Sonoma when I last used it, and I have not upgraded the OS.
I’ve had an Apple external DVD/CD player, which I use from time to time, mostly to copy my CDs into my iTunes library. It works.
My guess is you’ve had the Apple external DVD/CD player for awhile. I’ve searched the Apple site & can’t find any CD or DVD or Blu Ray players. Looks like they don’t make them anymore nor do they offer any other brands.
Oh, yes, for sure. Ten, maybe more. They stopped selling them a while ago.
This has gotten so weird, I feel as if I’m a throw back to the dark ages looking for a floppy disk drive. Spoke to Samsung today, they claim they haven’t made DVD players for more than 15 yrs; I think that’s a bit of an exaggeration. And they claim they’ve never made Blu Ray players, could be true, who knows? I knew I was old, didn’t realize I was that old.
2 Likes
When I was shopping for a replacement DVD / Blu-ray player in 2021 my notes said that Samsung and Oppo no longer make new 4K Blu-ray players, and LG & Sony haven’t introduced a new model since 2018.
I ended up buying a top-rated Panasonic 4K Blu-ray player. The only thing I dislike about it is that:
- It has no display
- It only remembers your position on the last disc inserted
I see that Panasonic still has a 8 Blu-ray (and 1 DVD) players for sale, but I don’t know how old the engineering is on them.
(An aside: I don’t think they make disc players like they used to. I have a Yamaha CDC-745 CD changer from 1994, with less than 0.0025% harmonic distortion. Last time I checked current models are worse than that. Same for the other specifications.
Unfortunately it is broken now; the tray doesn’t open. This happened before; I took it in then and got it repaired. The repairman told me “Don’t repair it again!”. I think they were having trouble finding parts.)
2 Likes
Just for sake of inclusion, it is worth noting that a Region-Free (or region unlocked) player can go a long way for flexibility in disc playback. AVS Forums have a lot of info and reviews that may help:
https://www.avsforum.com/forums/official-avs-forum®-blu-ray-disc-reviews.187/
https://www.avsforum.com/forums/blu-ray-players.149/
I upgraded to an unlocked Sony UBP-X800M2 a few years back and can watch DVD and blu-ray discs from anywhere in the world. I do not use any network features, just physical discs. I chose my model based on a few factors, including 4K and the remote design (no joke). Some brands have awkward-to-use or button-overload remote designs.
There are a number of places to buy from. My unit was purchased from 220-Electronics. Don’t let their name fool you. They sell devices that work with standard North America (Canada, U.S.) 120 V AC power. I currently see a number of units on their site in the +/- $100 range. (Note: There are a few $89 “Oppo” items. These are actually KITS for modifying an existing player, so read carefully before ordering).
https://www.220-electronics.com/region-free-blu-ray-players.html
While I agree it is generally a good idea to get a blu-ray player for the most compatibility, I can see the benefit of a dedicated DVD-only unit depending on your preferences, especially if there is a brand/model that has a good track record for reliability (maybe save $$ if available used).
On the subject of remembering your last played location, DVDs can do this fairly easily (though how many recent discs are remembered is based on each model’s features). However, blu-ray discs do NOT have this ability by default unless the publisher/studio added the feature to that particular disc. Blu-ray discs use “BD-Java” code and each producer chooses to include this feature or not. Often they will have a form of “bookmarks” that you set manually, but sometimes it permits a “resume” function.
Many Universal releases have a “screensaver” feature that begins after 5 minutes in Pause. Unfortunately, you cannot simply hit Play to resume, nor any other playback control. Instead you must press a special button (usually GREEN or “Pop Up Menu”) to resume. So intuitive, right? 
[Edit: typos]
2 Likes
Thanks very much for your reply, unfortunately much of it is above my pay grade so don’t really understand all of it. I will take a look at 220-Electronics to see what’s available. I just need something very simple & basic that will play DVDs & can plug into my TV, if it can also plug into my iMac that’s even better. If it can play Blu Ray that’s fine but it’s not a must-have feature. Probably should have bought one a few years ago when Apple stopped including the DVD slot but it didn’t occur to me at the time. Oh well.
Plenty of options out there still.
If you just want one to attach to your Mac (USB) it will most likely not work with a flatscreen TV if you want to do so later, unless you chain your Mac to the TV as a 2nd display.
1 Like
My priority is one that can attach directly to my Samsung (smart) TV.
One thing to mention is if you have any resale/thrift stores in your area or garage sales, check for players there as many people have dumped those due to streaming. In some stores in my area, DVD players can go for around $8-$12 and some also play blurays so that would be a bonus if you have need that capability. Sony, Samsung and LG are all decent players but really any name brand should work for you as long as it has an HDMI out which nearly all players should have. The one issue would be remotes as sometimes people that donate these items either forget the remote or have lost it but if you have a universal one laying around, you probably can program it for most players.
2 Likes
I wish I had seen this thread a month ago. I just bought a DVD player at a thrift store, but I did not buy the available Blu-ray player because I did not expect it to read DVDs. Sigh.
Off-topic for this thread, I also bought a VCR but didn’t notice until I got home that it has monaural sound output. What’s the easiest and safest way to hook it up to an almost-modern TV?
A cable like this can output the single channel to both:
If your tv doesn’t have analog inputs, you would need a converter that digitizes the analog sound and outputs it to something that uses toslink or coax output:
2 Likes
The venerable Apple USB Superdrive is pretty nice, if you want to watch physical DVDs on a Mac as opposed to using a TV. I’ve used mine with many different Macs over the years, starting out with my 2011 Air back in the day up through my 2019 Mac Pro and my 2020 M1 Air currently.
1 Like
Thanks for the suggestion. Watching DVDs on my Mac is my back up plan, so I am considering the Apple USB Superdrive. Unfortunately, it’s no longer available from Apple. It’s not offered on Amazon, I see it on eBay; but I’m not a big eBay fan. There are a few universities that have it, my guess is it’s through the bookstores.
Apologies for the following digression; I know that region-free Blu Ray players aren’t the target for this thread. I just wanted to add a few comments to McGuyver’s posting.
First, completely agree about not “taking advantage” of a blu ray player’s network features: don’t hook it up to the internet! This has always seemed to me to be a feature designed more for Blu Ray disc manufacturers (for tracking customers and/or trying to sell them more content) than for the customer themselves.
I don’t connect my UHD 4K player up to the internet, and it has never, ever impeded viewing the content I want to watch; it has no effect on the presentation quality of the media on the Blu Ray.
The only possible reason an internet connection might be useful would be for a firmware update on the Blu Ray player, but 2 things: the few remaining Blu Ray player manufacturers don’t appear to be providing the level of support for the players where new firmware versions are released; and at least with older players that did have firmware updates, there were alternative ways to update the firmware. My Oppo UDP-203 has a USB slot, and allowed firmware updates, downloaded from their website onto a USB thumb drive via my Mac, to be installed from the thumb drive.
Re: region-free players: I purchased my Oppo Blu Ray/DVD player with a region-free modification. For non-US DVDs, it plays a DVD from any international DVD region, period – it just works seamlessly. For non-US Blu Rays, it’s somewhat more complicated: I have to temporarily change the Blu-Ray region to that of the disc, and then change it back to the US region after I’m done. Nothing onerous, but FYI.
For me, the region-free feature is valuable, for 2 reasons:
- I have a local video rental store that has a huge collection of foreign-release DVDs, most of which which have non-US regions. I realize this is an unusual resource to have in your home town, so it’s probably of limited value. (Though the video store I rent from in Seattle, Scarecrow Video, also has a rent-by-mail service, so film enthusiasts can rent hard-to-find titles (or even easy-to-find titles
) and have them delivered to their door.) - There are a lot of British films that I like that are only available on UK (or Australian) DVD or Blu Rays. Also, of late, a number of American movies are being released by independent “boutique” DVD/Blu Ray manufacturers for the European market – at very decent prices. I’ve occasionally gotten a bargain DVD or Blu Ray of a US movie I love that requires a region-free player.
As somebody who loves movies, and loves physical media, I’ve been pretty lucky; I got the Oppo UDP-203 UHD 4K player right after Oppo decided to get out of the DVD/Blu Ray business. The thing is a workhorse and just chugs along – and has the best video upscaling for DVDs I’ve ever seen. If you can find a used one that’s in decent shape, I recommend them – IMO, quality DVD/Blu Ray peaked with (and then disappeared after) Oppo’s players.
1 Like
For accessing DVDs on my Mac (via USB), I use the LG GP65NB60 slim portable drive, which has been mentioned several times previously in this thread. I’ve used it sparingly over the years, but it’s worked well on many Macs, including on my current M2 Mac mini.
I recently purchased a Panasonic DMP-BD84P-K Blu-ray/DVD player for use with a relatively new Samsung smart TV. It’s a basic unit, but seems well-built and plays well with the TV. It connects by HDMI (cable not included with the player).
My small public library has a surprisingly good (and free!) collection of DVDs and Blu-ray discs, which is another reason why it’s nice to retain the ability to play physical media.
3 Likes
I’m thinking of getting a 4K BluRay player to play music DVDs and BluRays. I’ve found, as you have, that music concerts are either unavailable in streaming format, or you have to take out a special subscription to view them. Also, when they are available they generally don’t contain “chapters”, so it’s hard to access specific songs (in a concert video) or sets (in a festival video), and they also don’t contain extras that are available in DVD and BluRay editions.
I do have a non-4K BluRay player, which plays BluRays and DVDs, but it won’t drive my 4K monitor.
Strange. Does your monitor have HDMI input? The BD player should be able to output HDMI at the standard TV resolutions (480i, 480p, 720i, 720p, 1080i, 1080p). Your monitor should be able to upscale that to full-screen.
1 Like
Another reason for owning physical media: you won’t lose access to original content that a censor now judges to be inappropriate.
“Why is Bogart holding his hand that way? Oh, they edited out his cigarette.”
2 Likes