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Downloading Music

jparker402

jparker402

macrumors 6502a
Original poster
Jun 7, 2016
560
54
Bellevue, NE
Very new to this, so please be patient with me.

Have a MacBook Air with no CD/DVD drive. Have some CDs and DVDs that we have used in regular players. Have zero experience with Apple Music and/or iTunes (and don't understand the relationship, if any). Priority is to somehow copy the music CDs so that I can listen to them on the Mac and on my iPhone.

Need a CD/DVD player that can connect to the Mac (will synch to iPhone, I hope). Have read that Apple's SuperDrive is not the best bet. Please recommend an inexpensive player that I can use, preferably one that has a "push-in" loading system. Understand the trays may be unreliable; correct me if I am wrong.

Need to know about formatting, if necessary. Understand the video format from a DVD is not same as what works in iMovies. Learned that when I tried to load a home movie from a DVD that I had put on a USB stick into iMovies. Don't know what the DVD format is; don't know what iMovies wants.

Need a very simple tutorial on Apple Music use. Have been looking for instructions online, and not finding anything simple enough for my poor brain. Am hoping my grandson will come by one of these days to help, but he is frequently tied up with hockey practice.
 
OP wrote:
"preferably one that has a "push-in" loading system. Understand the trays may be unreliable; correct me if I am wrong."

You're 180 degrees off on this one.
The tray-loaders are more reliable and longer-lasting.
Don't write off a drive that has a "pop up top" or tray that slides out.

There are various low-cost DVD/CD burners/players "out there".
Check amazon, and check the user ratings and Q&A's.

IMPORTANT:
Does the MacBook Air have only ONE USB port?
This could be a problem with -some- external DVD/CD drives.

That's because some external drives need more USB "bus power" than one port can provide. They use a special "Y-adapater" that has one USB port on the drive end, and TWO USB plugs on the Mac end.

I have a Samsung Bluray/DVD/CD burner that works fine with only a single USB plug.
 
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My external "PC" DVD burner also has a double-ended USB cable in case using one of the Macbook's USB ports is not sufficient. I've been able to get away with only using one end on all the laptops and desktops I have tried.

With another unit I had, I often had to use both ends on the 10" cable. I lost the 10" cable and replaced it with a single-ended 6" cable which always worked. The length and/or quality of the USB cable probably contributes to power loss.
 
Whoa!! May need two USB ports?!? Trays better?!? All kinds of things I didn't know!! Please keep educating me!
 
This business on maybe (or maybe not) needing two USB ports to power a CD/DVD drive is becoming a pain. Called Apple; the rep seemed surprised that maybe two would be needed, certainly not with the Apple SuperDrive. Told them I'd seen pictures on Amazon of a drive with two USB connectors attached; Apple had never heard of that before. Recommended calling drive manufacturers. No luck yesterday because of holiday. Will try again. How does one conveniently find out if two ports are necessary? Trial and error?
 
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