External DVD reader advise needed

[Giuanniello]

Have a bunch of DVDs I would like to rip before they go lost or ruined, the only Mac I still own with a DVD player is a 2010 (!!!) Mini which categorically refuses to read disks, thinking to get an external one but won't know where to land and if whatever USB drive would make it, any suggestion at which characteristics to look for to make sure it is 100% compatible?

Grazie

 

[AndyMacAndMic]

Have a bunch of DVDs I would like to rip before they go lost or ruined, the only Mac I still own with a DVD player is a 2010 (!!!) Mini which categorically refuses to read disks, thinking to get an external one but won't know where to land and if whatever USB drive would make it, any suggestion at which characteristics to look for to make sure it is 100% compatible?

Grazie

Just look on Amazon for "external dvd drive for mac". External DVD drives are not expensive at all (around 20-30 euro's). If listed as Mac compatible it will most certainly work.

I see you are from Italy. Here it is for amazon.it:

https://www.amazon.it/s?k=external+dvd+drive+for+mac&__mk_it_IT=ÅMÅŽÕÑ&crid=2H9PT0KSM0PE7&sprefix=external+dvd+drive+for+mac,aps,80&ref=nb_sb_noss

Just (double) check before you buy if it is compatible with Mac and also check the user reviews. External USB DVD drives are very common and I never heard of specific problems with a Mac. Of course you need some software on your Mac to rip them. I did not rip CDs/DVDs in ages, so I would not know what software to recommend

 

[Lifeisabeach]

Pretty much anything will work. If you have a Mac with USB-C, Pioneer makes a couple models that has that as a port. They also explicitly tout them as Mac compatible.

BDR-XS07UHD

The BDR-XS07UHD slim slot portable USB 3.1 Gen1(3.0) BD/DVD/CD burner is the next generation Blu-ray Disc burner from Pioneer. The drive supports 4K Ultra HD Blu-ray playback using CyberLink software. The BDR-XS07UHD has a smooth slot loading mechanism that both dependable dustproof and...

www.pioneerelectronics.com

Support

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As for ripping software, MakeMKV is the way to go.

 

[Giuanniello]

My Macs are quite old, the one I use for most of my stuff is a 2014 Mini with some adapters to run FireWire (!!!) external drives along with the usual USB ports, planning to upgrade to an M2 Mini this year but my guess is that whatever USB kind of port should work fine, I'd copy the _TS folder on the computer than rip with either Handbreak or some software like that

Grazie

 

[Sun Baked]

Only issues with the portable bus powered ones with the Y-cable you might run into on a new Mac are, not having 2 free ports to plug it into.

I tried the old low power slim external LG DVD drive and did not have any problems. Did not try my slim external Pioneer bluray with the Y cable (not enough free USB ports)

I am currently using a really old full sized external LG DVD with a power brick right now without any issues.

The newer OWC external LG Bluray drive was temperamental on an M1 for me under Mac OS, however I found that running it using Parallels worked fine for me and the drive firmware downgrade to read 4k Blurays worked under Parallels without issue.

If you have a bunch of DVDs to backup to a drive, a slim external drive without a drop in tray will become a pain. You can also run multiple drives at once, I am using both the OWC LG bluray and LG DVD drive both at the same time using multiple instances of the app.

 

[Lifeisabeach]

Only issues with the portable bus powered ones with the Y-cable you might run into on a new Mac are, not having 2 free ports to plug it into.

I have an old LG portable BD read/writer that uses a Y-cable, but it works just fine if I plug in just one of the USB cables, at least for reading. I doubt writing would work well without both plugged in.

 

[Boyd01]

I am currently using a really old full sized external LG DVD with a power brick right now without any issues.

Sounds like what I have too. Works fine, I used it a lot with my 2012 Mini and 2013 MacBook Air while ripping over 1000 DVD's for my iTunes library.

 

[Jethro!]

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