Hi all, so my USB SuperDrive finally gave up the ghost and I need a new external CD/DVD reader/writer. Ideally, I would like it to be a multi-region reader.
If it could work with all the below versions of macOS, that would be great, but Sequoia is really the only essential one.
10.13 High Sierra
11.7 Big Sur
15.4 Sequoia
Anybody have any good recommendations?
I hardly use mine, but I got whatever OWC were selling at the time. I’m pretty sure they still have one. As for region locking, that was always problematic with macOS. The drive region is one thing, and you may have a drive with no lock, but macOS itself has a region and you can only change it, I think, 4 times.
It has been a long time since I did anything with a commercial disc, though.
I bought a HP GP70N drive from HP via eBay for about £17 last year. Works fine on Sequoia.
Many years ago I bought a no name external blu-ray drive. it still works today (Sequoia), is multi region, and pretty quick.
Apple didn’t include Blu-ray drivers ever in the OS, so you need to install your own.
But I only use it to rip DVDs, CDs, and Blu-rays
I always thought the lock was done in the drive. But the good news is it only applies if you are playing a DVD. I always used Handbrake to rip DVDs and then play them from my Plex library. Never had any region lock issues. (This was using an external DVD drive from OWC that I purchased over a decade ago.)
OWC no longer sells it, but frankly I’d expect any external drive would work.
Doesn’t that require illegal actions?
Out of the box, Handbrake can rip any DVD that isn’t copy protected…but almost all DVDs you buy in the store are copy protected. Getting around this is a weirdly gray area legally, so applications like Handbrake can’t legally include the software needed to decrypt copy protected DVDs. You can, however, download it separately.
Source: How-To Geek
It’s both. But it is only a problem if you want to read discs from multiple regions. I had a ton of DVDs that were from either region 1 or 4 because some stuff just never got released in region 4. You can get a player that you plug into your TV that is region unlocked, but macOS also has a region. At least it did when I last ripped a DVD. That was many years ago now, but I would be very surprised if it has been removed.
Some years ago I was buying DVDs locally (region 1) and from Amazon.co.uk (region 2). Since I ripped all DVDs and never played any of them directly, region locking never was a issue. Looks like a good description of DVD regions and players is on Wikipedia DVD region code - Wikipedia.
It must have been some specific software you were using. I most definitely ran into the problem of macOS butting in on my media backup tasks.
Handbrake to rip and Plex to play. I always started Handbrake before inserting the disk to prevent the Mac’s own media player from starting.