I’ve been having a lot of difficulty lately playing DVDs I’ve checked out from my local library. Some of the DVDs are too damaged for my older model Lenovo laptop to play. Other DVDs get stuck, usually in the middle of the FBI warning. And still other DVDs, often more recently released ones, aren’t recognized at all by the DVD software.
This laptop is about five years old. It doesn’t have the greatest specs, although it is running Windows 10. I tried downloading other DVD software, with no luck.
So I turned to my 2014 model MacBook Air. This laptop doesn’t have a built-in DVD drive, but shortly after I bought the MacBook I purchased an external DVD player to hook up to it.
My external DVD player for my MacBook Air. Photo copyright 2021 by Vanessa Kier.
About 99% of the discs that won’t play on my Lenovo laptop do play on my MacBook’s external drive. Including the more recent DVDs that are in the format the Lenovo’s software can’t read.
Hoorah for older tech! Whenever I decide to upgrade my MacBook, you can be certain I’ll keep this laptop and external DVD drive as a backup system.
Sometimes, older really is better.
