Getting Started with a New Mac

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For those who are new to Macs, here are a couple of great getting started articles featured this week:

• 10 Things New Users Should Do with a Mac
• Getting Started with Mac

Nathan Parker

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Alex5723, DrBonzo

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Beginner’s guide to using MacBook, MacBook Air, MacBook Pro, or Mac

https://www.imore.com/meet-your-new-mac

A Complete Beginner’s Guide to macOS: Get Started in Just 1 Hour

https://www.makeuseof.com/tag/macos-beginners-guide/

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DrBonzo, Nathan Parker

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It looks like good advice. My only quibble (with “10 Things”) is that a superdrive, the external optical drive sold by Apple for those of us who own one of these days’ driverless Macs, at least in my opinion, is not expensive. In fact it should be quite affordable to those who, being able to afford a Mac in the first place, need such a drive, given how useful it can be to anyone who has to read CDs and DVDs to import data into the Mac, data otherwise unobtainable in any other way (my own case), watch movies and TV shows or listen to music one already has on DVD or are not available from any of the streaming services one subscribes to and, of course, to burn CDs and DVDs when necessary. One baffling thing about superdrives, though, is their lack of any readily available mechanical way to make it release a disk that will not eject otherwise (there is no handy little hole to insert an straightened paper clip, for example). There is a trick using something like a credit card, but it has to be done properly and very carefully to work. That might never be necessary, or only rarely so, going by my own experience: after more than two and a half years of using a superdrive, I only had to resort to this trick once. But, when a disk gets stuck inside the drive, the Mac user, as ever, falls victim to the “super cool” factor in Mac design.

Ex-Windows user (Win. 98, XP, 7); since mid-2017 using also macOS. Presently on Monterey 12.15 & sometimes running also Linux (Mint).

MacBook Pro circa mid-2015, 15" display, with 16GB 1600 GHz DDR3 RAM, 1 TB SSD, a Haswell architecture Intel CPU with 4 Cores and 8 Threads model i7-4870HQ @ 2.50GHz.
Intel Iris Pro GPU with Built-in Bus, VRAM 1.5 GB, Display 2880 x 1800 Retina, 24-Bit color.
macOS Monterey; browsers: Waterfox "Current", Vivaldi and (now and then) Chrome; security apps. Intego AV

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DrBonzo, Nathan Parker

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Great links Alex5723. Thanks for sharing.

Good points OscarCP. The slot-loading DVD drive was one of Steve Job’s obsessions. The first iMac didn’t have it even though he ordered it to have it, and when he found out about it last-minute, he dropped a round of expletive bombs and threatened to cancel the iMac’s rollout, only going forward if the next iMac would have it.

While the slot-loading design l0oks stunning, I have had an issue once with a PowerBook where the little rubber film came loose. I had to pry it off of there, although it meant more dust got into the drive (the drive is dead now).

The hack you mentioned is about the best way to pry a DVD from a dead SuperDrive. Hopefully most people don’t have to use it much, but it’s good to know.

By the way, I still plan to write my own guide for Windows users switching to Macs. These links were just some stuff I found this week to share. I want to put together a more comprehensive guide on AskWoody itself.

Nathan Parker

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Nathan: Writing a guide to Macs for those not already familiar with them (and also for some who are familiar but not as much as they imagine themselves to be) sound like a very worthwhile thing to do and you are the one to do it, if anyone is.

On the topic of the superdrive peculiarities, I would also like to mention that they do not read or write Blu Ray disks. The Blu Ray format might not have been as widely successful as DVD one and might even be on its way out, but many of us have them and not being able to play them on a Mac is a bit of a disappointment. There are CD/DVD/Blu Ray players on offer in, for example, Amazon. But the ones I saw, when I looked into this some time ago, were on the pricey side and, besides, I am not sure how seriously one can take as sound guidance the number of stars awarded and the written recommendations made there by the alleged buyers of this or that product…

So I am watching my few Blu Ray disks with the old Windows 7 PC, and splitting my viewing of the DVD between it and the Mac, to extend the useful lives of both their optical drives. I do not mind the lower resolution of the PC’s screen, because I watch everything while seated six to nine feet away from my 27″ external monitor. Although this has the same 1280 x 1024 SXGA resolution (with aliasing) as the screen of the PC, I can hardly notice the lower resolution when comparing images with those on the much smaller 15″ Retina screen of the Mac with a resolution of 2880 x 1800, that I normally watch from less than two feet away — so I’m quite happy with this arrangement.

Ex-Windows user (Win. 98, XP, 7); since mid-2017 using also macOS. Presently on Monterey 12.15 & sometimes running also Linux (Mint).

MacBook Pro circa mid-2015, 15" display, with 16GB 1600 GHz DDR3 RAM, 1 TB SSD, a Haswell architecture Intel CPU with 4 Cores and 8 Threads model i7-4870HQ @ 2.50GHz.
Intel Iris Pro GPU with Built-in Bus, VRAM 1.5 GB, Display 2880 x 1800 Retina, 24-Bit color.
macOS Monterey; browsers: Waterfox "Current", Vivaldi and (now and then) Chrome; security apps. Intego AV

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I should add that those CD/DVD/Blu Ray players are specifically for Macs and have, in their installation disks, their own software for playing disks in the Blu Ray format (along with the two others). That software is a necessity: Macs do not have native Blu Ray-playing software, because that is Apple’s long-standing policy on this matter. Why is that? No idea.

Ex-Windows user (Win. 98, XP, 7); since mid-2017 using also macOS. Presently on Monterey 12.15 & sometimes running also Linux (Mint).

MacBook Pro circa mid-2015, 15" display, with 16GB 1600 GHz DDR3 RAM, 1 TB SSD, a Haswell architecture Intel CPU with 4 Cores and 8 Threads model i7-4870HQ @ 2.50GHz.
Intel Iris Pro GPU with Built-in Bus, VRAM 1.5 GB, Display 2880 x 1800 Retina, 24-Bit color.
macOS Monterey; browsers: Waterfox "Current", Vivaldi and (now and then) Chrome; security apps. Intego AV

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OscarCP wrote:

Macs do not have native Blu Ray-playing software, because that is Apple’s long-standing policy on this matter. Why is that? No idea.

Back when Steve Jobs was alive, he didn’t want to jump on Blu Ray right away due to licensing restrictions. See his comments here:

https://www.engadget.com/2008/10/14/steve-jobs-calls-blu-ray-a-bag-of-hurt/

As you mentioned, there are third-party options for Blu Ray on the Mac (just not glamorous ones):

https://www.macworld.com/article/2084815/turn-your-mac-into-the-ultimate-blu-ray-player.html

Apple also wanted to phase out optical media and replace it with video streaming (aka iTunes movie and TV show sales), so they made the SuperDrive optional as USB early (starting with the MacBook Air), plus started the push on Apple TV streaming boxes, and for a while .Mac and MobileMe (the precursors to iCloud) had a Video Gallery feature as an attempt to wean customers off of iDVD for sharing videos and resorting to streaming. Apple wanted to make optical media go the way of the Floppy Drive and all the pre-USB connections.

Nathan Parker

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OscarCP

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Apple also has another policy regarding optical media that is quite unexpected to someone accustomed to how things work in the Windows-verse: if one tries to download a movie from a DVD, or even just capture one frame to make a still, with the idea of saving either to a mass storage device, be it the Mac’s own HD/SSD, or an external one, that just won’t happen: Apple’s big metaphorical hand pops up and blocks it right away. There are third party applications for the Mac that are designed for downloading content from optical disks, but I have not tried to use them. This inability to copy content from a disk one owns is a bit of a bother, because I would like to copy the contents of some of my favorite movies in my DVD collection to a large capacity SSD device, so I only use the optical drive (the optical drives for personal computers tend to die young) just once per DVD and then never again, stretching out, in this way, the device’s few good years.

Ex-Windows user (Win. 98, XP, 7); since mid-2017 using also macOS. Presently on Monterey 12.15 & sometimes running also Linux (Mint).

MacBook Pro circa mid-2015, 15" display, with 16GB 1600 GHz DDR3 RAM, 1 TB SSD, a Haswell architecture Intel CPU with 4 Cores and 8 Threads model i7-4870HQ @ 2.50GHz.
Intel Iris Pro GPU with Built-in Bus, VRAM 1.5 GB, Display 2880 x 1800 Retina, 24-Bit color.
macOS Monterey; browsers: Waterfox "Current", Vivaldi and (now and then) Chrome; security apps. Intego AV

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Nathan Parker

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Oscar you must just be unlucky, I have only had one optical drive go bad in a quarter century.
BTW Windows does not come with a DVD ‘viewer’ program either.

🍻

Just because you don't know where you are going doesn't mean any road will get you there.

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Nathan Parker

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Wavy, Interesting comment on MS not including a DVD drive as part of the software bundled with the OS. Apple does, but not for Blu Ray.

As to the longevity of optical drives and also about how I intend to cope with their tendency to pass away young: I have had two drives successively die on me and the third one getting a bit shaky in my current Windows PC, since I started using PCs, back in1998. Looking around online and in person for comments on this type of problem, I found a considerable number of people blaming it on the cheap drives installed by the OEMs. So maybe is the other  way around: you have been somewhat lucky. Or maybe you have not used your optical drives as much as I have mine.

I do not expect the superdrive I bought, along with my Mac laptop back in June of 17, to last for many more years, but at least superdrives are cheap enough that, one of these days I might buy a gross of them and put them away against the day a superdrive dies on me and Apple is not making them anymore… Because I really like to watch the movies in my DVD collection, already several hundreds of disks long.

Ex-Windows user (Win. 98, XP, 7); since mid-2017 using also macOS. Presently on Monterey 12.15 & sometimes running also Linux (Mint).

MacBook Pro circa mid-2015, 15" display, with 16GB 1600 GHz DDR3 RAM, 1 TB SSD, a Haswell architecture Intel CPU with 4 Cores and 8 Threads model i7-4870HQ @ 2.50GHz.
Intel Iris Pro GPU with Built-in Bus, VRAM 1.5 GB, Display 2880 x 1800 Retina, 24-Bit color.
macOS Monterey; browsers: Waterfox "Current", Vivaldi and (now and then) Chrome; security apps. Intego AV

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Nathan Parker

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I think Windows removed its built-in DVD Player in Windows 10. They made it an optional download/purchase. Most people I know with Windows use VLC Player for DVDs instead.

Apple does still include DVD Player on Macs, although on Mojave and later, it’s hidden. It does fire up when one inserts a DVD or if one searches for it on Spotlight. In the past, it was more prominent.

I’ve had occasional issues with optical drives. Not as many issues as OscarCP has, but I’ve had a few issues. They are generally affordable enough now where one can easily replace them, and with USB connections instead of dealing with internal drives, they’re painless to replace.

For ripping content from DVDs, I’ve heard great luck with Handbrake for Mac. Check that out and give it a spin if you ever need to rip content from DVDs.

My use of DVDs (and VHS tapes, and yes, even though I’m 29 I still grew up with VHS tapes) has dramatically decreased since with HD (and forthcoming 4K), content looks better streamed instead of played from a DVD or VHS tape (the picture tends to stretch and blur), but I still keep a SuperDrive connected to my iMac Pro and a DVD/VCR combo connected to my TV for the times I need to use physical media. If my Internet connection were to take the day off (which has happened before), it would be good to know I can still access some content some way (I also keep an HD OTA antenna connected to the TV for local channels in case I can’t live stream everything I need to watch).

Nathan Parker

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OscarCP

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Nathan. I have Mojave and, quite as you wrote, “DVD Player” is not in the Finder/Applications or Finder/Applications/Utilities lists. So, just now, I looked up “DVD Player” with Spotlight and found its location on the Mac HD, then got to it using “Finder”: Finder/Go/Library/Application Support/DVD Player. The good news is that, at least with Mojave and (in my own experience, with Sierra before), one does not need to find this application, because when one plugs in the Superdrive and inserts a disk in it, the OS (I think) finds”DVD Player” and starts playing the movie using it, without further ado.

Also thanks for the tip that “Handbrake” can be used to rip DVDs. I have had “Handbrake” installed for a while, but it was to keep the ripped streaming content down to a reasonable size. I did not realize it could be used by itself to rip DVDs.

Ex-Windows user (Win. 98, XP, 7); since mid-2017 using also macOS. Presently on Monterey 12.15 & sometimes running also Linux (Mint).

MacBook Pro circa mid-2015, 15" display, with 16GB 1600 GHz DDR3 RAM, 1 TB SSD, a Haswell architecture Intel CPU with 4 Cores and 8 Threads model i7-4870HQ @ 2.50GHz.
Intel Iris Pro GPU with Built-in Bus, VRAM 1.5 GB, Display 2880 x 1800 Retina, 24-Bit color.
macOS Monterey; browsers: Waterfox "Current", Vivaldi and (now and then) Chrome; security apps. Intego AV

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OscarCP wrote:

when one plugs in the Superdrive and inserts a disk in it, the OS (I think) finds”DVD Player” and starts playing the movie using it, without further ado.

Yep, that is how it’s supposed to work. Only if this setting gets set incorrectly in System Preferences would it not occur.

OscarCP wrote:

Also thanks for the tip that “Handbrake” can be used to rip DVDs. I have had “Handbrake” installed for a while, but it was to keep the ripped streaming content down to a reasonable size. I did not realize it could be used by itself to rip DVDs.

I’ve heard people have had success with it. I haven’t tried it on DVDs, but others have and enjoy it. Glad to know you already use it!

Nathan Parker

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Nathan Parker wrote:

For ripping content from DVDs, I’ve heard great luck with Handbrake for Mac

The free Handbrake is the best video conversion/ripping.. tool for both Mac & Windows.

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Nathan Parker

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