New DRM causing problems playing audio CDs?

I got a new machine a while back (1.8 GHz G5, OSX 10.3.9) and have
had a similar problem. I put in a music CD and get a dialog that says

You have inserted a disk containing no volumes that Mac OS X can
read. To continue with the disk inserted, click Ignore.

There is an Ignore button and an Eject button.

I usually click the Eject button to get it out. I had been thinking
that the CD I first had this problem on was an oddball since it was
privately produced. I just tried it on a commercial music CD and got
the same result!

As Stephen say I have no trouble with data CDs and have never had
reason to use a DVD in it yet.

Just to be complete, the drive I can't read Music CDs on is a PIONEER
DVD-RW DVR-107D according to the System Profiler.

--
Rob Managan email managan at llnl.gov
LLNL

On 07 Dec 2005, at 09:08 , Stephen Chakwin wrote:
> From this I deduce that the drive is still functioning properly and
> that the
> problem is a software problem having to do with music exclusively and
> therefore probably some sort of clever DRM "fix" with unintended
> consequences.

No, this is unlikely to be anything to do with DRM. I've had two DVD
players that had similar problems (Standa lones). One stopped
reading normal DVDs, but could still play CDs, VCDs, and DVD-Rs.
Yes, I could not play my original of Silence of the Lambs, but I
could play my DVD-R copy. The other one stopped playing Audio CDs,
even though it could still play DVDs.

If I recall correctly, my Bondi iMac also stopped recognizing Audio CDs.

Try a different drive if you can.

I just went to the Apple web site. Downloaded iTunes. Reinstalled it, did a
repair permissions and now it's working again. Probably a glitch in the last
software update.

Stephen

At 2:59 PM -0500 12/7/05, Stephen Chakwin wrote:
>I just went to the Apple web site. Downloaded iTunes. Reinstalled it, did a
>repair permissions and now it's working again. Probably a glitch in the last
>software update.

A no go for me. Disk Utility did find some permission to repair. The
only one that appears relevant is
We are using special permissions for the file or directory
./System/Library/Filesystems/cd9660.fs/cd9660.util. New permissions
are 33261

I still get the dialog saying there are no mountable volumes on the drive.

Hopefully the local systems people can find a solution!

--
Rob Managan email managan at llnl.gov
LLNL

on 12/7/05 11:08 am, Stephen Chakwin at schakwinsbcglobal.net wrote:
> From this I deduce that the drive is still functioning properly and that the
> problem is a software problem having to do with music exclusively and
> therefore probably some sort of clever DRM "fix" with unintended
> consequences.

I've never heard of this problem, but from your description of the problem,
I think deducing that the drive is functioning properly is premature.

First of all, I seriously doubt it has anything to do with DRM. A
10-year-old classical CD is so unlikely to have any DRM applied to it that
it is safe to assume there is no DRM on it. This leaves any potential DRM
problem to be with the installed software. It's not likely to be an iTunes
update that caused it, because you're having trouble in the Finder as well.
So any DRM-related software issues would likely be at the System level. And
I don't think Apple has recently released any updates or patches for Panther
that address any music-related issues.

The fact that you can't copy from a music CD suggests to me that it's a
drive-related problem, either in driver, firmware, or hardware. There are
physical differences between different kinds of disc media, and Red
Book-compliant audio CDs are distinct from data CDs in how the drive must
behave to read them. It is conceivable that, for instance, a misalignment
problem could cause the drive to be unable to read audio CDs and still be
able to read data CDs.

In order to eliminate the drive from suspicion, you need to test with
another drive. Unfortunately, laptop drives aren't cheap, which limits your
options for testing other drives with your Mac. If you know someone who has
an external CD drive you might be able to plug into your TiBook, that would
help you determine if the problem is something specific to your Mac or
specific to this drive. I'd lay odds that the problem will turn out to be
linked to this drive, at which point the choice becomes repair or replace.

I hate DRM as much as anyone, but to blame DRM software for a problem
without any evidence that DRM software caused it is seriously jumping to
conclusions. When you hear hoofbeats, expect horses, not zebras.

Mark D. McKean
qpandaquantumpanda.com