Can't view DVD in external drive

[Jeff H]

I have a Cocopa external DVD drive, which I use very seldom. When I connect it, Windows Explorer finds the D: drive, but when I try to open it (via Explorer or VLC) I get a dialog that asks, "How do you want to use this disc?" The options are "Like a USB flash drive" and "With a CD/DVD player". The default is flash drive but the disc player option is grayed out so I can't select it.

A google search turned up mostly questions about using the disc for files, but I tried one suggestion, to turn off Auto-play. Didn't work. I have watched videos with this drive on this computer before but, as I mentioned, very seldom.

Any ideas?

- Jeff

[DaveA]

You can not select it if there is NO CD/DVD in the device.
Do you have a readable CD/DVD in the device?

[Jeff H]

Yes. I'm trying to run my wife's "Depression Cooking with Clara". The DVD plays on her old Mac, which has a built-in DVD drive. It's a menu-driven disk where various recipe videos (TV episodes) are accessed from a main menu.

[Rudi]

    
I don't have Windows 10, so I'm not sure if this year old report is still true/valid, but see the following link:

How to Play DVDs in Windows 10

Microsoft neutered Windows Media Player in Windows 10 so it won't play DVDs unless you pay up.
But you have a few options...

Personally, I wouldn't buy Windows DVD Player. I'd install the free VLC Media Player which is a tried and tested product over the years.

[Jeff H]

I am using VLC. I use it mostly for audio, but I have played one or two DVDs on this computer with this external drive using VLC.

I'm wondering if the problem is connected to the DVD's structure. Being menu-driven, I don't think there's an option to play all the episodes continuously. I think the Main Menu is an index that only opens individual video files one at a time, on request. So maybe the computer only sees the file/folder structure. (Just guessing)

[Rudi]

Have you tried accessing the DVD from within the VLC interface? Ignore the fact that the article uses Windows 8, but look at the ways it shows to access the DVD from within VLC. Maybe this will make a difference?

[Jeff H]

Have you tried accessing the DVD from within the VLC interface? Ignore the fact that the article uses Windows 8, but look at the ways it shows to access the DVD from within VLC. Maybe this will make a difference?

Thanks Rudi. When I walked through those steps, I discovered that it was defaulting to "D:\ -DP". By browsing to "D:" it was able to run.