CD/DVD External Player/Burner

[last updated: 2025-03-27]
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• Introduction:
  • Bought Roofull CD/DVD External drive from Amazon
    ROOFULL External CD DVD +/-RW Drive USB 3.0 & USB-C CD Burner DVD Player Reader Writer Optical Disc Drive with Carrying Case for Laptop Mac MacBook Pro/Air, Windows 11/10/8/7, Linux PC
    https://www.amazon.com/dp/B07V4J3WBW?th=1
  • Advertised as being compatible with Windows, Mac, and Linux,
    capable of reading/writing/ripping cd's and DVD's.
  • My expectation was that it should work with VLC media player included with Linux.
    Ultimately successful, though not without convolutions.

  • Gotcha:
    USB must be plugged into computer directly,
    ie. NOT through a hub.

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• First tests:
  First try with a movie DVD:
  loaded the DVD, and it opened a viewing window, but then gave error message:
  "Playback was terminated abnormally. Reason: no audio or video data played."

  Clicking "OK" to acknowledge the error closed the error window and the view window.

• Music CD's OTOH, loaded and played OK.

• An obnoxious process.
  Instructions and troubleshooting geared towards Windows users, regardless that product page clearly states Linux compatible.
  Had to go to google/forums etc as usual to find solutions.
• Tried several things suggested in forums that didn't help...
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• Change Region:
  This worked: change region code on player to "1".
  with player plugged into USB on computer,
  $ sudo apt install regionset
  $ regionset /dev/cdrom
  follow the prompts, select '1'

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• Playing Music CD's:
  • With player connected to USB, and no other software running,
    insert CD.
    A file-shaped icon shows up in bottom task bar, with orange/red highlight.
    Click on it and "Audio disc" box opens.
    Default option is "ask what to do."
    If you click the drop-down at the end of the selection field, you will see
    software/app options are listed that you can select to play the CD.
    On my system they are Rhythmbox, Celluloid, and VLC media Player
  • Select one, click OK.
    • Rhythmbox:
      • The Rhythmbox app opens
        (JWID) Click the track you want to start with, and click the "play" icon near the top of the box.
        Tracks will play sequentially.
      • Ripping files:
        If you instead click the "Extract" tab, the entire disc will be "ripped" to your hard drive.
        On my system the ripped files were (default) .ogg format, which is a "lossy" format.
        You can however click the hamburger menu --> Preferences --> Music --> preferred format
        and select eg. FLAC, which is lossless.
        Ripped files (default) are put into the /home/[userName]/'My Music' folder,
        though you can change this too: Menu --> Preferences --> Music --> Library Location --> Browse
      • After all tracks have been played, it just stops. Click the eject tab, then close the Rhythmbox window.
      • Gotcha: Curious behavior...
        Not sure what I did to create the situation, but it happened that the icon disappeared from the task bar.
        Ctrl-alt (ie. return to previous screen/app) got me back...
    • Celluloid:
    • VLC player:

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• Playing Movie DVD's:

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