I did some research before purchasing the Pioneer drive, and there seemed to be a lot of inconsistencies with the playability of external 4k UHD Blu-ray drives in general. The mac is set up with a 2.6 GHz Quad-Core Intel Core i7 processor, 16 GB of memory (2x8 GBS), an Intel HD graphics 4000 1536 MB, the display is a 15.4 inch(1440x900), and a Solid-State SATA Drive of 1 TB. I bought the Pioneer BDR-XS07UHD 4K Blu-Ray Portable Burner & DVD Player Drive and currently own a Macbook Pro 15-inch, Mid 2012 edition running Catalina latest software update. I desire to watch my 4k UHD Blu-ray DVDs on my laptop. How to play Pioneer external blu-ray drive on Macbook Pro mid 2012? Hello: Hope this helps anybody who wishes to play Blu-ray and 4K discs with the new M1 Macs. I'll update this thread when I know more. In fact, MakeMKV reads 4K discs when inserted and can rip them, so I think it is indeed a software issue with Leawo. I have been assured it is a compatibility issue with the Pioneer drive, and it will be fixed in the next software update (later this month).
Any other app makes both my Macs crash: kernel panic, pink screen, shut down and reboot.ĤK discs can be played by the Leawo software too, but in my case it doesn't work: the drive keeps "loading." the disc.
The only free software that plays Blu-ray well is Leawo FREE Blu-ray Player Mac AnyMP4 Blu-ray Player for Mac works, but the free version has an obtrusive watermark.
It comes with an app to tweak some settings, to make the silent mode automatic etc. It runs quietly and has a very good overall quality. I bought a Pioneer external drive, Model BDR-XS07TUHD It's plug and play, works both with my M1 iMac & M1 MacBook Air, no need to plug the Air to the main AC.