Extracting DVD / Blu-Ray using Big Sur OSX on Macbook Pro

[stereoptic]

Hi all, I was hoping someone else has experienced the same issue as me and has discovered a work-around!

 

Is there a setting, or software, or line command, etc. required to read an external drive on a Macbook Pro running Big Sur Operating System?

My old 2010 macbook pro never had a problem recognizing either external drive that I have, a SeaTech and a Samsung SE-506BB. The highest version software for that was High Sierra.
Unfortunately, the hard drive got corrupted and despite several attempts to revive it, I couldn't get it to reload the OSX. Besides, the screen had 2 cracks in it, so it was time to go.

So I switched over to a 2017 macbook pro running Big Sur. I can't get either external drive to get fully recognized. I can get the drive spinning, and to see it appear in FInder, but the disk just spins and spins. CDs work fine. DVD content is visible in DVDAudioExtract, but I get an error that it is 'unreadable'.

I have a hunch that it is related to the power supply. I have a few splitters, for data and power, and several different USB chargers. Of course, I tried several different cables as well. I get slightly different results with each, but nothing gets the disks to read.

But it could just be one of those Apple roadblocks.

I also have the official mac Superdrive, which works perfectly but it does not do Blu-Ray! The Superdrive just uses one cable (USB-C) and doesn't require any special additional power.

Any suggestions would be appreciated!