External disk drive won't function

[aghostwhowalks]

Like many thinner laptops, my Asus Zenbook doesn't have a disk drive. I borrowed a disk drive from a friend so I could download some music/watch a movie. Unfortunately, while it downloaded the music all right, I'm unable to get the movie to pop up, and it won't connect to Windows Media Player. Any idea how I could get a movie to run? Normally, I would just say that it was the disk drive and purchase one of my own, but as I mentioned before, it worked just fine with the CDs. DVDs seem to confound it.

Some basic facts:
Computer model: Asus UX360C
Software: Windows 10
External Disk Drive: No idea--sorry.

 

[Scottray]

It may not be the drive. First, I'd try downloading and installing VLC media player on your laptop (https://www.videolan.org/vlc/index.html). See if this media player will play movies.

 

[Phillip Corcoran]

Make sure the drive actually supports DVD media to start with (ie it may be only a CD drive although that's unlikely unless it's an old one) - - drive model would have been handy to know in order to check it specs.

Make & model number may be on the underside of the unit.

 

[aghostwhowalks]

Thank you both!
I had already downloaded the VLC media player, and it did connect to the external disk drive--I was able to eject the disk via the computer, at least. I was eventually able to get it to play, but it was very laggy and kept shutting down. I'm going to pin the blame on the really cheap disk player and eventually get a decent one.
Thanks again.