Apple MBP, iTunes, and optical Drive

Hi: I purchased an ASUS Optical Drive (ZenDrive U9M (SDRW-08U9M-U)). It is connected directly to my 2022 APPLE MBP RUNNING OS 12.7.2, There's an M2 chip with this last top.

Here's where it gets weird.

I can load a CD into the drive without issue. The disc shows up on my desk top and iTunes opens. The tracks are labeled properly, etc. I don't want to import the content. I just want to play the CD, but when I try to do this, nothing happens....quite frustrating.

I can, however, drag a track from the CD (from the disc's icon on the MBP screen) onto the Quick Time icon. Voila, when I hit play in QT, tracks play. I can also bluetooth into a Bose Soundlink Mini properly.

One last tidbit of information. In disk utility, you can only "see" the optical drive when a CD is inserted. The name of the CD is there, but once a CD is ejected, the optical drive "name" is absent.

It sure seems to me that the the optical drive is mounted. I can see the CD on my computer, and it will play on QT, but not on iTunes, even when iTunes is clearly seeing the disc. Is this an iTunes bug? Do I need to download and install a newer OS?

All of the above has happened after trying 2 Apple Super Drives that I own. Using an external hub to go USB C to USB doesn't work. Using an Apple dongle/adapter USB C to USB A makes one of the drives work, but with similar functionally (or lack thereof) as above. The other drive is done for as it takes discs in then spits them out repeatedly.

Thanks in advance for any advice you can offer. I have registered the Zen drive with the company but its the weekend and I can't talk to anyone in tech support until next week.

Cheers,

Michael