External DVD Drive setup for Rpi4/5

[Reaper210]

Hi,
I am currently building a homemade retro console. The idea is to play my physical media. To start with I am focusing on PlayStation 1, and Sega CD I will later try Sega Saturn, GameCube, and PlayStation 2 with the Pi5. But the focus currently is highly compatible emulators for the Pi4.

Current issues included:
Black screen on load disc
Reaching 'Checking memory card with black screen afterward'
External DVD drive spindown or power-saving state.

Current setup
Pi4B running Retropie base image - https://retropie.org.uk/download/
PSX emulator is - Lr-PCSX ReARMed.

I have found very little info online on this topic and would love to hear about physical media-based emulation from other people.

retropie psx raspberrypi

[mitu]

See this forum post for running games directly from a physical media. I don't think lr-pcsx-rearmed supports physical media though, for PS1 you need the Mednafen PSX core.
As far as Gamecube/PS2, I don't think the emulators in RetroPie (Dolphin/PCSX2) support reading the game from physical media.