Well. you could play your music using
VLC, rightclick the track playing, choose Media Information > Codec and you will get a screen showing you all you need to know.
It'll give you something like this:
/sites/whathifi.com/files/images/2013/February/VLCScreenShot.png
And FWIW having just acquired a MacBook Air, again without an optical drive, I bought a USB Samsung DVD writer for the rare occasions I need a drive – such as when at shows and the only press information comes on a CD-ROM – for the princely sum of £25 from that well-known South American river-related online retailer.
Oh alright then,
Amazon.
Or, if you have another computer at home with an optical drive, you can do
drive sharing – though this only works for tasks such as software loading, etc, and not for playing CDs or DVDs.