10.1.1, install Win 8.1 from DVD, getting BOOTMGR image is corrupt

I'm on the trial version, and successfully installed the Modern.ie virtual machine for Win 8.1 with IE11 on my new iMac 27" retina model with 3tb fusion drive.

Got my Win8.1 Pro OEM DVD in the mail today and am trying to install a new virtual machine with the dvd in the Apple external Superdrive, but running through some text, and spinning a few moments the Parallels Wizard console just says "BOOTMGR image is corrupt. The system cannot boot." and the dvd stops spinning but the Parallels Desktop Control Center just keeps the spinner going like it's trying. I shut Parallels down, kicked out the dvd and started again, told Parallels to just start that virtual machine, it does the exact same thing again... but some of the messages indicate it's not properly reading the optical drive as a boot disk.... SATA optical drive 2 failed.

I can see files in the Mac Finder for the DVD, the usual setup.exe and boot folder, etc. But somehow, does this likely mean I have a bad DVD from MS? Can I rip the DVD to an ISO file on a thumbdrive and use that? Or from the Mac's hard drive? Grr.

 

I forgot to say this was a new Parallels 10 install.

Followup, I found this link on Apple support that says there's lot of trouble loading from any sort of external drive, or even having any external drives connected! http://support.apple.com/en-us/HT203909 So I followed the first part of the instructions to make an iso from my Win 8.1 Pro DVD using Disk Utility, renamed it windows81.iso in my Documents folder, and am currently installing from that with no apparent problems so far (5 mins into it). Unless you hear otherwise, this solved my problem. Beware of installing from external SuperDrive.