My Dvd drive won't recognise DVD-R

[NL]

Hi,
Recently i borrowed a dvd-r from a friend, but unfortunatly my drive didn't want to play.
Wen i went to explore and clicked dvd-drive, it didn't say that the drive was empty, instead it was trying to read it. I thought that it was just one of those things that took a long time, but i left the computer for like 2 hours and it still didn't register it.
Wen i tried to play it in wmp, the program just froze.
I know that there are different types of drives, but i thought that they'd all be able to play dvd-r's etc.
I this is not the case, is there any way that i can get them to play dvd-r without changing my entire drive,
Thanks in advance
N
p.s, Sorry if this is a really obious question!!!

[Capmaster]

Strange. DVD-R usually play on PC DVD-ROM drives. Are you sure your friend finalized it? Have you tried playing it on a set-top DVD player yet?

[NL]

umm, i don't know what u mean by 'finalized' but i assume that that must be the case if she could play it on her computer.
Also, i don't know what a 'set-top dvd player' is ( I'm so ignorant! ) but i did try it on my dvd player.
there's more than one movie on the dvd-r, so i assume that it's in avi format? i'm not really sure.
NL

[Capmaster]

umm, i don't know what u mean by 'finalized' but i assume that that must be the case if she could play it on her computer.
Also, i don't know what a 'set-top dvd player' is ( I'm so ignorant! ) but i did try it on my dvd player.
there's more than one movie on the dvd-r, so i assume that it's in avi format? i'm not really sure.
NL

When you create a DVD-R on a standalone DVD recorder or a PC for that matter, it must be finalized before it can be played on a dvd player. Sometimes PC DVD software players will recognize it if it's unfinalized, sometimes they don't.

Finalizing takes the video and creates .VOB files (video and audio), .IFO files (information for the player) and .BUP files (backups of the .IFO files). Just because her computer will play it doesn't necessarily mean it's finalized. There's an wasy way to tell - using explorer, look at the DVD and if there is a folder named "VIDEO_TS", then it's finalized.

By set-top I mean a player you hook to your TV as opposed to a PC player.

You can have more than one movie on a DVD without it necessarily being an AVI. In fact, .AVI files are not DVD-compliant. They must be MPEG2 to be DVD-compliant and guaranteed compatible with the players out there.

"AVI" is merely a generic container file extension which means compressed video. MPEG DVDs can have as many movies on them as you can squeeze. They can be without a menu and one right after the other, or they can have fancy menus and even chapter icons for jumping ahead.

Use explorer and look at the file names and the sizes. Then post those here and we'll see if we can make any sense of it.

[NL]

that's the thing, my dvd drive doesn't want to recognise it at all! when i click the dvd folder it just makes whirring noises, you can hear it spinning around as it tries to recognise it. In the end it doesn't even say that there ISN'T anything in there. It just keeps spinning it! so i don't know....
maybe my dvdrom is weird. the thing is though, it's a brand new computer, we bought it, literally, 2 weeks ago. Based on the stuff that i've read, it SHOULD be able to recognise Dvd-r!
NL
(p.s. thanx for all the help so far!)

[Capmaster]

that's the thing, my dvd drive doesn't want to recognise it at all! when i click the dvd folder it just makes whirring noises, you can hear it spinning around as it tries to recognise it. In the end it doesn't even say that there ISN'T anything in there. It just keeps spinning it! so i don't know....
maybe my dvdrom is weird. the thing is though, it's a brand new computer, we bought it, literally, 2 weeks ago. Based on the stuff that i've read, it SHOULD be able to recognise Dvd-r!
NL
(p.s. thanx for all the help so far!)

Right. I forgot the part about not reading it at all. I was concentrating on what exactly is on the disc file-wise.

OK - the facts so far:

1) Your PC DVD-ROM won't read it, or even indicate that there is a disc or isn't a disc in the drive
2) When you try to open it with WMP, it freezes
3) It plays on your standalone DVD player and has multiple movies on it.

One question: Do you have a software DVD player installed on your PC? One like WinDVD or PowerDVD? Many new machines come with WinDVD on the HD, but it hasn't been actually installed. You might check that. If it is installed, direct it to the DVD drive and try to read it. Forget about trying to open it with WMP.

[Treebeard]

Just to cover the obvious ?'s. Is the disk scratched at all? Is there a nice greasy fingerprint on it? Either of those could cause a drive to not recognize the disc.

Not trying to insult your intelligence just covering some bases.

[chas0039]

This doesn't really give you an answer but it is a case of the same phenomenon. I have burned a DVD-R on a Panasonic E-50 and it plays on set top players and is recognized on some PC DVD recorders and not on others. I have never really researched what is going on I just know that whatever I burn and finalize on the E-50 is for playback only. Interestingly this does not seem to be the case with RAM discs, but then there are a lot fewer readers out there.

[NL]

yup, the disk is clean. I do have WinDVD but that doesn't work either. ugh this is so annoying. i think i'm going to give up for now. i 'll be visiting one of my friend's this summer, and she's a computer engineer or something, so i might just see what she thinks.
thanx for everyone's help though, i just think that Dvd's in general hate me.
NL

[the phantom]

same question here! i have just purchased a HP computer and the DVD+R/RW writer will not read the discs i have made on my Panasonic DMR-E80H. i have tried everything listed in this post. are there any other solutions?? any help is appreciated.

[jimmalenko]

I guess we are really clutching at straws here, but is it possible to attempt to read the disc in a different DVD-ROM ie a friend's ? It wouldn't be the first time I've seen different media react differently to certain ROMS/burners. Obscure for a ROM, but possible. If it plays in your settop then that indicates that the disc itself is OK and that the problem lies somewhere else. Has your ROM ever read burnt DVDs before ? If so, what brand ? What brand are you trying to read ?

[chas0039]

same question here! i have just purchased a HP computer and the DVD+R/RW writer will not read the discs i have made on my Panasonic DMR-E80H. i have tried everything listed in this post. are there any other solutions?? any help is appreciated.

One of the machines I also had trouble with was a combo drive in an HP. It reads DVDs burned in a Pioneer burner but not Panasonic finalized discs. As I said earlier these are readable elsewhere with very little problems.

[icecoolnick]

guys im having exactly the same problem as above..i have a standalone panasonic dvd writer, the one with the hard disk..

and then i have my PC..

obviously i wanted to play the discs ive made on my standalone machine on my pc but nope..its not happening..

ive used Nero INfo thingy on both my drives, and both are supposed to play DVD-R/RW DVD+R/+RW and DVD-RAM..

and tried a variety of different discs and companies..

im thinking after reading this thread that the panasonic machine e-100, i think..doesnt finalise discs

[dwight55]

The reason your PC won't read the DVD-R is probably because it is a DVD-R and not a DVD+R. There was an article over on another website a few months back about Dell, HP, +, +, + going together to support the "+" format and to not support the "-" format in their factory installed DVD appliances.

Check your PC and see if it will do a dvd in +R format. If it does and it still refuses to do the -R, . . . then you will have to have only the +R or maybe the +RW format to use it it.

May God bless,
Dwight