Philips 20X SPD2413BD won't read 8cm DVD-R discs

[nlec]

I bought a new-ish Philips SPD2413BD a couple of weeks ago. It seems to work fine with everything except mini DVDs (DVD-R) from a Sony dvd camcorder. Most software won't recognize that there's a disc in the tray. Nero was able to copy it for me onto a larger blank DVD, but I want to consolidate the video from several mini-discs to normal DVDs (3x the capacity).

No software I tried, except Nero, would even recognize the disc. Not DVD Decrypter, not XP itself (SP2), not even Iso Buster (which I thought was really strange). I would normally attribute this to bad hardware, but Nero was able to copy the video off of it. Also, none of my media player software was able to play the video from the mini disc. Not even Nero would do that, nor would WMP or PowerDVD. Maybe that is a codec problem, but if it's standard book DVD video then it should work, right? The drive does play regular full-size DVDs (both home made and store bought).

The drive is a re-badged Liteon LH-20A1P according to a post at Club CD Freaks, and the LH-20A1P is covered here in the videohelp lists. I have about 2 weeks to RMA it if it's a bad unit.

Any thoughts or suggestions?

[Krispy Kritter]

Sounds like the camcorder is recording in a proprietary format, which isn't all that uncommon. What file extension is it using?

If Nero can read it, why not just copy it onto your HDD. Then find a way of editing/joining/converting for output onto normal DVD.