Drives not recognizing some Commercial DVD's

[Mahime]

Recently a new problem has crept up. Both DVD-RW Drives in my computer will not recognize a couple of Commercial DVD's. Not all, just a few new ones from Blockbuster. When I go into Explorer, the drives show as empty. When first inserting the DVDs the drives do try to read them; they just do not show up as being in the drive at all.

I have two DVD-RW Drives in my computer. A 2 yr old NEC 2500A RW-DVD revision 1.06 (shows as a DVD-RW in My Computer) and a 6 month old LG GSA4166B revsion 1.0 (Shows as a DVD-RAM) drives. Under Properties they both show as DVD/CD-ROM. I do not know if this matters but thought I would mention it.

The Commercial problem DVD's are playable in my living room player but my computer does not recognize them. The computer DVD-RW recognize and play other commercial ones just fine just not these few.

I had planned on reformatting my hard drive anyway so that was my first step. I zeroed out the HDD using the Manufactures tools and reinstalled Windows XP Home. I installed my DVD drives, and programs and tried again. Same problem. I totally updated my windows XP Home with Service packs, security patches, etc. They still won't play the movie DVDs. I have rented a few other DVDs that have the same problem. Not all, just a few.

I also uninstalled and reinstalled under device manager as suggested on another post. And I used one of the DVD cleaner disks with the brush just in case.

I am out of things to try. It is confusing that they work just fine in a stand-alone DVD player but in the drives they are not recognized and that BOTH drives don’t recognize the movies. I did a search on the web and in Microsoft, a few forums, and have not come up with a solution. Others have had a similar problem but the fix was something I already covered. I read this thread https://forum.videohelp.com/viewtopic.php?t=302124 and tried the fixes including cleaning. As for region code, I live in the US and it is set as Region 1. Any help would be appreciated. Any clues?

[Spirit Crusher]

this has happened to me before as well....Some drives just won't read some discs.

[Mahime]

Both drives? Do you think so? Is it a new copyright protection thing? I hope not! This would really make me pissed because I use my large computer monitor to watch movies in my craft room. Can't see adding a TV for just a few DVDs.

Thanks for replying I am just frustrated with this problem.

[Spirit Crusher]

even if it was a new copy protection thing, your comp should still be able to read it for playback... more likely its just bad dvds.

[budz]

try changing the ide cables of the drives or test the drive in another pc. it could be your drives are just failing or you got a corrupt operating system.

[Mahime]

I just read on the back of the box "This Disc is Copy Protected and May be Played Only On Licensed Devices" Bet a computer is not considered "Licensed"

I think I will boycott HBO. They have been doing some irritating things lately. I am adding them to Netflix, another company I refuse to patronize.

I will try the IDE cable but since other DVDs I have checked are working, I cannot think it would be that. Course I have been wrong before. I do not have access to another computer so checking both drives on another computer isn't an option.

I think it is the copyright protection. I am thinking of trying AnyDVD but since it wasn't recognized in any of my player software, I am not optimistic.

[budz]

What dvd player software are you using? You could try updating whatever player software that you're using to see if that would help.