Thomson 24WT25UG - How do I get CD-R's working?

[.waffle]

Right, I know that if the laser isn't great, you can't read CD-R's on some drives, but surely this isn't an issue on a DVD player, after all, they're supposed to be superior aren't they? Well, my problem is that I no longer have video player, and all my home movies are on the computer. It's fair enough watching them off the monitor, but it's not great. Plus, it's using 20Gb of space, which I could do with reclaiming, and using as a video recorder (ie WinVCR or similar). So, to allow me to do that, I need to burn these movies as VCD, but the damned TV won't support CD-R... Any ideas? I've tried Audio CD's and it won't work, I've tried CD-RW's and they spin as well but STILL don't work. Is there anything that could possible get a CD-R to read in this drive? I really don't want to buy a new video player, as it's old hat technology but I suppose I'll have to if I can't get a solution... Any ideas? Anything cheap considered, up to about £100 (that's the price of a half decent VHS player over here).

[.waffle]

Sorry, wrong player, it says 24WT25ES on the box... Still, and help?

[.waffle]

I've now heard from people that this player can play SOME cd-r's. Any ideas? I know they need a certain substrate, but they aren't listed in this country! The only ones that actually spin round seem to be Imation CD-RW's but they fail. The CD-R's don't even spin!