Help!! Cannot play burned DVDs on laptop

[pinkfloyd]

Short and sweet ( I hope). I bought a Sony RDR-GX315. I recorded a sample from the TV on both a DVD-R and DVD-RW and finalized. Both will play back on the Sony as well as my Mitsubishi stand alone player. However, when I try to play on my Dell laptop with the Philips CDRW/DVD model CDD5263 using either RealPlayer or PowerDVD, it freezes, causing me to have to end program. I can play store bought DVDs with no problem. The only reason I bought the recorder was to take TV programs I missed on the road with me each week. Any suggestion other than replacing the drive in my laptop?

By the way, I searched the site looking for a previous solution but found none. So if there is a link to one I missed, please post. Here's hoping I don't have to take the dang thing back and do without!!!!

[redwudz]

I would try a different brand of DVD media. Some DVD drives are picky. It doesn't cost that much to test.

[ebenton]

If it matters, I second redwudz's opinion. There is not much infor available on the CDD5263 drive, so I can't really tell how picky it is. However, trying different brands and types ( +R -R etc.) of media is always a good idea, before you give up on a drive.

[Epicurus8a]

I have the same DVD-ROM in my Dell Laptop, and it is picky about discs and authoring techniques (don't include any "personal" folders if you expect recordable DVDs to work with this drive. Also, I had to remove the driver (and drive) a once. After that I re-installed the drive, and let Windows XP re-install the driver. It's been A-OKAY since then.

I've had the best luck with Japanese made Taiyo Yuden & Verbatim discs. (Always try to avoid Taiwanese made discs, as they are B grade or worse.)

[pinkfloyd]

I just wanted to close this "thread" out. I tried some of your suggestoins as far as removing the drive & also tried downloading some of the free decoders that are out there. After thinking about it, I figured I would try the DVD+RW, instead of the (-), thinking that since Philips started the (+) maybe it would work. Sure enough, it did! Thanks all for the tips.