Disk with un-supported format??

[rago88]

I have a James Bond Movie, [bought from netflixs so it is a previous rental of which I have bought a few others..]
region 1

this movie will play on my set top dvdplayer but doesn't exist on my PC.

by that I mean, power dvd, windows media player, plextor tools etc.. all show the disk as nothing there.

I get "an un-supported disk is in drive E..[ Plextor 716A]

If I right click on the drive to check properties, there are no files at all..
the disk is basically blank as far as my computer see's it.
btw:
any disk before or after this one has been read or playing fine so the problem is not on my end..
any ideas?

[gonwk]

Hi rago,

1) What OS are you running?

2) Have you by any chance hacked your set top dvd player to be Region Free?

3) Are you sure your Rental Disc is Region 1?

4) Download "NERO Info Tool" and see the info on your DVD Player and see if the James Bond movie what Disc Format it is!?!? May be your dvd player can't see or read that format disc?

5) Go to Device Manger and see if the CD/DVD has no exclamation point and it is working properly! Even if it is A-OK ... say troubleshoot and walk thru the steps!

6) Try removing the CD/DVD drive from the device manager first and if it doesn’t fix the problem then I have seen people suggesting to go with removing the registry entry ... see Microsoft post on this ...

http://support.microsoft.com/kb/314060

If the above mentioned methods didn’t work for you, you can try to reseat your cd/dvd player. Try to remove the drive from the computer and put it back. See if it will fix the problem.

You can also try to boot from any bootable CD to see if you computer recognize the CD-ROM drive on BIOS level. Put any bootable CD (Windows XP CD, Windows Vista, etc) into the CD-ROM drive and change the boot order to start from the CD-ROM drive. If you laptop starts to boot from the CD, then the drive is recognized in BIOS and most likely it is A-OK and works fine. In this case look for a software problem. It might be necessary to reload the operating system to fix the software problem. If you cannot boot your computer from a bootable CD, then the drive might be bad itself.

7) Since you are saying the DVDs before and after this ONE particular one play A-OK ... I am stumped ... otherwise I would also suspect that somehow your CD/DVD "Drivers" got clobbered. May be even get the latest drivers (if any).

8) Firmware ... If you have the latest F/W for it ... fine ... if not, why not download the latest version. But check what Version you are running right now and GET a copy of it ... just in case if the new F/W goes haywire. Also CHECK and see if you can go back & forth on the F/W with your DVD player!?!?

9) If you had not said that your dvd player plays other DVDs ... my next guess would be that your dvd player it might be on it's last leg ...

Post back what step helped you …

G!

[Chewy]

clean and or polish the disk, settop players do a better job of error correction and can often read a damaged disk that a computer drive will not

[rago88]

Nero tools shows "no disk inserted"..
using XP 3.

My set top player plays all regions. Oppo.

All is ok in device manager....troubleshooting.

7) Since you are saying the DVDs before and after this ONE particular one play A-OK ... I am stumped ... otherwise I would also suspect that somehow your CD/DVD "Drivers" got clobbered. May be even get the latest drivers (if any).

I also updated my plextor firmware which was same version before and after this incident.

I have since backed up or played 4 other movies so it has to be narrowed down to this one disk.

I'm thinking that this disk, although says region 1 is in fact not and the fact it plays in my all region set top,
I think this is the case here...

Proof of this would be to try it someone elses PC...
That's all i can think of at this point.....

[rago88]

Hey Chew,

sorry I didn't see your reply before my last input..

I'll give the cleaning a try.......

[doctorhardware]

Try taking the disk to a video rental stores, the one's around me will polish your disks for $4. The polishing machine is the one that is used for the rental movies.

[rago88]

ok...
didn't know that..
thnx.........

I'm taking it to work on Monday.
and if it doesn't work in the PC dvd writer there,
then it almost has to be wrong region unless someone has a better thought..

[Chewy]

Polishing The Disk

If cleaning doesn't resolve the problem the next step is to polish it. To read a Dual Layer disk the laser has to pass thru 2 clear layers of plastic, we will polish the top layer (which actually fills in small scratches) so the laser can stay focused properly.

Supplies needed:
- (2) Clean 'lint free' cotton cloth(s) or
- A couple clean paper towels and (1) cotton cloth
- Water
- Non-wax furniture polish (Pledge, Endust, etc)

1) Take a cotton cloth or the paper towels and wet them with water, wring them out thoroughly so they are damp (not wet) and lay it out flat on a clean, solid, flat surface. The idea here is to keep the disc from sliding around the table, and protect the label side from being scratched.

2) Place the DVD UpSide DOWN, on the paper towel. DVD's are similar to CD's the laser reads the data from the bottom, so this is the surface we want to clean.

3) Follow the directions on the furniture polish label (Shake vigorously, etc). Very lightly spray the furniture polish directly onto the disk, you don't need to coat the whole disk, apply sparingly!

3) Use the clean/dry cotton cloth and lightly rub the polish from center hub to the outer edge of the disk. Advance around the disk and use a fresh area of the cloth as you get halfway. When you've polished the entire disk, find a clean area of the cloth and again lightly rub from center to rim until you've done the whole disk surface.

4) Pick up the disk with a fresh area of the cloth and lightly wipe the label side to dry it. Be careful the disk will be very slippery, don't drop it!

5) Grasp the disk by the edges with your bare hand and take it to your DVD-ROM or burner. (never put your fingers on the surface of the disk, fingerprints can also cause read errors and oils from your skin could damage the clear coating over time)

6) Open the tray of your DVD-ROM or burner and gently place the disk in the tray. Let it sit there for a minute or two to air dry. Don't blow on it, don't wipe up dust from the area, don't smoke near it while the tray is open.

7) Try reading or playing the DVD, see if you can get past the problem area, this procedure should work at least 90% of the time!

[gonwk]

Hey Guys,

I forgot the name of the Program ... I used to use to see what Region my dvd was ... since I used to buy a lot of Martial Art dvds and they are usually different from Region 1.

Was it "DVDInfo Pro" or DiscInfo or something like that ... whatever it was ... it was a Freeware.

G!

[rago88]

Chewy,

sorry to say didn;t work..

Polished it more times than my car..But,
I will remember to do this in the future.
I haven't tried the disk in another Pc but will do soon just out of curiousity.

may try the freeware to check region but,
if my PC doesn't see it, don't think any other will see it also.

[gonwk]

Hi rago,

While you are at it ... see if you can run the "Nero CDSpeed" the "ScanDisc" option to see if your DVD ... the disc itself is damaged ... if it has Yellow or Red then no matter how much you Polish it ... it ain't gonna fly!

I was also thinking what Software did you use to View this DVD. What is it PwoerDVD or anything like that. I think if it was the Region thing it might have prompted you that you are out of Region compliance.

Boy this sound like a fun problem to solve. I am almost tempted to pay you to mail it to me to see if I make head or tails of this one!

G!

[rago88]

see if you can run the "Nero CDSpeed" the "ScanDisc

I did both of those...

Cannot start scan disk because it doesn't see anything in my player...
I have tried Windows media player,
Nero Showtime, Power dvd is a widly used viewer which is good to install also if you have no dvd coda's on your pc..

Found that out when I installed my 1st dvd player years ago and my PC would only see the disk as CD ..

btw: sending it back more out of curiosity for replacement..
Maybe a bad batch there....
I'm pretty computer literate so I think I have tried it all...

[rago88]

Well,
Netflixs sent me out a replacement [retired rental] which looked it..
some scratches, etc...

this one worked fine...
So, will never know why the previous never worked.
Thanks all for your tips and possible fixes.
I'm sure I will need to use some of them in time..
[specially buying used rentals...]