DVD Drive does not "see" some disks

[BigDog43]

I'm using my couple month old laptop with a Fujitsu 8x DVD -RW drive to backup my DVD collection. So I'm beeboping along making backups and everything is fine. I backup Season 1 of the Cosby show perfectly. Now I start on Season 2 and my dvd decrytper doesn't see the disk, so I go to My Computer and it does not 'see' that a disk is even in the drive. I put in "Bad Boys" or "Rumor has it" and it recognizes a disk. I put in "Deceived" (1991) and the drive does not recognize it.

**All disks play perfectly in 3 separate stand alone DVD players.**

Any ideas on why some disks are 'invisible' to my dvd drive. (I bought a DVD repair kit and repaired and cleaned the DVDs to no avail)

[Chewy]

Hand cleaning and polishing are better than those kits

http://forum.digital-digest.com/showthread.php?t=54849

[BigDog43]

So you think it's a dvd media issue as opposed to a problem with my drive? If so, I don't really understand why it works in the standalone dvd player, but is not recognized in the PC's drive.

[Chewy]

I don't really understand why it works in the standalone dvd player, but is not recognized in the PC's drive.

You are trying to oversimplyfy the problem, your laptop drive is part of the problem but old damaged disks are also part of the problem. You probably have a good standalone and a fair dvd burner. Have you tried recleaning and polishing a problem disk? Have you had any problems with the laptop and new disks?
Those kits are usually junk.

[BigDog43]

No problems with new disks. (Except this Cosby one, which is fairly new)

I went and bought the kit because the clean/polishing method did not work. However, repairing with the kit did not work either. I think your on the right track with the good standalone vs fair dvd burner. Maybe the standlone is able to read through the damage, but the dvd drive cannot?

[Chewy]

Maybe the standlone is able to read through the damage, but the dvd drive cannot?

exactly, and I used the term "fair" liberally, sometimes(rare) a firmware flash will enhance the burners reading ability, I had a combo drive that would
kick itself into pio mode with win xpsp2(quite a chore) until I updated the firmware. Long ago and far away!

[emsdallas]

I've had this problem with no resolution yet. I was able to play ONE DVD-r on my PC, able to save it to my hard drive using DVD Decrypter, but now it will NOT play on PC. It does not 'see' the disc. I know part of the problem was that I had Sonic Record Now and installed Nero Ultra 7 without uninstalling Sonic. I guess more than one DVD burning software on a XP PC creates problems--Upper and Lower filters. Also, I've read about 'packet writing' and re-writable media.

The DVD still plays on other DVD players.

While I was troubleshooting that problem, I believe I did not update my Pioneer DVR-A06 firmware correctly and now I can't update it to the latest 1.08 version.

I'm in the process of clearing one of the three hard drives so I can do a clean install of XP Pro.

MAYBE, there wouldn't be such a problem if Microsoft would support DVD burning!!!!

Thanks for listening---BigDog43, let me know if you found a fix.

[DrDoug]

I have now come across this same problem.

I have a brand new box set of Sopranos Season 5 (HBO) and the discs are perfect New condition, althougth all have what appears to be a bit of superglue on the inner section of the disc, but not on the playable section.

They all play OK on my Stand Alone Panasonic (Base Model) DVD
but do not show up as even being in a DVD ROM or Burner.
I have tried them in a notebook sony DVD combo drive that usually reads what my burners sometimes have problems with. Also tried in Pioneer A108 with latest firmware and again after reflashing with region free firmware. And again in a Sony DRW800.
They all cannot read the discs.

I have been able to read & rip seasons 1-4 no problem along with many many other discs.

I fear we have a new bit of protection that stops them from being able to used in a computer and thus not able to be copied.

Hopefully one of us will work this one out

BTW the discs are region 1 and I have region 4 pc, but I have never had a problem getting decrypter to rip a region 1 before, but this is why I flashed the drive to region free and installed DVD region killer after I faced this problem.
But remember I didn't get a region change prompt; the discs are simply not there as far as the PC is concerned, like trying to read a dud disc.

[DrDoug]

An update

Just found discs can be read in another PC that has no Sony devices now see thay are copy protected by disc corruption mechanisms, so I will need to use DVDfab decrypter

I also noticed the DVD box quotes " Copy Protected & may only be played on Licenced devices" So it may be that sony devices load a blocker onto a PC??

Yet another reason not to ever buy a sony anything.

[Chewy]

You have some nasty sony software installed?