Dvd drive will read dvds, but not dvd-r

muchu

New Member
I have an old laptop (IBM 600E) that I purchased for traveling and basic word processing. Recently, I bought a used Matsushita DVD drive (SR-8171-H) for this machine so that I could play dvds. Unfortunately, it will not play dvd-rs. It will play real (store bought) dvds however. I wanted to bring the laptop to my inlaws to show them home videos of their new granddaughter. Unfortunately, as I mentioned it just won't pick up the dvd. Instead, it will say insert cd into drive d. When I look at the control panel, it shows the dvd rom as a cd-rom drive. I tried uninstalling and reinstalling the drive and it still doesn't work. Obviously this detection is wrong as dvds will play. I have tried ty dvd-rs, and tdk dvd-rs. Neither works. My OS is Windows NT. My questions: Is this drive too old to play dvd-rs? Is there something you can recommend to pick up these copied movies? Thanks for your help.
 
CDRW/DVD Combo Drive (24x24x24 CD-RW; 8x max. DVD-ROM) You sure it wont play dvd-r's? It looks like it wont play dvd+r's....
 
Trizoy, thanks for the suggestion. I checked and the drive is a plain dvd-rom drive, and not a cd-rw as you had thought. I have tried finding the device drivers from driverguide.com, but the link to panasonic's website is broken for my specific drive. I will find some dvd+r's and burn a few to see if the drive will read them. I am sure dvd -rs will not work. I have tried several different discs from different manufacturers. My wife's parents live abroad and buying a dvd player there is likely too costly for my budget.
 
Update: I tried Fuji DVD+r's and the drive reads them. I thought DVD-ROM's read both +R's and -R's, but this one only seems to read +R's. Works nonetheless. Posted update incase any one has a similar problem.
 
Update: I tried Fuji DVD+r's and the drive reads them. I thought DVD-ROM's read both +R's and -R's, but this one only seems to read +R's.

Hmm ... usually if it will read +R's it should read -R's. Only thing I can think of is the brand of -R's. What brand of -R's are you using?
 
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