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DVD+R Drive reading DVD-R disks?

post #1 of 16
4/28/04 at 12:16am
Thread Starter 
Well I got my new 8600 today

I got a free DVD+R upgrade on it although I do not need a DVD burner since I have a +/- burner on my home machine. Anyhow I just found out that the laptop drive won't read any of my -R DVD disks I have. I have a bunch of em too since I've only been using a -R format disks.

This just a wildshot but is there anyway to make my DELL playback DVD-R disks? If not oh well, I'll just have to start buying +R disks so as to make them compatible with my laptop. My desktop computer and TV DVD player read both formats.

Thanks guys.
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post #2 of 16
4/28/04 at 1:01am
Can you check what drive brand you have (Right Click My Computer, click properties, click the hardware tab, click the Device Manager button, then expand the CD/DVD drive section)? I heard that the NEC drives have issues reading their own burned DVD-Rs. Can anyone further confirm this?

Tim
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post #3 of 16
4/28/04 at 1:19am
The NEC DVD+R drive is just a crap reader, full stop. It has a horrible time reading any DVD-R discs it's burned (using the hacked firmware) and it has the same problem reading some of my TDK DVD+R discs burned in a Plextor burner. I get a Cyclic Redundancy Check error when trying to copy files from some of these -R and +R discs, and it's very annoying. My wife's combo DVD/CDRW drive has no problem reading the discs.

NEC = crap reader.

Note that it has no trouble reading DVD+R/+RW discs that it burned itself. Anything else is a crapshoot..


Oh, and I have 2 identical NEC 5100 drives (bought one for a buddy) and both have the same issues, so no it's not JUST my drive!
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post #4 of 16
4/28/04 at 1:25am
Hrm, that's sad. I think I actually narrowed down my issues with my drive to the media I was using. I'm hearing mixed things about the NEC drive now. Some people praise it and condemn the Hitachi for screwing up installs up certain games, yet now there's this lovely bit of news. What's overall the better drive assuming I get an NEC from Dell tomorrow?

Are the read issues related to the hacked firmware?

Tim
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post #5 of 16
4/28/04 at 2:46am
Well I'm going to have to disagree. I find the NEC drive to be WAY better and less problematic than the Hitachi DVD recorders.

There are a lot of documented cases of the Hitachi having problems with certain games and software.

I have 2 of the NEC drives and they work perfectly fine.

You can't go totally of what WilliamG is having problems with because he's not using the drive as it came standard. He's trying to hack the BIOS on the drive to make it unofficially burn DVD-R's which it is not designed to do by default. Yes that hack works on some drives but not all so you can't complain thats its not doing something that it was never sold to do in the first place.

I did try the BIOS hack on mine and it does work here without all the CRC errors but I went ahead and flashed back as I don't have a need to burn DVD-Rs as all I buy is DVD+Rs ..

As for reading DVD-Rs burned on a different computer not working I haven't run into that problem yet. I have a bunch of movies backed up on DVD-R that I burned for an old desktop 1X burner and they all work on both my NEC drives. The disks are all FujiFilm so I can't confirm if there are ccertain disks that do not work well.
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post #6 of 16
4/28/04 at 8:28am
No problems reading/burning DVD-R media on my flashed NEC. I've used several different media including Ritek, TDK, Fujifilm, and Memorex.
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post #7 of 16
4/28/04 at 9:23am
Well, when it arrives today I'll let you know what I got. Interestingly enough, Dell's Support site says that there's no part information available for my service call. Think they're shipping an empty box?

I've got some TDK DVD+Rs that I burned at 4X... if it's an NEC I'll give those discs a shot and see if I can copy them over with no problem. Hopefully will be here this morning sometime.

Tim
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post #8 of 16
4/28/04 at 9:37am
If you're just using DVD+R discs burned on the NEC drive, you'll have no problems. Good luck!
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post #9 of 16
4/28/04 at 1:04pm

It won't play p0rn DVD!

Q: I just got my new 9100. I tried playing a DVD my friend had given me as a gift several years ago last nite (but have never actually watched yet) - and it wouldn't play it. Dell Media Experience allowed me to change the "region format" of my DVD player from US/Canada - but it said I only am allowed 5 changes total. And, this was some US-made p0rno DVD - so I doubt it would have been formatted for another region, anyways. I haven't tried any other DVDs yet (none on hand - except maybe a Led Zep music DVD, now that I think of it).

So, what's the problem?
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post #10 of 16
4/28/04 at 1:12pm
Thread Starter 
Well here are the specs:

The drive idetifies itself as : "HL-DT ST DVD+RW GCA-4040N"

The DVDs I tried to read were Ritek 4x DVD-R disks burned using a Lite-On 4x burner on my desktop. Once they are in the drive it just ignores them They play back fine everywhere else incuding my TV DVD player.
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post #11 of 16
12/6/04 at 10:49pm
Quote:
Originally Posted by dbk99
No problems reading/burning DVD-R media on my flashed NEC. I've used several different media including Ritek, TDK, Fujifilm, and Memorex.
Hi,
Someone posted a link with the NEC 5100 upgrade firmware...
Can some send me the link!

Just bought 50 DVD -R from BB during Black Friday. Alas, Came to know my NEC 5100 burns only +R/RW.
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post #12 of 16
12/7/04 at 5:09am
my sony cdrw/dvd drive sucks on my 700m. it gets the redundacy errors when trying to read dvd+r discs.
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post #13 of 16
12/7/04 at 5:49am
sry to ask u guys... but wuts + & - in dvd +/-... i dont know
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post #14 of 16
12/7/04 at 6:51am
the sony dvd/cd-rw modular on my notebook works fine. it reads dvd+r just fine.

anyways, http://www.newegg.com/app/viewProduc...152-028&depa=0 ... you people should have opted to get the cd-rw/dvd sony, and then purchased the newegg drive. same price, but you get 2 modulars, and the one from newegg burns faster and apparently has no read errors.
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post #15 of 16
12/7/04 at 9:16am
Quote:
Originally Posted by thegr8anand
sry to ask u guys... but wuts + & - in dvd +/-... i dont know

They are two different DVD formats


One is DVD+R
One is DVD-R

Some drives have the capabilities to read/write to both and some don't.
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post #16 of 16
12/7/04 at 1:41pm
I am having all kinds of problems with my sony dw-d56a dvdrw +/- as well. It won't even read some original discs. I think the quality is alot lower than that of a pc burner, even though the drives are alot more exspensive..... go figure.
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