DVD_RW Disc read issues

surely I am not going crazy!

[Arwen]

Hi Every body,

This is my first time on this forum, and I am hoping from some friendly comments/advice. My problem is as follows: I have recently fitted my PC with an NEC ND 3500 DVD burner and so far I am able to successfully burn DVD-R discs and DVD-RW discs (both using Ulead movie factory and Nero burning rom 6). Now DVD-R are playing fine on my Toshiba (SD420E)DVD player but DVD-RW(Memorex) dics are not being recognised at all (DVD player seems to be unable to read them at all). MY existing CD writer/DVD(read only) drive is not recognising the burned DVD-RW dics either. I have updated my copy of XP home edition to SP2, thinking that it might help, but no joy. I cannot work out, whether the problem is with the recorder or the DVD-RW discs. I have even updated from PowerDVD V 4.0 to V 5.0 but this hasn't helped either!

Any help will be much appreciated. Many thanks in advance.

[bcolflesh]

Welcome to WW - you need to go to videohelp.com and start reading - players and the media types they can handle vary.

[Arwen]

Thanks for such a speedy reply. I shall do that straightaway!

Cheers :)

[smokeyb]

I have had plenty of issues with DVD-R and RW, and the problems were either my Firmware, my Software or the media wasn't good enough. The point is that it has never been a problem with the hardware as such, and I could nearly always find a way round the problems eventually.
Smokey

PS. That said, the cheapest of media will not always have it in some DVD recorders.

[Arwen]

Thanks for your useful comments smokey, I was kinda thinking along same lines, that is , there is nothing wrong with the recorder. It is most probably my Toshiba stank alone player (at least that is the conclusion I have reached, having visited videohelp.com). However, i still need to figure out why my Dell CD-Writer/DVD driver won't read the DVD-RWs(be it data or movie). One thing I cam across was that these DVD-RWs must be finalised. I am sure that Ulead movie Factory (2/3) does that automatically? (as there seems to be no option to choose it manually).

I read an interesting article on changing the "Book type" setting for the Disc. But the article only talked about DVD+R/+RW. Tried that with Nero 6, but again, that option was not available.

Anyways, keep the suggestion coming, I have not given up yet. :-)