Lite-On SH-16A7S DVD RW drive

[Neil]

I have this drive which I thought was working perfectly well (playing
movies, reading data DVDs and CDs, and writing data DVDs & CDs) until I
tried to play three particular movies recently: Star Wars, Episode II
(Attack of the Clones); Star Wars Episode III (Revenge of the Sith);
Spiderman 2. All the bonus discs associated with these titles play ok, as
do the other titles in the Star Wars series, and the previous Spiderman
movie. In fact everything else I have tried playing has played just fine.
These three titles, when inserted into the drive are completely ignored.
The drive whirrs them a few times, seems to be trying to seek something, but
then fails leaving the OS in a state where it thinks there is no media in
the drive at all. The SW discs are mine and are in mint condition, the
Spiderman 2 disc was rented and a little scratched, and they each play fine
in my older PC with a different drive & OS. I don't have another machine in
which I can try the drive, so I'm not completely sure whether it is entirely
a drive problem, or is in some way related to Vista. Is there anyone else
with this drive having difficulties with these, or any other particular
movies (but not all movies)?

I visited the Lite-On website to see if there was any alternative firmware
for the drive, but this model is not listed in the download section. I
could try the DVD player from the old PC in the new one, but I'd rather not
as it's a right pain to get the case out of the furniture in which it is
housed and it wouldn't be a long term solution anyway (the old drive has an
off-white bezel, and the new case is black). Other than that, or getting
another drive, I'm out of ideas as to what I can try next. Does anyone have
any other ideas that I can try before unplugging my rats' nest?

Thanks.

Neil

Mother board: Abit AW9DMax
CPU: Intel Core2Duo E6300
RAM: 2GB Corsair XMS2 DDR2 (400MHz)
OS: Vista Ultimate x64
DVD player: Media Centre
DVD drive: Lite-On SH-16A7S

 

[Guest]

Neil,

Since everything else you have tried using with this player worked properly,
it's logical to conclude that these problem disks must have some codice or
some other format that's incompatible with the player and/or with Vista. It
doesn't appear to be a problem with the drive, at least that's my take on it.

If these disks are formatted in high definition (HD), then that could
explain the problem you are having. Some HD DVD disks contain content
protection schemes required by the film industry and thus incorporated into
Vista. You can't play such disks unless you have compliant hardware and
software.

If the disks are not HD, then they still must have some incompatible format
that Vista (Media Center) doesn't recognize. That's a logical conclusion.
Are these disks copies? A copy likely would contain a codice that Vista and
Media Center don't recognize. A standalone DVD player, like Power DVD, would
likely be able to play such a DVD.

Just some ideas for your consideration.

 

[retroman]

I have this drive which I thought was working perfectly well (playing
movies, reading data DVDs and CDs, and writing data DVDs & CDs) until I
tried to play three particular movies recently...
[snip]
Is there anyone else
with this drive having difficulties with these, or any other particular
movies (but not all movies)?
[snip]
Does anyone have
any other ideas that I can try before unplugging my rats' nest?

Hi Neill,

I do have this Lite-On model, and it works very well. Unfortunately, I
don't have any of those movies available for testing.

I agree with Freddy that your hardware is probably OK, but you may
want to confirm that. Go to http://www.cdspeed2000.com/ and download
the Nero CD/DVD Speed utility. The Disk Quality tests are what you
want. First test a movie that works (for comparison), then test the
ones that don't. If the tests complete successfully then the drive
can read the disks. That means that the problem is likely with the
player software, as Freddy suggested.

A good forum for player problems is the Software Playing discussion at
http://forum.videohelp.com/

Doug M. in NJ

 

[Rick Rogers]

Hi Neil,

Have you tried running a CD/DVD lens cleaner disk through the drive yet?

--
Best of Luck,

Rick Rogers, aka "Nutcase" - Microsoft MVP

Windows help - www.rickrogers.org
My thoughts http://rick-mvp.blogspot.com

 

[Neil]

I do have this Lite-On model, and it works very well. Unfortunately, I
don't have any of those movies available for testing.

I agree with Freddy that your hardware is probably OK, but you may
want to confirm that. Go to http://www.cdspeed2000.com/ and download
the Nero CD/DVD Speed utility. The Disk Quality tests are what you
want. First test a movie that works (for comparison), then test the
ones that don't. If the tests complete successfully then the drive
can read the disks. That means that the problem is likely with the
player software, as Freddy suggested.

OK the problem appears not to be software or Vista related. Here's an
update on what I have tried so far:

I downloaded the trial version of WinDVD (from Intervideo, which is the DVD
player I used to use on my other PC). That had no effect on whether the
problem movie discs were recognised or not.

I used the speed utility above, but it has the difficulty that until you can
play a copy-protected title, the test will not run. So while I could use it
on the discs which I can play already, I cannot use it to check any discs
that I cannot actually play anyway.

I have temporarily attached my 10-year-old DVD drive to the new computer.
With this drive in the old computer I can play any movie I like; in the new
computer I cannot play any movies with the included MS applications. [Media
Centre provides an inaccurate message about the drive probably being in use
by another programme, but Media Player tells me I can't play copy-protected
content using that hardware]. WinDVD will play the titles when placed in
the old drive. Once they have been played by WinDVD, the copy-protection
errors disappear from the MS apps, but the playback is all mixed up. (Parts
of all sorts of different frames are pixellated together and much of the
display is green and blocky. However, I think this is neither here nor
there at the moment as it happens to all movies, even ones that previously
played just fine in those applications). The important thing to note, I
think, is that with the old drive the media is recognised as a DVD and can
be at least browsed in explorer, which is more than is possible with the new
drive.

I'm convinced it's a hardware thing with the new drive. I'm in contact with
Lite-On tech support, who are sending me back to the vendor. [I'll also try
the lens cleaner thing (since it is almost trivially easy to do), but I
don't hold out much hope].

Neil

 

[retroman]

I'm convinced it's a hardware thing with the new drive. I'm in contact with
Lite-On tech support, who are sending me back to the vendor. [I'll also try
the lens cleaner thing (since it is almost trivially easy to do), but I
don't hold out much hope].

Neil,

Sounds like you have tried everything that I would have tried, so I am
out of ideas, except for one. Did you confirm that the region
(country) setting for the drive matches the region for the problematic
movies? The setting is in "DVD Region" tab of the Properties dialog
for each DVD drive (ControlPanel>Hardware>Device Manager).

Doug M. in NJ

 

[Neil]

Sounds like you have tried everything that I would have tried, so I am
out of ideas, except for one. Did you confirm that the region
(country) setting for the drive matches the region for the problematic
movies? The setting is in "DVD Region" tab of the Properties dialog
for each DVD drive (ControlPanel>Hardware>Device Manager).

Doug M. in NJ

Yes. The new drive definitely has the correct region setting. One very
curious thing I noticed when I plugged the old drive into the Vista machine
was that it did not have a "region" tab in its properties in the same way
that the new drive did. (The lack thereof didn't seem to prevent it from
working ok).

Neil