optical drive help, please

[Bill]

Hi

I recently got a new computer with media center installed. I have
recorded a few tv shows and put some on DVDs.

I can play the dvds on the machine I recorded them on of course. I
can also play the dvds on one of the other machines I own which
doesn't have media center (both computers are Emachines). I have an
HP pavilion 761n in the basement that won't play the DVDs.

All the machines are running XP home ed. And they all have the latest
version of MS media player, which the media center files are set to
run on. So, I think that it is probably a hardware issue with the HP
machines, optical drive not reading the disk.

I would like to be able to play those disks on each machine, but alas,
for some reason, I can't. Any suggestions you have will be gratefully
considered. Thanks, Bill

 

[Mike Walsh]

You might be using media that is incompatible with the HP. You will have a greater chance of reading media that is read only e.g. DVD+R or DVD-R rather than rewritable media. Another possibility is that you can't read a disc that is not finalized on a drive that is a different model than the one it was written on.

 

[bill]

probably the latter, I was recording on TDK 4.whatever gig DVD+R
disks. Thanks Mike.