DVD Read/Writer Problems

[californiascreamer1]

Hello Everyone

 

I have a sony dvd read writer But it dosn't want to recognize dvd's.

 

EDIT:This is for my computer

 

So i overheard somewhere around here you need to download a program to get it burning dvds. It works with cd's and burning but it only will play dvd's

 

If you know a program that will help please tell me the name and if possible the link to the site i can "download"it.

 

Thanks

[IceDragon]

Do you know what region your dvd players' set to read?

[californiascreamer1]

No

 

Honestly I have no idea what that means

[IceDragon]

Each DVD player is set to 'read' a certain region code (be it 3, 5 or 1).

 

For example, if you lived in England, most DVD players will only read "Region 3's" as that's what the code is.

 

If you buy a multi-regional DVD player, It will read any CD from anywhere in the world.

 

The best thing to do is ask either the manufacturer or shop you bought it from what regional code the player reads.

[californiascreamer1]

I got this from my dad, who got it from a random person he did a moving job with.

 

Is there any way to find out the region on the dvd reader/writer without asking?

[IceDragon]

I'm not entirely sure, it's usually stated in the booklet, if not, the best way is to go to the manufacturers website and do a search on the type of DVD player... Other than that, I'm unable to help

[robbalvey]

What exactly are you trying to do?

[SigENeaT]

Theres a bunch of things that can be going on here, but most importantly "Yes, yo do need a program to write to DVDs."

 

Windows (i am assuing you're using WinXP as your os here) will pretty much pickup and allow you to use any CD-rom, DVD-rom, CD-RW or DVD-RW drive without any additional drivers and being a Sony you are more likely to see success than failure with Windows detecting the drive and installing drivers and letting you do it and drinking tea.

 

HOWEVER, what it doesnt do is allow you to write to DVDs by default.

I can only assume you are trying to write to the DVD using Windows Explorer, ie opening My Computer, opening the DVD drive and dragging the files you want to burn to that space. Windows XP cant figure this out by default and you need a 3rd party application.

 

Unfortunately MS (to my knowlege) have never implemented DVD burning into its shell and with Vista now out i doubt they will care about it in the future.

 

Usually when you buy a DVD drive a application will ship with it you can legally install and use to write files to a DVD, however if you have picked it up second hand then i doubt you have any software with it.

 

Sony drives usually ship with a Nero suite which does everything you could ever want to do with regards to writing to a DVD/CD. If you can find a legal copy of this then probably your best start.

 

Other than that i am not familiar with any free-ware applications which allow you to write file structures to a CD/DVD, however ImgBurn (http://www.imgburn.com/) is probably your best bet for reading an writing images to a DVD.

Note: ImgBurn will not allow you to create an image of a Movie DVD given the security on these discs, plus its illegal!

 

Hope that helps you a little bit mate! ;D