hi, I have a problem that has persisted ever since i first installed AnyDVD. Whenver i put in a DVD I can see that AnyDVD is decrypting the DVD since it takes a bit longer for windows to detect the media on the disc. However 9 out 10 times when i insert a DVD the drive will not recognize that its there. Even with AnyDVD turned off, the drive has a hard time detecting any disc. I have a Sony DRU-500A drive with the latest firmware and this has never happened before installing the program. I have since been through 3 updates and the problem has not ceased. The only method that I have found to work is to open my media player, insert the disc, and keep trying to open the file on the drive with the media player, eventually (after 10 minutes or so) AnyDVD and Windows can see that there is a disc there. I would keep doing this, but it gets a little frustrating . Anyways any help would be appreciated. Thanks.

I have had this exact problem with an impending drive failure
Once I got a new drive, the problem disappeared

uninstal Anydvd and see if the problem recurs, right click on drive icon and try to explore the contents of the dvd
if problem persists then is probably a drive cause

if problem disappear then re-instal anydvd
and retry exploring the dvd

MY anydvd says it is empty and there is no disk present. When I go to the drive through explorer and properties it tells me the disk is full but shows 0bytes I can play these dvd's on my home dvd players but not through any software on my computer. I haven't had any trouble in the 2 years I have been using anydvd & clonedvd2 until the update 6031. I have uninstalled both anydvd and clonedvd2 and reloaded them I also installed a new dvd burner a pioneer 110dr driver software 1.37, I run xp pro with service pack 2 2700 chip and 2 gigs of memory & 300 gig hd.

Probably a long shot but your IDE connecter cable could be bad. Sounds more like a hardware problem than with AnyDVD. Does it play through your computer when you uninstalled AnyDVD and Clonedvd2?

I just got around to read this thread and agree with ghall54. I would change the IDE cable to a brand new one. If the problem still exists then it's time to do as zaq said replace the drive with a new one.

Also check you have the correct region set in anydvd ?

For the record anydvd should not cause any issues with recognizing a disk. I would say it is probably more that the DRU sony drive has issues with maybe some of the newer dvd titles in reading the copy protection. With newer dvd protections my older home dvd players take a while in recognizing and starting to play a dvd, especially with sony pressed disks.

Thanks for all the advice, I have resolved the problem, turns out Ghall54 was right, i went out and got a new IDE cable and now the drive works fine, Thanks everyone!

You can usually leave the region setting in AnyDVD as it is.
Clicking "Default" is a good idea if you played with the settings...