My first post here. Any suggestions on this, guys? I've the latest versions of '1 Click DVD Copy' and 'AnyDVD', and a new Acer Aspire 3620 laptop computer with facilities to burn dual-layer DVDs.

The other night I inserted into my computer a movie on a DVD+RW disc that readily plays on a couple of dedicated DVD-players around the house here. But my computer thought it was a blank disc. That's all right, I thought, I'll just turn on 'AnyDVD'. But in fact 'AnyDVD' also failed to detect a movie on the disc (which I think is recorded in NTSC format, btw). Complicating things is that the disc in question was one of three or four - a virtual set, all recorded at the same time - sent to me by a friend in America a couple of years ago. But only this particular disc isn't being detected by either the computer or by 'AnyDVD'. Yet, as I say, ALL of the discs in the set are playable by standalone DVD-players around the house.

In 'AnyDVD', Safe Mode is turned off.

Can this little problem be solved, would you say?

Thanks - Ken52

First of all anydvd has nothing to do with your reading possibilities of your drive.
I'd suggest to use instead a +R or -R instead of RW and also i'd look maybe for a newer firmware for your drive if one is available.

Thanks for your response to my inquiry, rapid fire. You wrote:
>First of all anydvd has nothing to do with your reading possibilities of your drive.

Oops. If I understand you correctly, 'AnyDVD' isn't designed to overcome problems with 'difficult-to-play' discs (apart from company copy-protected ones)?

Like I said, both my computer/Windows and 'AnyDVD' seemed to think that the pre-recorded disc sent to me by a friend in America was blank - which it wasn't.

Can you suggest how I might overcome this mis-reading by my computer/Windows, in particular? Is there other software I can use to help things along? (Ultimately, I may want to backup the disc using '1 Click DVD Copy.) Again like I said, two standalone DVD-players in the house have no problem with reading this pre-recorded disc and playing it.

>I'd suggest to use instead a +R or -R instead of RW and also i'd look maybe for a newer firmware for your drive if one is available.

I don't think I follow you. I want to know how to get this particular pre-recorded disc to play in my computer - which at present it won't! Actually, I'm not sure that the disc in question IS a DVD+RW type. Also, again as I mentioned before, everything I'm currently using is brand new - new computer, new 'AnyDVD', new '1 Click Copy DVD'.

Thanks again - Ken52

If you mean for playback with a bad or defective disc then i guess anydvd couldn't help much the only way you can try is to rip with anydvd's ripper function, but generally anydvd is not a playback program.
And for your RW or +R/-R at the moment it doesn't matter, the firmware update for your drive could maybe help to identify the media better. All media types are integrated in a firmware, so if yours doesn't support this kind of disc very well you could have reading or playback problems, which a newer firmware can solve. Otherwise you can also try another media brand.

Thanks again for responding to my inquiry, rapid fire. You wrote:
>If you mean for playback with a bad or defective disc then i guess anydvd couldn't help much the only way you can try is to rip with anydvd's ripper function, but generally anydvd is not a playback program.

I notice that the 'Rip Video-DVD to Harddisk' function of 'AnyDVD' asks me for both a Source Directory and a Destination Directory. Is the former (i.e., Source Directory) the E:/ drive where the pre-recorded disc in question is inserted? Can you tell me what exactly I should enter here? (Is 'E:/' sufficient?)

And I guess the latter (Destination Directory) is my computer's DVD burner? I'm not sure what to enter here either, though I think the name of the DVD burner in my computer is NTI CD & DVD-Maker. (But I can ring Acer, the manufacturer of my computer, tomorrow to get that information, I guess.)

You refer to 'a bad or defective [pre-recorded] disc', but as I noted previously, it plays perfectly well in a couple of standalone DVD-players in this household.

>And for your RW or +R/-R at the moment it doesn't matter, the firmware update for your drive could maybe help to identify the media better.

Am not sure how one updates the latest! As I mentioned, I'm using a brand-new computer with brand-new 'AnyDVD' and brand-new '1 Click Copy DVD'! But I'll ask the Acer people about that too when I ring them.

>All media types are integrated in a firmware,

Am not 100% clear what you mean by 'integrated in a firmware' ... but I get your drift, I guess.

>so if yours doesn't support this kind of disc very well you could have reading or playback problems, which a newer firmware can solve. Otherwise you can also try another media brand.

Another media brand? Am at present just concerned with playing and backing up this one particular pre-recorded disc which is causing me trouble. Is that the media brand you're referring to?

Just trying my best to wrap my mind around the advice you're giving me, rapid fire!

Thanks for all help - Ken52

For source select your drive look for example the video_ts folder and target your hd like C: or D: then press copy. And that you've a brandnew pc also doesn't mean that the firmware on your drive is up to date. What for a burner you've? You can use for example nero's cdspeed or nero's info tool or checking the device manager to identify the drive.

rapid fire wrote:
>For source select your drive look for example the video_ts folder and target your hd like C: or D: then press copy.

I've already said, I think, that the Source Drive is E:/

But, please, what do you mean by: 'look for example the video_ts folder'? I entered that term in Windows Search and got nothing.

>And that you've a brandnew pc also doesn't mean that the firmware on your drive is up to date.

That's why I said I'll ask the Acer people about this!

>What for a burner you've?

Huh? I guess I'm confused. You're not asking about the program (NTI CD & DVD Maker) I mentioned last time as my inbuilt (by Acer) disc-making program?

>You can use for example nero's cdspeed or nero's info tool or checking the device manager to identify the drive.

I don't understand, sorry. Maybe someone from Acer will tell me that too - as I suggested before - when I ring them tomorrow.

But of course whether the ripping function of 'AnyDVD' will work when 'AnyDVD' can't recognise in the first place that the pre-recorded disc in question isn't a blank one, remains to be seen!

Thanks - Ken52

Do you already have tried it with enabled safemode?

I did get to try using the rip-to-harddrive facility of 'AnyDVD' (I had even located the video_ts folder on the E:\ drive as Source - thanks, rapid fire, for mentioning that one), but again 'AnyDVD' was defeated, saying that there was no [pre-recorded] disc inserted or that no [pre-recorded] disc existed!

So that one disc that I wanted to back-up has defied all attempts by me to make my Acer computer/Windows/'AnyDVD'/'1 Click Copy DVD' recognise it - yet, as I say, two different standalone DVD-players around the house here readily play it.

Putting 'AnyDVD' back into Safe Mode made no difference, rapid fire.

Thanks - Ken52

Like i said before maybe a drive firmware update could help.

This "disk not detected" problem is very common in dvd copying and playing. I have seen this many times with both burned disks as well as commerciallt pressed disks. Generally speaking using another dvd reader or writer often solves this problem. I am assuming that this problem has to do with the light sensitivity of the dvd reader since dvd writer is usually less prone to this problem. This can also happen with only part of the disk not being read when you are trying to rip the dvd files to hard disk. It is rare, but I have seen disks which can not be played on a computer dvdrom but plays just fine on a dedicated dvd playe. Someone more knowledgeable than I will have to explain why this happens.

You really should only copy those DVDs of which you own the original.

Buy the DVD and then make a backup This is illegal.

@bilbo65 and Dr Who
Do you guys realize you are referring to a 2 year old post. Try helping the user that did not break the rules, Thankyou.

Sorry for the responses nmrtexas, it seems you opened a thread that is two years old and some members decided to answer that post instead of yours. Welcome to our forum. Most dvd writer are sensitive to a point, some more, some less.