Hi

I just recorded a home movie with Panasonic VDR-M30 dvd camcorder which uses a 8cm DVD-R. I tried to play it on my computer, but it doesnt even recognise the dvd. Dell says that my computer does not support DVD-R. Is this correct?

any help is greatly appreciated.

thanks

Only dvd-roms can read standard DVDs. I'm not sure if you need a DVD+R/DVD-R/DVD+RW/DVD-RW drive to read DVD-Rs. (Most likely not, and that most modern DVD-ROMs should be able to do the trick there.) However, standard cd-roms or cd-rws won't be able to read your dvd-r.

Let me clarify the above post:

cd-rom - plays regular cd-roms
cd-rw - plays cd-rom, writes to cd-r, writes to rewritable cd-rw

dvd-rom - plays cd-rom, plays dvd
dvd-r - plays cd-rom, plays dvd, writes to dvd-r
dvd-rw - plays cd-rom, plays dvd, writes to rewritable dvd-rw
dvd+r - plays cd-rom, plays dvd, writes to dvd+r
dvd+rw - plays cd-rom, plays dvd, writes to rewritable dvd+rw

For some reason there are two dvd writing technologies available now. DVD-R/RW and DVD+R/RW. It's too early to tell yet which one will be standardized in the future for dvd technologies.

I played it in a DVD-ROM

Not all dvd-roms can play dvd-rs. Some do, some don't. Many of the older models don't.

Maybe you did not 'close' the DVD after you were finished making it?
DVD-Rs play fine in my Dell laptop. I don't know what kind of Dell you have, but I have an old Powerspec with a DVD drive, that I bought back in 1999, and that plays DVD-Rs fine as well. Hopefully if your computer is newer than this, it *should play the DVD-R.

Log on with Administrative Privileges


Open the Registry Editor:
- Click on "Start" then select "Run"
- Type "regedit" and click "OK"


BACKUP YOUR REGISTRY BY:

a) Highlight "My Computer" by clicking on it once.

b) At the top of the page you should see "File"(Win XP) or "Registry" (Win 2000), click on this and then select "Export Registry File"

c) The following screen will allow you to select where you would like to save this backup and what file name you would like to save it as.

d) Please note at the bottom of the screen where it says export range "All"; this should be selected to ensure your entire registry is backed up completely.

e) Give the File a name and click on the "SAVE" button (this will bring you back to the registry editor)


Remove the UpperFilters and LowerFilters values by:

a) Expand the "HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE" key (looks like a folder) by double clicking it (or clicking the "+" next to it.)

b) Expand the "SYSTEM" Key

c) Expand the "CurrentControlSet" Key

d) Expand the "Control" Key

e) Expand the "Class" Key

f) Please look for a key containing the following string of letter and numbers:
{4D36E965-E325-11CE-BFC1-08002BE10318}.

g) High light this key by left clicking once on it

h) On the right hand side you are looking for "UpperFilters" and "LowerFilters", once you find these please delete them - high light them (clicking on them once) and then delete them by "Right" clicking on them and choosing "delete" (or pressing "Delete" on your keyboard.)

g) Note: It will be easier to use the Registry editor in the future if you collapse the keys that you expanded by Double clicking the expanded key (or clicking the "-" next to them.)


Close the Registry Editor, click on "File"(Win XP) or "Registry" (Win 2000) and then click on "Exit"


Restart your computer. Your CD/DVD Drives should be back and functioning.

/Jerry
The wanna be computer science guy...