As I have long suspected my DVD drive can't read DVDs. Cue to buy a DVDRW drive.

Miscellaneous and Personal Stuff I Must Share
1

The title is not the whole truth. It can play dvd movies and the one dvd music disk I onw. But it’s useless at playing dvd roms.
I started to suspect it when I’d buy dvd version of pc format. It could never play the disks. At the time I put this down to bad discs as my dvd player could do all else that was asked of it.

Then today I tried to install the DVD version of Far Cry. Was having none of it (and was making the same type of sound it would make trying to play the pc format coverdiscs).

So I decided it is the drive and that I should replace it as they are quite cheap now. Then another voice in my head butted in and said wait a minute, why not take this oportunity to buy a dvd writer.

So I’ve found one on Amazon. The reviews look good but I am suspicious of un-heard-of brand names “lite on”? after buying a dodgy portable dvd player from ‘orbit’.

2

Plus it means I can replace two drives (a cd rewriter and a plain old dvd player) with one.
I just hope I kept the drive bay covers.

3

Lite On drives are actually some of the best. If you tear into alot of other brands you’ll find LiteOn parts inside them.

4

I took the plunge a few months ago and bought a Lite-On DVDRW for $98 online. They have a very good reputation in the business of drive manufacturing. I compared features of different drives, and this had the best features for the money. It writes DVD+ or - at up to 4x, and CDs at 52x, with SmartBurn, and works like a charm. It’ll certainly do until the format war clears up and they decide whether we get the Blu-Ray design that puts 27 gigs on a disc. So here’s a wholehearted recommendation for anything Lite-On.

5

Lite-on is good, but for stability and compatibility you can’t beat a Plextor.

6

Thanks for the reassurance guys. I have bought the Lite-on drive.
I forgot to mention that my old DVD drive did manage to play ‘Perimeter’ dvd but that’s the only one!