digitalFAQ.com Forum - LiteOn DVD recorder burns discs, but cannot play DVDs?

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Got another question about the Liteon, have never seen this before, I load a disk I recorded, the menu/title picture is there to select, I select it and it started on like 24 minutes, I could not get it to start at the beginning, tried to rewind and it would go a few minutes and stop, the disk played fine on another dvd recorder/player and started at the beginning, do you know what the liteon is doing? Quite a few home recorded disks it does not want to play correct, and I have cleaned the pickup lens according to the instructions here.

For others that may be reading this...
This is a LiteOn LVW-5001, if I'm not mistaken. Pretty sure, actually. Anyway...

This is a typical scenario of a drive that is struggling for some reason. It could be due to age, or it could simply be due to environment. Remember that the laser lens inside the machine uses optical coatings like any other optical glass, which can tarnish or age non-gracefully. I would also advise against over-cleaning, as you could ruin the coatings and incur micro-abrasions (microscopic scratches) on the optics.

Knowing this machine, I doubt it's purely age related.

However, it's not outside the realm of possibility. The laser itself could be undergoing some issues. Although a laser is technically supposed to calibrate itself when in use, I've never been completely convinced that lasers properly calibrate themselves during read operations. Power calibration is always performed during writes, and such information is provided from the firmware, as designated by the media ID (or in some cases, from a combo of media ID and automatic determinations on RW Alliance media, i.e. DVD+R and DVD+RW).

Another potential is the focusing. Although one could suggest bad focus on playback would equate to bad focus during recording, I'm not exactly sure you can derive that conclusion. Since this isn't a common topic, I'd have to refresh my knowledge on the topic.

I know that's a lot of technical info (even if mostly non-jargon) to throw your way.

The "for dummies" version goes like this: Don't use the machine for playing DVDs, only use it for recording DVDs.

Use a cheap player for playing. Keep the nice and expensive LiteOn for recording only. This is how I've managed to keep my equipment running for so many years. Recorders are for recording, players are for playing. Rarely are recorders used as players, unless I've decided to completely retire the units from recording duties.

It might also be wise to test the DVDs! (Follow instructions at http://www.digitalFAQ.com/forum/show...ning-2290.html)

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