Help with Plextor 708

[Wallymeister]

My Plextor PX-708A will not read a DVD. (Hoster or otherwise) I searched the forums to find help on this and the only thing I could find was a post to download K_Lite_Codec_Pack_Full from www.free-codecs.com.

My question is this, "Does it make sense that this would cause my drive to not work in programs other than Hoster?" I don't think I have ever tried to read a DVD with this drive since I got it, and that's been some time ago. But why would a DVD drive not read a DVD?

Any help is appreciated
Wallymeister

[bobcox- with the Lord]

make sure you have some kind of dvd software in your computer like win dvd or power dvd you should have some that came with plextor drive.
also go to plextor.com to upgrade firmware. and check what region you have it set for. Bob

[Wallymeister]

Hey Bob,
Why do I need some kind of DVD software for Explorer to be able to read the disc? What does region have to do with it? Firmware upgrade I understand.

The disc I'm trying to read is a home video created with video creation software of some kind, my other computer will read it fine and play it but my Hoster computer (the one with PX-708A) will not read it or any DVD for that matter.
That's the computer that I have DVD Xcopy Express that I want to use to copy the disc. I have not installed the K_Lite_Codec_Pack_Full yet as I need to transfer the file I downloaded from my online computer to my Hoster comp.
I'll have to do the same with the firmware download.

Thanks,
Wally

[bobcox- with the Lord]

i was told if you have a dvd made for lower sloboviea and you are set to usa
it will not read it. and you can only change the region a few times so be careful.
dvd software has the codecs you need also you need something in there that knows what a dvd is thats why the software.
my first laptop had a dvd rom and would not play a dvd i took it back and the guy installed win dvd then it played fine.
i dont know much about dvds but i hope this helps. Bob

[mindonstrike]

I've never tried using a dvd in hoster but I know my dvd ripping software requires that I play the dvd (even for just a moment) in my dvd player software before it can read the dvd to rip.
A Windows thing I guess?

Sam

[Wallymeister]

Sam,
I would love to be able to play it with any software at all but it will not read at all. Not with PowerDVD, not with Windows Explorer, not with Windows Media Player, nothing it just churns and churns and never does anything with the disc or discs.

I updated from Plextor's site the firmware of the drive, installed K_Lite_Codec_Pack_Full from www.free-codecs.com and no difference. Don't know what else to do or think except the drive itself is bonkers.

Any other suggestions are welcome,
Wallymeister

[mindonstrike]

I'm not a real techie kind of guy but if explorer can't see it I would suspect its a problem with the dvdrom.
Another possibility since it is homemade is maybe your dvdrom doesn't read that type dvdr (+/-) ?

The only other thing I could suggest is to switch out the dvdrom with your other computer and see what happens.

Sam