I'm sure one of you guys will know :-)

Is the drive in the PS2 basically a standard DVD ROM drive, or is it some kind of funky Sony special job ?

Cheers,

Steve.

Funky Sony job. The XBox is a nearly standard PC DVD drive.

You're probably one of the people who's drive on the PS2 crapped out on them? I've heard that's a pretty widespread problem. There are lots of resources on the internet about it, go have a google.

No, no, it's working fine, but I'm starting to plan a car install and I was kinda hoping I could remote-mount a slot loading drive and have the main box hidden away. Never mind....

Cheers,

Steve.

What *IS* it with Sony and their drives?? I mean, my roomie has a Sony DVD set-top player, and it won't read ANY DVD-R, and only a very SELECT FEW CD-Rs! I have a much older Pioneer settop player, and it reads *everything*. Just don't get it..

Me.

What *IS* it with Sony and their drives?? I mean, my roomie has a Sony DVD set-top player, and it won't read ANY DVD-R, and only a very SELECT FEW CD-Rs! I have a much older Pioneer settop player, and it reads *everything*. Just don't get it..

It's normal for consumer DVD players to be unable to read recordable media. It's not just Sony.

The laser frequency needed to read CD-Rs is different than that which reads regular mass-produced DVDs and CDs. Although, interestingly, you can sometimes get a DVD player to read a CD-RW because its substrate is more compatible with the consumer DVD laser frequencly.

Only the more recent consumer DVD players can read recordable DVD media. Since those formats have only recently become commonplace, they've started making sure that set top boxes can play them. My Toshiba unit can't, unfortunately, and it can only barely (sometimes) play CD-RWs if it's cold. After it warms up, it refuses to read even those.

My DVD player started refusing to play even normal CDs after a couple of years. As did a couple of my friends' players.

The wavelength of the laser light is pretty constant for reading CDs and CDR/RWs. You don't change it at all. What is different is the wavelength for reading DVDs. It has a shorter wavelength to make it possible to pack more bits onto the disc.

What does matter is that the reflectivity of the media. A pressed CD will actually have pits pressed into it. Whilst a CDR will have dark spots burnt into the dye layer which cause the laser light to be absorbed and appear to be a pit. A CDRW works by having a special layer which can have it's state changed between one with low reflectivity and one of high reflectivity.

Some devices are very picky about the reflectivity and will refuse to work on writable media because it can't properly focus as it's not within it's threshold. As you said, manufacturers are now designing the optics to be more tolerant.

Ah, much better explanation, thanks!

Deteriorating read laser - similar things happened on early CD players in the late 80's.

Some people have had success in repairing them by fiddling with the laser adjustments. The problem is that you can easily destroy the laser diode and if you get the settings totally wrong then the entire device is a doorstop. To properly do it you'll need an oscilloscope at least to show the laser eye pattern.

I remember atually trying to use an o'scope to fix the laser on a sony car CD player once. Man, serious pain...