I ahve a Lite-on 811S dual format recorder with the latest firmware. A friend of mine had some DVD-R discs which I decided to try out since I have only burned DVD=R's with excellent success. After creating the files with DVD Shrink I proceeded to burn a DVD-R with Nero 6. After a successful burn I tried to play it in the lite-on drive and nothing....it won't play the movie back. To my surprise it also shows no data on the disc! What the hell?
What is the manufacturer ID of the -R's you tried? The Lite Ons are a good make and should have no problem with decent -R's.
They were memorex DVD-R's. I haven't had any problems with any memorex brand DVD's before so I doubt/hope that's not the case
Memorex buys from whoever is cheapest at the moment so you never know what you're going to get. Try using this tool to get the manufacturer ID from the disc: http://www.dvdinfopro.com/