Philips DVD-622/37

I picked this DVD player up the other night after my APEX AD1010w crapped out on me, i cant figure out how to change the format back to NTSC because i lost my remote.
But anyways, i noticed that this player doesnt play any type of DVD over the speed of 4x...ive played -R and +RW both at 4x max speed and they play just fine, but anything else it produces a "baddisc" error
Is there any type of software that i can load into my drives firmware to force it to play? because ive already checked Philips website and they werent any kind of help at all
im getting to the point where im about to just give up

thanks in advance for any helpful responses

 

i might add that when i say max speed i mean max speed of the disc, not what speed i burn at

 

something i think i just discovered, i can burn a 4x max DVD (any format) and it will play using Nero Vision Express, anything above 4x produces a bad disc error
i just download some crappy burning software and now magically i can use my 16x discs

so is there anything other software suite that is better and more powerful than Nero Vision Express???