Playing DVDs on laptop

[willowman]

I am trying to put all my old recorded VHS videos onto DVD. I have a VHS/DVD player/recorder and am using the dubbing facility to record onto DVD-R discs. The recorded DVDs will play OK on the TV, but I cannot get them to play on my laptop. If I insert a recorded disc into the laptop and look at Properties it shows that the disc is 100% full, but has 0 bytes.

I have tried playing the disc with Windows Media Player and also the inbuilt DVD player (for the life of me I can't remember what it's called), but get no response.

Are the systems incompatible? Am I doing something wrong, or not set the laptop up correctly?. Any help greatly appreciated.

[Ethel]

Have you finalised the dvd recordings on the recorded that was used to make the recordings?

If you haven't they will not play on any other machine.

[Bob A Job]

It could be either

a) your laptop drive is not DVD compatible.
or

b) your laptop firmware/drivers need to be updated so it will recognise certain DVD-R's

Right click on the drive in My Computer, select properties and click on the hardware tab. Google the drive details and get the latest info from the manufacturers website.