You know I've been having this issue for a long time. But I never needed to post a message here because I know it's not AnyDVD. I have about 10 PC's in my home, and just about all of them have a DVD-ROM drive and a few of them have DVD-burner. Whenever I have a DVD that won't read on my main machine's drive, I simply try all the others. And you'll be surprised at how many DVD-ROM's will not read many of the newer media. A couple of the drives still have newer firmware. After updating to the latest firmware, some of them will start to read the unreadable DVD's. Those firmware update is crucial as they contain info on the latest media (not title), i.e. media speed, media manufacturer, media material, media bar code, etc. With some drives, without these info, the drive will not be able to recognize the media. A lot of the drives doesn't have updated firmware just because the manufacturer has stopped supporting them (they want you to buy new ones). If all of the DVD drives that I have doesn't see a particular DVD, then I pull out the big guy, my portable USB Plextor. It reads them all. If I have the Plextor unit close by, then I don't even bother with trying it on other PC's. I just go directly to it. However, it's reading speed is at max of 4X. But like I said, it read them all. So for me, the culprit is the hardware, not software. So make sure you get the latest firmware for your drive. Going with a major brands also ensures you get updated firmwares. Note that NEC has now abandoned their DVD drive units to form the new OptiArc with Sony. So you can bet that you won't get updated firmwares for your NEC's any more. I know that Plextor's are expensive, but you get what you paid for. The 2 Plextor drives that I have are top performing drives. So this is another testimony that AnyDVD had nothing to do with not able to recognize a disc in a drive.