Playing home-made CDs/DVDs: a follow-up

Regarding yesterday's item that stated: "In the set-top DVD world, Toshiba players are known to be problematic with DVD-Rs while Sony players have the reputation of being able to play most anything," Michele Zundo adds:

Actually, the ability of a DVD (set top or DVD-ROM) to read CD-R and CD-RW is not a generic factor indicating the robustness of the optical system but a specific design choice. The issue is different though between DVD and CD player:

• CD players can normally read CD-R and CD-RW if the system is sensitive enough to deal with the decreased illumination caused by the lower reflectivity of CD-R and CD-RW.
• For DVD instead the wavelength of the laser used in the optical head is different and it will not work for CD-R and CD-RW at all. The way the some DVD manage to read CD-R and CD-RW as well is to use a second laser head either focused through the same lens or even through a completely separate pick-up. Some entry-level Sony's do not have a second laser and thus will not play these discs.

Update: Several readers claim that Pioneer is an especially good brand for playing home-made CDs. One reader gave similar praise to Philips players

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