What *IS* it with Sony and their drives?? I mean, my roomie has a Sony DVD set-top player, and it won't read ANY DVD-R, and only a very SELECT FEW CD-Rs! I have a much older Pioneer settop player, and it reads *everything*. Just don't get it..

It's normal for consumer DVD players to be unable to read recordable media. It's not just Sony.

The laser frequency needed to read CD-Rs is different than that which reads regular mass-produced DVDs and CDs. Although, interestingly, you can sometimes get a DVD player to read a CD-RW because its substrate is more compatible with the consumer DVD laser frequencly.

Only the more recent consumer DVD players can read recordable DVD media. Since those formats have only recently become commonplace, they've started making sure that set top boxes can play them. My Toshiba unit can't, unfortunately, and it can only barely (sometimes) play CD-RWs if it's cold. After it warms up, it refuses to read even those.