Can playing CD-Rs in a DVD player hurt the discs?
There appear to be three kinds of DVD players: • Those that can play CD-Rs. • Those that can’t. • Those that damage the discs. Kind #2 is the most common. Kind #3 comes with a warning in the manual (you do read product manuals, right?) that tells you not to play CD-R discs. It is possible that some players in category #2 are actually in #3 and just aren’t labeled as such. If playing CD-R discs in your DVD player is important, make sure the player can handle them before you buy a player. See section (2-13). It’s a little unclear what the player is doing to damage the CD-R media. The playback laser would have to be operated at a wavelength and intensity that caused a change in the recording dye layer. There are no known instances of DVD-ROM drives that damage discs.
