Just to say that a couple of days ago i bought a dvd lens cleaner for my laptop dvd. Since using it i've tried to play a load of dvd's and they've all decided to play!! UNTIL i tried watching Disc 1 of 'the usual suspects' and the same thing happened again. The Drive spun and spun then it gave up. Tried cleaning the lens again. no joy so i rebooted and it worked. Yay! little bit of a chore but in the past it took a lot more 'rebooting/ejecting/leaving computer/tapping drive/spinning disc then quickly closing the drive' combination methods to work. Seriously!

In short, follow what NooNoo advised me earlier: Get a DVD lens cleaner and see if that makes a difference!

unfortunetely i've left a lot of my dvd's back at uni so i haven't been able to test all the'dodgy' one's. After i do i'll then know for sure if "greasy finger syndrome." was the culprit!