I have a Denon dvd-5000; it won'd read cd-r's

Beavis, when was the first year cdr recorders were available for consumers to buy?

If I just wanted arrognat answers, I wouldn't have posted on audigon. There must be something different about a burned disk, but if you think about it, all disks are copies; so there may be a chracteristic about fatory burned ones that can be reproduced. It's unfortunate that the tone of three of the answers weren't in any way trying to be helpful, but ignorant; at least I was willing to ask the question.

Best I can find the first consumer sold cd recorder was a sony, about 1990-1991. I believe your Denon dvd 5000 was sold in 1999. Is that about right. I have a old Sony DVP S500D I bought in 1999. It plays cdrs just fine. Still works great my grand kids use it to watch Disney movies. Why some do and some don`t, sorry I can`t answer that. But if yours don`t I don`t think there is any thing you can do.
Beavis is right on one issue. Even today there is some DVD players sold that will not play cdrs. Even some Sony models.

Arrogant as they may be they might be right.
Check the owners manual, it might not play CDRs.

I have a Panasonic DV-A7 that cannot be more than 3-3.5 years old and it will not play CD-Rs either.

I dont think there is anything that can be done to allow the player to play CD-R if it was not built with that on the list of formats they intended it to play.

Might just be SOL with that machine.

Your trying to make your DVD play a CDr instead of a DVDr? I'm not sure of the age of your player but chances are that it has dust on the lens. If you can, take out the screws of the unit and just remove the case, nothing else. Look for the lens which should be pointing up after the case is off and unit is facing you while on it's feet. Then take a Q-tip, a dry one and place on the top of the lens and turn it around at least 20 to 30 times from the outer edge to the middle with out putting any pressure on the lens. Be careful when taking the case off as a wire tap might be hooked up to the back of the front control buttons. You don't want to break this wire so be careful. If this doesn't work your player more than likely cannot play CDr's. I fixed my son's Sony playstation this way because the unit would not load the game. It's all dust that over time lands on the lens. Uriah