often there are seperate lasers in the drivers for cd's and dvd's
look at the ps3 for example my stepbrother had a problem where the blu-ray laser broke and the dvd one worked fine
know this because games and blu-rays wouldnt work but dvd's did
you might get lucky and a cleaning disk might work (there the ones that have two pads on a disk that you add a drop of the liquid that comes with them to and that usually fixes the issues)
the dvd drive in my computer has been ussed for 6 years and ive recovered it twice using this
quite often the problem is that the lenses get dirty. could always supliment it with cotten buds but i wouldnt recomend that
try the disk (works on cd players as well, everyone should own one) if that dosnt work
just buy a new dvd burner mate there really cheap any way
silly question but is it new? if it is does it say dvd-writer or dvd-rom