PS2 won't play any new DVD copies, but it will play the old ones

[jweaver]

I have a Neo4 and Origa combo and have made several sucessful DVD backups (Using a Pioneer 104 writer and Nero 5.9.9.0) of my originals (Final Fantasy, MGS and Ace Combat).

I am using Infinity disks and they worked well.. Infact, they played as well as the originals.

Several months past and I made no further backups, but recently I decided to do 'Medal Of Honour'.

The result was the the game loaded VERY slowly (It took 15 mins before the game started) and you could hear the laser retrying.. As a result, the disk was un-usable.

Thinking my PS2 was to blame, I tried my old backups but they still worked perfectly.

Prehaps its bad media, but the Infinity disks were from the same batch.

As a test, I asked my friend to test the backup on his PS2.. Again, the results were the same.. The disk took ages to load.. We then tried another copy on his Pionee A03 onto a Apple disk..

This time the results were worse.. It loads but its even slower.. Infact, the 'load bar' never moved past 10% and after 20 mins we gave up.

At this point, I lost interest, but this week decided to try again with TOCA.

I again used an Infinity (From the same batch as before)... The results were again bad.. You can hear the laser re-trying and the game never gets past the black screen at the beginning.

What could be going wrong? I can't blame the PS2 as it plays the older games.. I can't blame the media as they disks are from the same batch (And an Apple disk had similar problems).. I also can't really blame my writer, as my friends copy (on the Apple) was the same.

Can anyone explain why I am having this kind of problem?

An obvious test would be to make another copy of the working disks, but I can't afford to waste any more media on this.

I hope someone has an idea!