Thanks for posting back your solution. This seems fishy to me. I've been playing (unsuccessfully) today with DVDA2. Don't recall this burner recognition problem, but, it did crop up today. As usual, I figured I'd browse here for a solution to my problem.
Your solution worked perfectly. Now, why would DVDA2 care whether the media is in or out.
I know this is not consistently the case, because I tried several test burns early this morning, and I know I had the media in the burner, because my speed choices were limited to the speed of the media.
When I just now used your suggestion to get my burner back, its full range of burn speeds were listed in the drop down list.
I don't know what's going on here, but thanks again for posting the solution.
I don't want to insult you by stating the obvious, but is the driver installed for your new Lite-On drive? Did you update the driver? Just curious. Also, did you try that trick discussed in this thread with DVDA2, by navigating through the burn/prepare menu until you reach the burner selection screen before you insert media into the drive?
That cleared up my problems with DVDA2, although I bet there is some problem causing this - DVDA2 can't be designed to operate this way - it makes no sense at all.
Vegas, of all the programs I use, seems to be the most tolerant in terms of recognizing drives. I'd be double checking all connections and also the driver if I were you.
Does Windows detect the drive? Just curious.
Good luck. These problems can be very frustrating - and I say that there is no excuse for all of this not being way easier than it is - I don't care how many brands of drives are out there - fussing around all day trying to get your drive recognized in our curren "plug 'n play" world is not acceptable.
My Windows XP SP2, Nero 6.6.0.3, Windows Media Player 10, and other applications recognize my LiteOn 1633S burner. And I don't need to install any drivers for that. But DVDA2 or Vegas 5 don't recognize it.
I have a LiteOn 1633 also, with the latest firmware. DVDA 2.0b does not recognize it. I have a new Pioneer DVR-109 on order and I'm crossing my fingers. DVDA is very finicky about supporting burners and despite what it says in the Sony Knowledgebase, updating the firmware will probably do nothing. And of course, if you're running Windows XP, DVD Burners don't have their own drivers, the driver is built in to the operating system.