2008 MacBook Pro Reads DVD-Rs as blank (when they aren't)

Hello!
It seems as though my poor little MacBook Pro is having problems reading DVDs.
For a while it simply wouldn't read DVDs at all - it would whirr and spit them back out. After repeatedly putting the DVDs back into the machine, however, it does EVENTUALLY read and play them on the 4th or 5th try. Thus, that problem is only relatively minor.
More problematic, however, is that the optical drive reads all DVD-Rs and DVD-RWs as blank, even when they are clearly not. Instead, it gives me the window that says "You inserted a blank DVD. Choose an action from the pop-up menu or click ignore."
The DVD-RWs, however, are, again, not blank. Other Macs - older MacBooks - read and play them fine, so it's clearly not a disk compatibility issue.
I tried restarting, resetting the SMC, blowing air into the optical drive (albeit rather amateurishly) and re-inserting the DVD-RW multiple times, all to no avail.
Does this mean I need a new optical drive?

Same problem I have. Using Titanium 10 the drive wrote to a blank disc fine (Verbatim DV-R) but when I put the same disc back in it's name says "Blank CD" rather than the "Test Disc" I named it and says it's recordable. Happens with professional (installation discs) as well. Discs read fine on my MacBook.

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Hi!
Thanks for all the answer. Please let me to resume this old and interesting discussion.
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Erica M31 wrote:
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Message was edited by: wplewis

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2008 MacBook Pro Reads DVD-Rs as blank (when they aren't)

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