Why won't a cd from a video recorder work on my dvd player but not on the computer ?

Your computer may not recognize the file format or have the necessary codecs to play the file. You may need to download additional codecs. Codecs (audio/video) enable compression and/or decompression for a digital data stream or signal.

One popular (K-Lite Codec Pack 5.8.3 Full Version) may be found here:

Free-Codecs.com : Download K-Lite Codec Pack 5.8.3 FULL, K-Lite Codec Pack 5.8.3 STANDARD, K-Lite Codec Pack 5.8.3 BASIC : K-Lite Codec Pack is a collection of codecs and related tools

Hope this helps.

Check with your camera manufacturer, then can tell you whether its possible and if so how, to read those disks. Many camera manufacturers use proprietary formats.