I'm not sure exactly what you're driving at, as your final comments seem to suggest that Deniro is dealing with a burned disc, while the info he got about two different ways of manufacturing
pressed discs suggests he has one of those.
Fortunately, both types are readily distinguishable, and Deniro can easily put this particular uncertainty to rest by telling us what he's got.
I agree that a burned disc stands a much larger chance of not being read by a particular player, but I have yet to come across an undamaged stamped/pressed one that won't work on a particular player (although I have heard about it). Apart from physical damage and data type, disc readability depends largely on the signal strength 'pulled' from the disc. The signal from stamped discs usually exceeds that from burned discs. Things get even worse for the latter when the player's laser lens is dirty or damaged (scratched), which attenuates any signal and may push that from a burned disc below the drive's sensitivity threshold.
When (the reflective layer of) a stamped disc deteriorates, this tends to be clearly visible, and I'm sure Deniro can comment on the condition of his disc. However, in this case the disc works fine in one drive and not in another, which argues against both deterioration and manufacturing defects. The combination of a dirty drive lens (increasing the player's sensitivity threshold), and/or an uncharacteristically low signal yielded by the problem disc may explain this particular phenomenon, which might be alleviated by the use of a laser lens cleaner disc.
Artie's suggestion to rip the disc and burn another copy might be a solution, assuming burning an audio disc from the rip works OK (I've had quite a few issues with that myself), or Deniro's player can handle MP3s or other non-AIFF files.
