how can i play back my dvd-r discs?

i purchased a hitachi dvd cam and the recording which i made will not play back on the t.v. or computer, i was told that this was because hitachi camera dont play back on dvd players which i thought was a very strange, the shop give me a refund. i now have a few discs of a once in a life time trip to australia as well as a babys first christmas and i am very disappointed that i can not find any way to fix the disc so that it will work, the problem discs are dvd-r i also had dvd ram discs but a camera shop manged to copy the recording onto another dvd. is there any way i could i fix the problem discs or is there any software which you can offer to fix the dvds as they are very important to me and i really want them sorted.

hopfully you will have a solution to this problem or maybe you would know of any other way of fixing the discs or any one who could try.