I downloade and burned some files off my Win laptop, and I'd like to save them on Debian 8.

When I insert the media into my Win laptop, I see them just as if they are on the HDD. When I load the CD into my optical drive on Debian, Dolphin does not show the optical drive.

I can email the files to myself, but that seems like too much work.
I can load store bought DVDs perfectly, VLC launches immediately.

I think that I am missing the path. In the DEV folder, I see file:///dev/cdrom, and cdrw, as well as dvd, and dvdrw. I click on them (just for kicks), and I use VLC to open the folder, but I get no video.

Have you looked in the /media folder. Many Linux distributions make a CD/DVD available for access under this directory. I don't use Debian but the different systems I do use use the /media directory.

Actually, I just got the folders Yancek. I installed Krusader to let me view the HDD in a different way.

Thanks for your quick response, and have a great weekend.