OpenSUSE Install :: 11.3 - Cannot Find Source Media Although Does Boot ISO DVD?

I'm trying to install 11.3. The iso install DVD boots up ok, says 'welcome' in far more languages than I understand, I select English & US English then all useful progress stops. It suddenly can't detect my CD/DVD (although it DID when the system booted with the CD/DVD drive selected as 1st device to try to boot). I've tried pushing the button to eject and reload the DVD, no dice. Nothing seems to work, when I finally go for shutdown it suggests I might need to load a driver. My drive is a fairly new plextor px-b940sa.

Searching the plextor corp site for linux turns up zilch as does the knowledge base at novell.com. it's all in knowing the right magics words i suppose. my chip is the intel 6 core. my mobo is asus p6x58d (actually im wondering if it's the culprit because it does some fancy tricks). i tried my store-bought 11.1 suse install disk, it has the same difficulty. i suppose a usb-linked external dvd drive might be the obvious solution (won't cost too much but fairly likely to have some problem).