A few weeks ago I got a Panasonic VHS/DVD Recorder combo on loan, and at first it worked splendidly as I was FINALLY able to clear my Tivo of several movies that I’d been saving for years on end. Then I started recording TV shows like Mythbusters and music videos from VH1 Classic (an addiction which has taken over my life lately…heh) and decided to switch from regular DVD+Rs to DVD-RWs so I could erase & rewrite on the fly, in case I screw up editing out a commercial or something, copy the finish product to regular DVD+R, and reuse the RW. But it’s been nothing but one disaster after another.
The first batch of Sony DVD-RWs worked fine at first, but after just two or three uses, the unit started throwing errors. While recording, or changing a thumbnail, or even just hitting the Menu button, the unit would shut down and go into “SELF CHECK” mode which would last 10 minutes before it would finally respond again. Usually, though, the data was all right (except whatever I’d been trying to record was gone, but I could just start it over again) and I was able to finalize the discs and copy 'em, although the copying process did have its own issues that were a challenge to work around. I asked for help on a number of boards, including the 'Dope, and the consensus was that I’d just gotten a batch of bad Sonys. Hey, it happens.
So I bought a pack of Fujis at a different store (2x even!) and like before, they worked fine until:
DVD 1) A brand new disc, never used, started lagging HARD while changing title names & changing menus. Like, it would take 2-3 minutes to save the info to the disc, though it wouldn’t do that annoying SELF CHECK thingy. I tried cycling the unit on & off to see if that would help, but afterwards it wouldn’t read the disc at all…said it was UNFORMATTED. Shit!
DVD 2) Everything was going fine, no problems, I was 5 videos away from the end when I finished recording a Rush song and…POOF!! Into Self Check mode! This time, when it recovered, the disc had not. UNFORMATTED. (Luckily by this time I’d learned not to delete ANYTHING from Tivo until I’m done!)
DVD 3) Same as #2, halfway through it just went POOF…all data gone.
It almost seems like the supposedly bad Sonys actually worked better than the Fujis, at least they could limp along for awhile before self destructing!!!
I should stress that so far, this had ONLY happened on the VH1 discs. These particular sets require an intense amount of erasing/rewriting, since it takes 2 to 5 attempts to get each video exactly as I want it. But from what I’ve read on the previous help threads, DVD-RWs are supposed to be a fairly robust media, capable of 100’s of uses!
It’s frustrating me to no end because the unit does work more often than not, and the results have been top-notch. I’ve copied 10 movies and about 6 or 8 discs of TV shows, with NO problems at all, and of the 13 VH1 discs I’ve made so far, only a handful had any issues. I don’t even know if the player itself is flaky, or if I’m really unlucky with buying DVD blanks that just happen to be defective (heck, my latest batch of Ridata DVD+Rs had FIVE BAD DISCS IN A ROW, that’s gotta be a record!) or if the moon phases are out of alignment or if it’s a glitch in the Matrix or what have you.
Anyway, to make a long story short…well, too late for that. I know some people here have been doing the same thing I’m doing…what are your experiences? What would you recommend I do? I am totally at wits end here. 