DVD Recorder won't finalize after recording disc

Miscellaneous and Personal Stuff I Must Share
1

Almost hit the BBQ Pit with this, but will try here.

I have an Insignia (Best Buy’s house) brand DVD recorder that lately has refused to finalize several DVR-R’s even though it recorded the first 4 episodes of “The War” on two of them. Gives a message, “Failed to finalize”. Other times it says the disc is “unknown”, also after recording onto it.
Any suggestions on how to save the recorded info? It won’t recognize the discs (some of them) so I can’t play them, either.

I’m about to change it out with a new Panasonic right now, but would like to be able to save and watch the recorded stuff.

Back after “The War”.

2

Try another brand of blank disc.

My Mac will happily turn Imation CD-Rs into coasters all day long, but it works perfectly with Office Depot’s cheapie house brand. Like your DVR, it bombs at the finalizing stage.

Oddly enough, it has no problem with Imation DVD blanks.

3

If you have a DVD writer in your computer, or know someone who does, the authoring software might finalize the discs for you, if they aren’t corrupted. I’ve done this with CD-Rs made on a standalone recorder, and it works. It may also work with DVDs.