I think I can say, with not all that much exaggeration, that there have been few experiences in my life that have been as confusing and frustrating as my experience of owning a DVR. (Toshiba D-R4 Multi-Drive DVD Recorder)
Without going into too much history,* can someone help me with a couple things?
First, I hear rumors–mostly from reading customer feedback at Amazon–that offbrand blanks are a gamble; that only the expensive brands like TDK and Memorex are likely to work. FWIW, I’ve used both, and they tend to run about 10% unrecordable; they read damaged, or they quit halfway through and are suddenly unreadable, and I have to toss them. Is it just me, or is 10% high for defective discs? And do I really have to pay almost double for name brand? I’m a big believer in generics, and I’m feeling a little bit taken for a ride here.
Second, why won’t the discs I make play anywhere but on their mother machine? I’ve tried them in a handful of different machines, and so far nothing recognizes them as DVDs but the machine that spawned them.
Any pointers would be greatly appreciated.
(Disclaimer: I’m not making illegal copies of anything. I’m using my DVR exactly as I’ve always used a VCR: just for recording things off of TV that I might want to watch at a later time.)
*Anybody want a buttload of expensive but it turns out useless blank DVDs? Who knew that Memorex 4.7GB 2x DVD-RW Media was incompatibly different from Memorex 4.7GB 4x DVD+RW Media, especially since the Amazon search engine does not distinguish between the two?
I use the TDK DVD-R (with a “dash”) that you can buy bulk (100 pack) at Costco. I avoid DVD+R (with a “plus sign”) and DVD-RW because like you learned, they aren’t very compatible across various devices.
DVD+R isn’t significantly less compatible than DVD-R, in my experience. The OP can’t use those discs because that Toshiba DVD recorder only works with -R/-RW/-RAM, but there are other recorders that only work with +R/+RW, as well as others that work with both flavors.
If you can watch the disc in another player, then it should be finalized. If the disk is not finalized, you should be able to put it back into the deck and finalize it.
Firstly, DVR refers to a Digital Video Recorder, i.e. TiVo. What you have is a DVD Recorder (a new technology desperate for an acronym! But I guess “DVDR” will do for now…)
10% failure rate is unacceptably high. Many DVD Recorders are finicky about which brand of media they’ll accept. For instance, my Panasonic DVDR failed on every brand of media I tried until I used Verbatim, which has had a nearly 100% success rate. You’ll have to ask around or experiment with different brands to find which are most compatible with Toshiba recorders.
DVD-RW is an okay media if your player can handle it. The biggest advantage of -RW discs is that if you make a mistake, you can erase the title and start over w/o losing any space on the disc. I would definitely recommend making backup copies of any DVD-RWs you use, since their shelf life is much much shorter than regular -Rs & +Rs. Once that’s done, you can reformat the -RWs and use them again!
Your 180 existing DVDs should be fine once you finalize them. Keep in mind that once you finalize a disc, you can no longer record to it.
“Finalize” is an operation that does some housekeeping operations on the disk (along the lines of generating and writing a table of contents) to put in a final form compatible with the DVD standard format. Until then, the disk might not be readable in other DVD units. Ergo, you ought to check your instruction manual and finalize those disks – otherwise, they could become drink coasters if you have to replace your player.
Cool. Thanks for the many “finalize this” suggestions; will investigate.
As far as the 10% being high, and due to the machine, I was told by customer reviews AND by a Toshiba 800# that I should use Maxell or TDK. THat’s where I’m getting the 10%. Should I try an “off” brand? I mean, if I get 10% with an off brand, it wouldn’t bother me as much; it would be 10% of half the price.
Names like TDK don’t always mean high quality media - they’re often rebranded discs made by other companies. I’ve had great luck with Maxell and Verbatim, though.
There’s no way to be sure what you’re getting before you buy it, but you can use programs like DVD Identifier to determine a disc’s manufacturer (if your PC has a DVD burner). You can also look for recommendations at sites like CD Freaks.
I was under the impression that one way to be sure is to buy discs like Taiyo Yuden, which are not rebranded and are generally considered to be very good quality.
Personally, i’ve never used them. I’ve always used Sony discs (CDs and DVDs) and i estimate the failure rate to be somewhere around 1%. In fact, of the past 100 Sony discs i’ve used, i don’t think i’ve had a single failure.
I don’t have a DVD Recorder, though. I’m not sure if DVD Recorders tend to have a higher failure rate than computer DVD burners. The latter is what i use.
lissener, this site has a link to the .pdf version of the instruction manual (click on ‘resources’, the link above is NOT a direct link to a .pdf file). When you download the .pdf of the instructions, find page 100, which has the detailed finalizing instructions. Or, find your manual, go to page 100, and use that.