DVD recorder compatability, help please!

lindos90

I have recorded a whole series from sky for my mum onto DVD. The first few episodes/discs were fine for her to watch on her DVD recorder. Then we started having problems with our DVD recorder and returned it and bought a new one. Now all the episodes we have recorded on the new recorder cannot be viewed by my mum, I don't understand why, they are the same DVDs.

I assume it may be an issue with our recorder and how it has recorded that cannot be recognised by her recorder when she tries to play them, but why, and more importantly is there anything I can do to the DVDs, or either recorder to rectify this.

Wondered if you MSE techies could help please as she is despirate to watch the rest of the series...at 71 years old, she may possibly be the oldest LOST fan!!!!

-Just to cover a few questions you may have to help you, help me....
-We both have DVD recorders
-My mums records - but can usually watch - or +
-Ours is dual format and can record - or + depending on which type we use
-We have used tesco own brand RW+ (that she has been able to watch, when they were recorded on our old recorder) and verbatum RW+
-We have checked today and all the DVDs can be viewed by our kids DVD
player


Any help would be appreciated

Thank You

Backbiter

At a guess you didn't 'finalise' the disks. You have to do this to make them playable on other players/ computers. Basically this means 'closing' the disk so nothing else can be recorded onto it. I don't know if you'll be able to do this on a different DVD recorder, but you could try - have a look at the manual. It could be that you'll need the same model or at least the same manufacturer, I don't know.
If you can't, you should go into the retailer who took the old machine back and ask for advice - they might let you use one of their 'demo' machines instore to do the job!

thor

Finalising is definitely a possibility here. Also have you tried using more than one disk? If not then maybe the disk is starting to wear out and different dvd players can handle such disks differently, which is why you can play it another player but not your mum's.
Lastly are you sure that your mum's player which is not starting to fail? If you have any dvds lying around which have worked before in you mum's player, try and give them a whirl and see if they can still be viewed.

lindos90

hi there, thanks for the suggestions, we have always used 'rw' discs, and only recorded on them with two episodes (could only get two episodes on one disc on standard record quality) and mum can still view all the ones that were recorded on our old machine and these were not finalised, I thought you could only finalise 'r' discs?

Any other suggestions? please keep them coming!!!!

something else we noticed today when we re read the instruction booklet, is that you can 'lock' a rw disc to allow it to be read by other recorders, however one of the ones my mum has tried had been locked and this made no difference.

lindos90

hi there again, just wondered if anyone has any advice for me?
my mum is really missing her LOST fix, it would make her day if I could tell her she can get another dose of Sawyer!!!;)

thor

You can download lost episodes and burn them onto cds which might be more playable on your mum's player but you need a certain amount of technological knowledge and it can be a bit risky for a newbie. Also it is illegal...probably.

lindos90

thor, Mmmm just thinking the same, true I have limited knowledge, but might know a man who can!.....if only I could get this compatability thing sorted out though, im sure there will be more things that my mum will want us to record for her, but Ill get my priorites right, if I can sort out the rest of lost season three she will be thrilled enough, and it will take her a wee while to figure out whats going on there before she wants anything else!!!!
Thanks for the reply Thor!:beer: