DVD recorder?

TheBigLebowski

I once had a piece of crap Tevion dvd recorder which has now been binned. I did manage to record some programmes onto dvd's but now I am unable to watch them on any of my dvd players or even my PC! Is this normal? And if so, is there any software I can get to access the programmes?

8T8

Sadly that is something that can happen, the media (if low quality to begin with) have probably degraded to point where they are no longer readable by the PC or DVD players.

If you know someone with access to a BenQ 1620/1640/1650 drive then they are worth trying the discs in as they are generally very good readers of even defective discs and you may be able to salvage something. Failing that try it in any other DVD drive you can get your hands on but it sounds like the discs are past the point of no return.

If you can see discoloration or something that is not uniform in the dye of the DVD then that is a sure sign the disc is a now a coaster.

Anti

Could it be a codec problem ?

8T8

They would have to be MPEG-2 and possibly DVD+VR if his DVD players & PC don't read that then it is very likely the discs.

Can you browse the contents of the discs in explorer or does nothing show up at all [which is what I assumed].

TheBigLebowski

The discs are perfect. It's not long since I recorded them and they worked when viewing on the DVD recorder. They just appear to be blank discs in the PC and other dvd players. I assume it's something to do with the software the dvd recorder used? It's strange that the PC doesn't pick it up, cos usually a PC will pick up everything, no?

8T8

It depends, if the discs were not finalized DVD recorders use a file format called DVD+VR for allowing editing of DVDs at a later stage, this is independent of the actual type disc whether it be a DVD+R, DVD-R or DVD-RW etc.

Most PC drives should have no problem reading this format at all even in explorer, what I would suggest you do try the discs in another computer DVD drive and see if they can be read. If not well then either your having a bad run of luck or the discs are dodgy.

If the discs were finalized then they should have been playable in anything including your DVD player.

This sort of thing happens a lot more often then you think it might.

[There is a small chance something could be wrong with your own PC DVD drive does it read other DVDR/RW media burnt by it ?]

TheBigLebowski

Cheers, I'll try it in my work PC tomorrow.

Mutant_Fruit

Unfortunately it's not unheard of for discs to "die" within days of being burnt if they are low quality discs. I got hit with that before when i bought some DVD-R's. Pretty much everything on about 50 discs became unreadable within 2 months of burning them. I bought a decent set of DVD+r's (can't remember the media code offhand, i'd have to check) but not a coaster yet.

What media did you buy? I think this is the program for checking the media code : http://www.supermediastore.com/dvd-identifier.html . Alternatively, read www.cdfreaks.com and see if your discs are listed as being crap.

TempestSabre

I have a cheap PYE recorder and have a similar problem with it. Some discs work fine, some don't. I reckon some aren't being finalised properly. Most work in the PYE, just not in any other DVD drives I have. I'll probably return mine as faulty. Lately it can't read some of its own disks.

IrishRover

I had an LG DVD recorder which broke. I then replaced it with a Philips DVD recorder. By default of course they don't finalise the discs and any of them that I hadn't finalised in the LG DVD recorder could not be finalised in the Philips one. This seemed to be because of the individual menu structure that each DVD recorder puts on to the disc and the finalise option was a part of the menu structure.

In a PC, although it could tell that there was used space on the disc, neither Nero nor Roxio could finalise them either.

zilog_jones

Try isobuster - doesn't look like it's free any more though -_-
If there's any readable data on the disc it'll find it. I find it great for reading discs with fooked up sessions (discs that appear blank in Exlporer) anyway.