Page 1 of DVD Recording & Finalising

Hi all,

I have recently bought a Phillips DVDR70 and although very happy with it one thing does bug me a bit. In order to play any disc recorded in it in another DVD player the disc has to be finalised otherwise the other player won`t read it.

Is this something that you have to do with all DVD recorders or are there those that do not require this process before the discs can be read in another player.

I have until the end of January before having to decide whether to keep this model so any advice would be greatly appreciated.

TIA

Peter

I have a Panasonic and I have to finalise the DVD-R`s as well. Only takes a few mins though.

I`m not sure but are your +RW discs quite cheap now? I saw some the other day for under £9 for 10. These dont need finalizing and should work in other DVD polayers.

Other option to get all your friends to get a DVD recorder then the un-finalised disc should work!

I haven`t seen the +RW`s that cheap so far... around 20quid for 10 is the best I have come up with so far. I`ll check whether the +RW`s need finalising or not to play in other players.

Cheers.

+RW discs need no finalising to play in other players,although there is a way of altering them slightly if you have playback problems.
As far as I know,+R(and -R) need to be finalised on the actual unit that recorded them,another recorder won`t play them.
And whats the hassle about finalising anyway-it takes barely a minute and you can`t reuse the disc anyway

The finalising isn`t a major hassle in itself it`s just that I sometimes record programmes that only last 30 minutes to an hour and therefore would like to fit more than one episode on each disc. The finalising means that if I don`t want to waste most of the disc I have to wait until I have recorded 3 or 4 episodes before finalising which in turn means the disc can`t be played in another player until that time.

Swings and roundabouts. You can always watch unfinalised discs on the machine they were recorded on, it`s just if you want to run them on a regular player you have to finalise them. As you have to finalise any R media (+or-) you don`t gain from going for another make. However, as has been already pointed out RWs don`t need finalising, so you might find it better to record (say) movies on +Rs and series on +RWs. You can always wipe +RWs at a later date, or you can protect them against wiping by using that option in the menu.

As a side thought, there is some evidence that the dye used in +RWs is longer lasting (100+ years) than that on +Rs. :)

J Mark Oates

Yup

Welcome to a little discipline in your life. At the present state of the terchnology both -r and +r discs have to be finanalised on the machine they have been recorded on before playing on other dvd players. So you need to plan ahead and have discipline to fill up a disc before finalising.

Thanks for the replies all,

Looks like there won`t be any need to go for a different model then.

Cheers

Thanks lads good info ,I intend to buy a DVD recorder ( the Panasonic is calling me) next year and you have answerd some questions that have been iching to know the answers to :) :)

Oscar.

Here are some cheap +RW`s! Overprints but should work ok. Ordered some for a mate so will tell you next week.

http://www.blankdiscshop.co.uk/acatalog/copy_of_FOR_DVD_R_RW_CLICK_HERE.html
Datasafe 4.7g DVD+RW (2.4X) Overprints in packs of 10
In case you don`t know what overprints are, here is quick explanation. Occasionally during the printing part of the manufacturing process, a disc can have slight imperfections. The discs are printed over the original print to hide the imperfections. We are pleased to offer you this overprinted 2.4X DVD+RW from Datasafe and branded as Datasafe Media. The quality of these discs is, in our opinion, one of the best examples of overprints that we have seen. This disc is supplied to us in packs of 10.

Price: £8.79 Including VAT at 17.5%