Page 1 of Comnpacks DVD-101 (DRW-101) - Major Problems

Well I`ve had this thing for about a week now, and have been getting very little joy with it.

First, the positive points: This machine is dead easy to set up and configure, has nice features, plenty of connectivity (although the output-only SCART smells of cheapness - it would be nothing to have connected up the input lines on the socket). The remote control is nice, although it looks more complex than it is - most people will never use half of the buttons on it I guess. Smart looking and seems to be well-made (ie. heavy).

OK, enough of the praise - now let`s look at the problems;

1. It doesn`t seem to be possible to finalise a DVD-RW disc. DVD+R works fine (Infiniti white-top DVD+R worked fine in it). This might be an intentional feature, but it becomes a bug when you want to play the disc in another machine -this only sems to be possible with DVD+R, which is OK assuming you put the correct disc in to start with. If you`re recording off tape, putting all your old VHS recordings onto DVD then you could do it again with the right type of disc - if you`re recording a live broadcast then you`re screwed, so this needs to be fixed.

2. Much, much more seriously, playing back a DVD+R in another machine doesn`t work properly - it will play for about 20 minutes then just freeze. I thought it was my player, so I`ve tried the disc in other people`s players and found the same problem. It took me a while (and a bit of experimenting) to realise that the freezing point depends on the recording mode, thus;

HQ - 10 mins
SP - 20 mins
LP - Not tested
EP - 40 mins
SLP - Not tested

Very interesting this - These times would seem to correspond to the length of the first VOB file. Sure enough, using Isobuster on the PC revealed the fact that only one VOB had been written to the disc (at least only one was readable). No matter what the mode or length of the recording, the files accessible do not change.

The Compacks site www.wwrs.compacks.com has a link to a firmware upgrade for this player, but I haven`t tried this, as flashing firmware would invalidate the warranty and there is a good possibility that Woolies will be getting this thing back by the weekend if I don`t start getting some successes with this.

I haven`t had any reply to the emails I sent them :(

So do you guys have any ideas on this ?

what make of disc are you using, i have an old bulkpaq yellow dvd+rw 2.4xspeed, used that great no problems, went and bought some verbatim had problems with them, they do the same as you say, record, but when you go to play them jutters and stops, tried to put them onto my computer it won`t read the disks!

also borrowed a friend scart-s-vid lead, and i think the dvd is messed up, when i go in via s-vid the picture is very purple, waiting for woolies to get some more in stock before i take it back, as i`m not going to take it back get a refund then week after go to find out it`s gone up £50

maybe people who have this machine, can say what disc`s they found do and don`t work.

Oh and updateing the machine should affect your warranty, as the shop won`t know if it`s been updated.

the main issue seems like media probs, try a few different brands, as for rw`s, i could be wrong but i`m pretty sure you don`t finalise them, finalising means you can`t record over them/edit the content`s and that`s the main point when using rw media, also some dvd players simply don`t like home made disc`s (either -r or +r) although this is not really an issue with the majoraty of newer players (around 1 year old)

I`ve tried a number of diferent brands for both the +R and +RW discs, and they all suffer the samne problem - only one of the main VOBs is being written. The problem seems to be occurring at the end of that first VOB file.

For RW media, I have tried Philips and Infiniti and the results were identical. For +R, I have tried Infiniti, Discrite & Bulkpaq (My player doesn`t like playing Bulkpaq though (nor Sony - it says "no disc" with Sony media, and plays jerkily with BulkPaq).

Seems to me that this Compacks machine is;

a...not properly tested before going to market (oh for the days when things were tested by the makers not by the customers)

b...a bit too cheap at £130

Anyway, thanks for your help guys - it`s going back to Woolies today...

This item was edited on Thursday, 5th August 2004, 11:10

To be fair, there are now thousands of users happily using this machine, so saying it`s not tested before going to the market is a bit unfair..It sounds like you`ve got a rogue machine, but that happens in all types of players, regardless of price.

Get it back to Woolies and get them to exchange it...

Incidentally, in reply to the ogster`s posting about DVD+RW`s.. I`ve never had to finalise one from my Mico recorder, but by finalising a re-writable, it doesn`t mean you can never write to it again, you can, you simply re- format the disc.

Well back it went, and was replaced with another one. Woolies are very good with returns in any case.

However, the replacement is sufferring exactly the same issues as the previous one - so maybe it was a bad batch. This time I`m getting a refund. Pity really as this is a nicely-built machine (although it desperately needs better cooling - the thing roasts even in standby) and is easy to set up and use.

Once again, thanks for your help guys.

Good move...you gave them every chance to get you a working machine. I did read somewhere that flashing the firmware seems to wipe out any issues people have had with them..not sure whether ther are talking about an official patch or not-if it isn`t, it would obviously negate warranty.

Plenty of options to look at if you can stretch up to £200, quite

Well after some deliberation, I did actually flash the firmware but it made no difference at all to the problems I was having. In fact there was no apparent difference at all, although I`ve heared that (among other things) the upgrade fixes the timer recording problem with these machines. I didn`t try that (all I wanted it for was to back up a load of old VHS tapes onto DVD).

mine has died on me!! won`t record on anything, and says ALL inputs have no input

but still plays dvds

gave woolies a call "we should have had some in on the 2nd, none has arrived yet, but if you bring it in you can have a refund" YEA then 2 weeks later they come in £50 more!!

so i`ll keep it till they get more instock, then change it, makes me wonder if they where so cheap as they where a faulty batch, as everybody i know who bought one, has either had problems recording on disc, or when useing it on a timer it records in HQ no matter what it`s set to.