I have a PHILIPS dvdr 985 which uses both +r and +rw only. Two issues. One- the r discs are not recognized. 2- more importantly, the rw discs are NOT recognized in a dvd player. I have 2 that will. The issue is that newer players WILL NOT play these discs. The manual suggests I FINALIZE the disc to overcome that issue. I do not want to do that because that will make the disc not recordable after that process. Since FINALIZATION CANNOT be un done, I do not want to have partialy recorded discs that cannot be added to later. I use rw as opposed to r discs for that very reason. I am old school, I would like the disc to be more like tape. This is the only issue that bugs me. Is there a product or proceedure to make a UNFINALIZED disc compatible with players. My computer WILL play such a disc. I want to be able to record tv programs to disc and then give them to a friend to borrow. She does NOT have a computer nor would she watch on them on a computer even if she had one. Are there any specific brands model #s I should look for that will? I went to retail today and none of the current models recognize such discs. Would an older model be a better bet? Any help welcome.
I understand what you want to do, but unfortunately, that is a function of random access media (DVD) vs. sequential access media (tape). One doesn't translate to the other. AFAIK, finalizing the DVD is the best way to ensure readability. When I am doing what I think you are trying to do, I keep the projects stored in my editing program, and burn to DVD-RW to check my work. Yes, it is time consuming, but it's reall only the way to do sequential edits of a DVD. I have had no problems in reading DVD-RW in any on the several JVC players that I have owned. The only sure way is to take a DVD-RW to the store and see if it will play. Another method you might try is using Alcohol 52% to make a virtual DVD drive that you can test your projects on with the a PC based DVD viewer. Using a virtual drive will also be faster in the DVD creation process.
dailun--- thank you for the info. although I do not understand all of it I do get the jist. my unit only uses plus discs so recording on a minus one will not work. as for finalization, can it be undone? if so I would finalize the disc for readability and then un do it so I could either reuse it or add to it (RW). I took it to stores and various players do NOT play it. My computer drive does not play it either. I have 3 more towers to try it on. One of my players DOES play it, the other one does not. y goal was to record tv or copy dvds from my computer to +rw and then give the disc to a friend to watch as opposed to tape that I am currently doing. Same issue with her player as well. Thank you for your insight.
I use Nero 6 (and Imgburn) . In Nero 6, you can either "start multisession disk" - in which case, more data can be added later - presumably it just writes another session. Or the other mode "no multisession", in which case the disk is finalized. In the first case, it must use session-at-once mode - this leaves the session closed but the disk is not finalized. I have a Samsung dvd/divx player and it has no problem at all playing either of these. Some times dvd+rw can casue issues, try doing a full erase instead of quick. Finalization CAN be undone on +rw disks.
I do not have a burner on any of my towers, so no burning software either. I had NERO 6 on on tower in the past. I was never able to understand it, no burner then either. My ONLY recorder is the 985. Please tell me in simple terms how finalization is undone. In that case I could finalize it to make it compatible and then undo it in order to reuse the disc. I do typicaly do a full erase before rerecording. I have also allowed the disc to be erased and overwritten on the fly. The results are the same. Again simple language in a step format that this non geek can understand. I thank you in advance for your help. The manual does not discuss undoing finalization beyond saying that it could NOT be undone. Perhaps different models have different abilities.
As far as i know,could be wrong, once a disk is finalized it cant be UN-finalized so more data can be added,the disk has to be erased first.The only way to ad more data to a data disk is make it multi session,with multi session disk's the disk isn't closed (finalized) it is left open so more data can be added,multi session disk's cant be played on stand alone dvd players,well i dont know of any.A multi session disk can only be viewed on a pc with the correct software installed.
Have a read of this might help. http://reviews.cnet.com/dvd-recorders/philips-dvdr985/4505-9141_7-8408354.html
Thank*s for the infoguys. Presumminig that a FINALIZED disc can be read on a dvd plyer, and that the same disc can be erased firt then recrded again in whole or in part, if I understand you correctly, then that seems like a good solution. I am trying NOT to turn a perfectly good reusable disc into an unwanted non rerecordable disc,( an R disc versus a RW disc) again analogeous to tape. I will read my manual and see if it says exactly that. If not I will try to FINALIZE/ERASE and see. If not I will waste one disc. I will post again. Than*s.
If the disk is a RW it can be finalized and used again just has to be erased before you use it again a rw disk can be used up to a 1000+ times depends how you look after it.
