What's the deal with the "Can't record to this DVD" message! I'm sure I can't be the only one facing this frustration! I bought the machine to whittle away mountains of vhs tapes to hills of DVDs, and now I can't find a DVD media it will record to. Sometimes if I push the record button over and over, after it gives me the wont record message over and over, it will begin to record- but rarely. I've read here that people are having success with Maxell. Is this right? I just bought a tower of TDK's that won't work with the machine at all. They do work great with my computer drives though, so not a loss. Would appeciate any and all problem related advise! Thanks
Try some Verbatim. They work in almost everything. Also, some recorders record only +R, or only -R discs. Make sure you have the right ones. Maxells that are made in Japan are the good ones. Not the ones made in Taiwan. TDK isn't among our favorites either. If the TDKs work in computer, you may have to watch them in computer too. If they won't record in recorder, they probably won't play in it either.
What is the model of your recorder? What format of disc are you trying to record? What is the rated speed of the disc? The short and simple answer is always "Verbatim," but there is no way a 16X DVD+R Verbatim will work in an Emerson 20E4--it's the wrong format and the recorder can't work with 16X discs. Maxells made in Taiwan are manufactured by Ritek, an excellent manufacturer. TDK's recorded in a computer will most likely work in a player as long as the file structure is correct. Recording and playing are two very different operations.
I wonder why? You think the short and simple answer is always "Because They Work!"? There is a reason they're recommended all the time. They work 99.9% of the time! Memorex, TDK, and MIT Maxells, turn out to be crap, for most of us. I've told before how I had to reburn all the movies I did on TDK media, because they burned and looked good, when I burned them. But six months down the road, they were unwatchable. Why? Because they're crap media! Plain and simple. If these medias are so good, why do so many of us (most, I think), have so much problem with them? We're not all using the same burners, so incompatibility doesn't seem to be the problem. Or they're incompatible with almost everything. I've even seen on here somewhere, in the past, that someone was using Memorex media, in a Memorex burner, and it still didn't work. They used other media, and it worked fine. What does that say for Memorex media?
The original question asked was why they didn't work. The answer cannot be to buy Verbatim unless one knows why they don't work. If the recorder is limited to 8X or 4X, 16X discs won't work. If the recorder is strictly DVD+R, Verbatim DVD-R won't work...not even 9% of the time. Maxell, Memorex, and TDK are neither crap figuratively or literally. Your opinion may be different, but I base my judgement on multiple tests that correlate with users' responses--AfterDawn is not the only forum, and there are forums whose members disagree with your opinion. (And you must be ignoring the cases in which the Verbatim discs fail to work properly for one reason or another.) As for the TDK discs that failed, in what way did PIF, PIE/POF, or jitter change from the time you burned them to the time they failed? If the results were good in all parameters initially and then declined, that is an indication of instability. However, if the original burn was deficient--and that means testing the discs for jitter as well as errors--then one can expect deterioration in a little time. A deficient recording can happen to "perfect" discs if the compatibility is not there in the first place. Just looking at a recorded medium (a single disc; media are more than one disc) is insufficient for judging recording quality although visible flaws are certain evidence of manufacturing quality. Few people mention their drives and the firmware that goes with them; but in more than half the cases that do, there is a known incompatibility. And of course there are Memorex drives that don't work with some Memorex media. Some of the older versions don't work with the newer 16X discs, and neither do the OEM branded versions of those drives. Older 8X discs would work, but not the 16X versions. Back to the original question--the answer depends on what kind of recorder stealfire has, not on brand loyalty, preference, or opinion.
I watched a 3year old CMCmag memorex yesterday. It played flawlessly. I even checked in DVD identifier and it was a cmc mag. I re did the copy this time with a Verb to add the captions that 321 Studios didn't put on the disc with DVDXCopyXpress at the time. I have 200 very wonderful TDK +Rs X8 that code out as TY T02s. I was uneducated at the time of their purchase and got lucky. DVDs are like a boxes of chocolates, you never know with what you might end up. I strive for Verbs and TYs, then O.D. brand Riteks.
garmoon........ You definitely got lucky, with those TDKs being Taiyos. You were even more lucky with the 3 yr. old Memorex, still being watchable. ) I use DVD Info Pro, to test my dvds. I didn't, and still don't test every dvd I burn, but will randomly test jitter, pie, etc. The TDKs did good at first, and then failed. Maybe TDK (or CMC Mag) is making better discs now, I don't know. I won't be finding out either, because I use better media, so why chance it. I recommend media that I KNOW to be good media. My burner is getting old now, and doesn't do quite as well as it did. But it still does good enough for me. No problems watching movies now, even though the tests aren't as strong, as they once were. BTW.....my burner is a 1633s LiteOn and BSOY firmware. I even burned a Memorex +R disc today. I found it under some papers. It came with my burner, along with Nero software. I haven't tested it, but since it came packaged with my burner, I'm guessing it's supposed to be compatible with it. We'll see how that disc plays, in a few months.
Stealfire I have burned hundreds of disks. While I mostly use Verbatim I have used many other disks, including TDK, with no problems. The disks range from 4x to 16x. The speed of the disks makes no difference as the unit will only burn at the speed it’s told to. When you say VHS to DVD and they are commercial disks you could be running into copy protection (CP) In the form of Macrovision (MV) Different units have different messages when encountering CP and while many units will record the tape it will be distorted. Your unit may simply refuse to record and not burn a bum disk Will the unit record a non CP Tape?
Sounds like the recorder itself is the problem not the recording media used. I bought a cheapy ILO one time and it never really worked right from day one. Took it back and the same unit also did the same thing. Took that back and got a refund real fast. Most recorders I see available nowadays are multi-format machines that can handle both +/- recordable media even the cheap units. Suggest returning the unit if possible and try a different brand name...BNG
