DVD Made on Your Recorder Play on Another Brand?

[retexan599]

I bought a Magnavox MWR20V6 VCR/DVD Recorder combo about a year ago, for the sole purpose of dubbing old family VHS tapes to a digital form.

Works fine except for this: when I dub a tape to a blank DVD disc (and finalize it), the resulting DVD will play in the Magnavox unit, and will play in my computer DVDRW drive, but will not play in a standalone Panasonic DVD player that I also have. The user manual clearly says that finalizing will enable the disc to be played in other players.

I am using Maxell DVD+R discs. Further -- if I burn a +R disc in my computer DVDRW drive, that +R disc plays fine in either the Panasonic or the Magnavox players.

So my post is to ask what is the general experience: Does a DVD made on your particular DVD recorder play on another brand (and have you tested that it does)?

Thanks.

[guns1inger]

I have had no problems with discs from my Pioneer playing on other devices. I only ever record in Video mode, not VR mode. I usually record to Verbatim -RWs because I will then edit the disc on the PC. However even when I record to Verbatim -Rs I have no issues (so far, touch wood)

[AlanHK]

Get Nero's free Infotool and see what it says about the discs.

http://www.nero.com/enu/support-nero8-tools-utilities.html

[samijubal]

Panasonic players have never really supported + discs. Even the players that say they will play + discs don't always play them.

[PuzZLeR]

I would use "-" media to be safe. Even though the "+" media should be compatible with many players, it does tend to be problematic, especially since it was really designed to be more flexible for data storage primarily. The common denominator of compatibility is "-".

As well, most hardcores here usually transfer their content to their PC anyway for better edits, effects, processing and menus. Since your PC can read them then you could take advantage of this opportunity to create better DvDs anyway, and author/burn with a proven program like Nero or TMPGEnc for better compatibility. Stand-alone units like yours usually are very limited in high-end features for the final production. (You may then want to use RW re-writable media to migrate the content.)

[lordsmurf]

Try Verbatim DVD+R media. Maxell is undoubtedly a RITEK, and RITEK dye-based media is a less-reflective disc. Then again, it may be CMC, in which case it might simply be a marginal-quality burn. Either way, VERBATIM! Or Sony, Sony (made in Taiwan ONLY) might be great too.

[retexan599]

Panasonic players have never really supported + discs. Even the players that say they will play + discs don't always play them.

Your collective advice here worked: I dubbed a Maxell DVD-R (8X) disc and it played just fine in the Panasonic DVD player whereas the dubbed DVD+R (16X) did not. I also looked at the Panasonic manual again, and see that it lists DVD–R as ‘Discs that can be played’, but does not mention DVD+R anywhere in the manual, not even in the section ‘Discs that cannot be played’. The odd thing is that the Panasonic will play a DVD+R burned in my computer DVDRW burner, but not one made on the Magnavox Recorder.
Perhaps the 8X vs 16X made a difference also?

Problem solved, thank you all for good help!