f: drive doesn't recognise mini disc

[julesuk2]

I hope someone can help. My brother-in-law did the video of our wedding on his Sony mini disc camcorder. He's given us the discs (there's 3) & only one of them works. When you put either of the first two in the pc (we're using Windows XP) the f: drive doesn't even register there's a disc so obviously won't play it because it says there's nothing there. It won't play on a DVD player either, I've tried it in 3! The discs are Sony DVD-RW (minis). I've been trying to find out from the internet what I need to do but with no luck. I'd be really grateful if someone can help, I've waited months to finally watch the video & now it doesn't work Thank you.

[guns1inger]

At a guess, they probably have not been finalised. Many players and drives will not read open sessions from DVD recorders (which is essentially what a DVD camera is). Put them back in the camera and finalise them, and should be able to read them.

[garryheather]

Can you confirm - are you talking about mini-discs:

http://www.minidisc.org/part_What_are_MiniDiscs.html (predominantly for audio but there is a Data equivalent)

or 8cm DVD-R ?

http://svp.co.uk/products-solo.php?pid=1486

I'm guessing it's the latter, in which case try another drive, eg try a writer instead of a DVD-ROM drive. If the disc is formatted in say DVD-VR then not all players will handle that, you may need to re-author it (eg TMPGenc DVD Author can handle DVD-VR).

The same applies with DVD-RAM which could also be used as this is sometimes used in camcorders. DVD-RAM is less common in the consumer domain and about a third of even the latest drives cannot read DVD-RAM.

[julesuk2]

They're 8cm dvds & we've only got 1 drive to try. Think they have been finalised, but I'll check. Thanks for the tips but I think we're still stuck!

[julesuk2]

Friend of ours said we may need some software, any ideas what that may be?

[garryheather]

What about the one I suggested - you can download a trial.

Also try DVD Shrink. Plus look in the camera's manual - it might tell you what format the disc is recorded in. My money is on DVD-VR.

[julesuk2]

Thank you I'll try the trial & see what happens.