dvd-rw troubles

[vHoTRoDv]

I decided to finnaly sit down and try my new (first) dvd burner (toshiba R5002). I thought i'd "prcatice" with a dvd-rw first. I checked to insure that my dvd player can read the dvd-rw format before i proceeded (which it can). So I followed a guide from this site https://www.videohelp.com/forum/userguides/141024.php#dvd9dvd2one

The only thing i was unsure about (due to me being a newbie) was if and how do i format a dvd-rw disc prior to writing. I figured i'd just try writing it without formatting and see what happens. Well dvdtocopy spit my disc out giving me an error (i cant remember the exact error). Then i had a disc that a a very smal "line" writen to it and was very unstable to my OS. I found the setting "Erase RW when needed, without warning". I checked it, fed the disc back in and it started to erase it (to my relief). After that i wrote the 30min trial portion of a movie that i had. I thought al was well since windows media player 9 played the movie flawlessly. So i figured any question of having "cheap" or bad media was answered. I stuck the disc in my stand alone dvd player (JVC XV-S300BK) and got an error message.

Is it still possible that my media is incompatible with my burner? Did my initial neglect to format be a problem? Any help/advice is appreciated. Thanks

HoTRoD

[Quigonsean]

You May need to "Finalize" the disc. Without it finalized to drive that wrote it can reaad it, but no other drive will.

Sean

[Excellerator]

Also check the DVD Players section of this site to make sure your standalone DVD will play DVD-RW some don't or in my Sharp 740U's case will on only some disks.