Lots of Disc Recording Errors On Panasonic E80. Media?

[fulci]

I'm getting a lot of disc errors all of the sudden when recording on my Panasonic E80. Basically, the E80 starts recording and then shuts down after a couple of minutes and tells me there is an error. Sometimes I start recording again with the same disc and it works and sometimes it doesn't. I did a whole stack of Memorex media with no errors. Then I tried a different brand and I ran off 35 DVD's or so with no errors and now with the same media I get errors maybe every other time I record. So now, I changed media again and I'm getting errors again on a regular basis. Does this still sound like a media problem? Any suggestions??

Tom

[busterw]

Well what type of media are you using now? Panasonic recommends TDK, Pioneer and of course Panasonic media. Although many people have excellent result from Ritek G04 media as well as Accu media. You might want to order a few of each of them from meritline.com since they're so inexpensive, and just give them a test.

Have you called Panasonic and is your machine still in warranty?

[Roll Tide]

My DMR-E80H has done this from day one. I have used a Accu, Ritek G03, and BeAll DVD-R. I have also seen this problem mentioned here before, so this is apparently common to this machine. I have had the machine shut down and recover with the Ritek and BeAll discs, but it has always worked upon retrying the same disc. This happens maybe 30% of the time.

I have assumed that it is a protection scheme designed to prevent mistakes on the DVD-R disc if there is a problem processing information from the hard drive. Whenever this has happened to me, it is always in the first minute or two of dubbing. I have seen others propose that maybe it's a heat issue, but I don't think that's it because my machine has always worked upon immediately restarting the dubbing process after an error.

[handyguy]

It can be heat if you have your unit in an entertainment case, they do have a fan in the back. I don't know why people change the media once they find the right one that works. I use Accus, $74/100

[Roll Tide]

Handyguy, I agree with you regarding enclosing these units inside an entertainment center, because I've had at least one VCR go flaky due to heat buildup. That's why this recorder has sat on top of my entertainment center in the open air since day one. I even always make sure nothing is near the side vents and the fan on the back so as not to restrict airflow. That is another reason I rule out heat issues in my case.

Have you ever had this problem with your unit? Regarding media, I have 2 DVD burners and this standalone, so I have to use media that on the average work well on everything. Riteks and BeAlls are the best I've used and other than this occasional glitch with the standalone, they are flawless. Even with this error, I still haven't lost a disc because they have all recorded fine after restarting the dub cycle.

[EricS]

I had this happen on my E60 for the first time yesterday. Less than a minute in, it went into "Recover", gave me a message to check the media, restarted, and then was ready to go. Funny thing was media still showed 2 hours available. I set the disk aside and put in a new one and had no problems. I am going to try the disk that was in at the time again when I get a chance.

I've dubbed about 20 DVDs so far, this is the first time this happened.

[Roll Tide]

I'd be willing to bet the one that you got the error on will work. All of mine have worked upon immediately retrying. As a matter of fact, it happened this morning before I left for work. I'm not losing discs, but it is annoying.

I wonder if this ever happens when recording directly to DVD-R. I never do this because I always record to the hard drive first.

[ejai]

I happen to agree with Busterw. I believe it's the media. I noticed once I started using TDK all the problems (similar to the one you are stating) went away.

Just my opinion.

[Roll Tide]

Ejai,
Which standalone recorder do you own?

[EricS]

fyi - I was using TDK media (the RITEKG04's from MicroCenter) and I was doing a direct to DVD recording from a camcorder through the front RCA jacks when this happened (no hard drive on the E60).

Planning on retrying the disk that was rejected - definitely did not like seeing the unit go into "recovery" though

[verchad]

I've got a panasonic dmr-hs2 and have had the same problem with some of my discs. When I have retried them almost all of them have worked again, only two I can remember, cheapo media, that didn't work.

[doxtorRay]

My personal experience with two E80s:
If the errror occurs within about two minutes of starting the dub, just retry with the same disk as soon as the machine recovers. This has failed only a few times (and on one of those, the disk recorded fine on the third try).
If the error occurs more than 20 minutes into the dub or recording, you are in coaster country.
Disks have a lot of variation in quality. Spindles of TDK and Fuji are both RITEK, but TDK seems to get the cream of the crop. Some Fuji spindles are fine, others have a few clunkers (but all have burned eventually). Among Ritek, G04s are better than G03s, if you're buying them direct (even though they are 4x and your recorder isn't). LEDA seem to work well for me (and they are cheap; they are top-grade Princo). Optodisc has given me the most serious problems (half of all the burns I attempted were coasters for a while; it's getting better on the second half of the spindle).
This is really inexplicable, but try moving your unit. I got a second E80, so took everything apart to get to the cables, jacks and such to install the second unit. I re-installed my first E80 in exactly the same location as before. Since I did that, I have not had a single "RECOVER" error while dubbing on that machine, even using disks from a spindle that had been giving me errors before.

[handyguy]

"Have you ever had this problem with your unit?"

Only when I put in media it doesn't want, e.g. +r

I think one time it did cause I didn't push the return button when it wanted me to.

[thoots]

Folks,

Hmmmm.... Sounds like the old "can't find the disc" thing. The first few moments of the "recording" goes into the machine's memory. Then, it has to find the disc NOW when the memory runs out. One little burp here, and "ERROR."

Common work-around is to help the machine find the disk first -- just go in and give the disc a NAME first. THEN do your recording.

Worked fine for me with some problematic media on my DMR-E50....

thoots

[ejai]

I own a Panasonic E30 and E50

[Rafael]

Has anyone else ran into a problem like this? I got my E80 a couple of weeks ago and it worked flawlessly for about 10 days. Then the "recover" messages started popping-up just about every I have tried to dub from the HD to a DVD-R. This will happen during the first minute or so, and all I had to do at the beginning was retry after the recovery (using the same disc) and things would work alright. Lately, however, retrying has not been doing the job (I get "recover" again), and I have had to shut-down the unit for several minutes before it was able to dub again. I am using good quality media (TDK), so I don't think that is the reason for this plague. I am also keeping the HD uncluttered, so fragmentation is not an issue. Could environmental conditions be an issue? I have my unit in a basement, where it is always cooler than the rest of the house. Is this potentially a problem?

In sum, I am concerned I may have gotten either a lemon or a flaky machine that does not suit best what I want to do. From what I have been reading this may be a common problem with this model. The main reason I got this machine was to archive a large number of VHS tapes I have into DVD's, so what I do is record my VHS tapes in the HD, edit a bit and then dump into DVD's. Is this not a good machine for this purpose? If not, what should I be getting instead? Any help will be appreciated because I need to make a decision about returning this machine shortly.

[Bob W]

The only time I have ever had discs errors on my E50 recorder were with Memorex media so IMO thats the problem. Ditch the Memorex media and use TDK, Ritek, Sky, Princo, or even the cheap CompUSA brand 1X DVD-R.

[Rafael]

As I said, I have only been using TDK's, so that is not the problem.

[thoots]

Could environmental conditions be an issue? I have my unit in a basement, where it is always cooler than the rest of the house. Is this potentially a problem?

In sum, I am concerned I may have gotten either a lemon or a flaky machine that does not suit best what I want to do. From what I have been reading this may be a common problem with this model. The main reason I got this machine was to archive a large number of VHS tapes I have into DVD's, so what I do is record my VHS tapes in the HD, edit a bit and then dump into DVD's. Is this not a good machine for this purpose? If not, what should I be getting instead? Any help will be appreciated because I need to make a decision about returning this machine shortly.

1. This machine should do a WONDERFUL job of converting those VHS tapes to DVD. I disagree with any notion that this is a common problem. I believe this is virtually entirely a MEDIA problem. Try other discs. Don't just presume TDK is good and shouldn't have any problems.

2. Basement could possibly be a problem -- do you have noticeable "condensation" going on down in the basement?

3. Again, let me repeat what I wrote above. Absolutely try this before you attempt another dubbing, if you haven't tried this before:

Put the DVD-R into the tray.

Once the machine recognizes it, press the "DVD" button so you're on that side of the machine.

Go into the Functions menu.

Go into the Disc Setting menu.

Go into the Title menu, and type out a name for the disc.

There -- you have given the disc a name. The machine has had a chance to "find" the disc.

NOW, go back to the HDD side and do your dubbing.

Again, in the first few seconds of recording, the data goes into a "memory buffer," and then once that buffer fills up, it starts writing to the disc. Absolutely very most likely, your machine is having a problem "finding" the disc when it needs to start writing immediately to it. I had some Memorex discs that had this kind of problem with my E50, and this "give the disc a name" routine allowed me to get through the rest of that spindle without any further problems. (And then, never Memorex again!!) I have an E80H now, and I've never had a problem with it, whether I've given the disc a name before dubbing, or not.

Again, try the name-the-disc thing with your TDK media. Also, get some different brands, and try them without the name-the-disc thing, to see if you have similar problems with them. It could be that your machine is flaky, but my bet is it's far more likely to be your media!

Good luck!

thoots

[Rafael]

Thoots, thanks for taking the time to respond. I will definitely try this and see how things go. Will let everyone know the results.

P.S. What kind of experience have people had with Verbatim media in the E80? Any insights will be appreciated.

[louthewiz]

I also am a new dmr-80H owner and I used to have a e-20 and I always fed the machines the comp usa 1-x media and it always worked for me .Not for nothing but it seems that this brand of dvd recorders are very picky of the brand it is fed.. P.S> MERRY CHRISTMAS!!!!

[thoots]

louthewiz,

Yep, I tried the CompUSA 1x discs, and they have worked exceedingly well in both my E50 and E80H. They're definitely at the best price I can find "in town," so I'll probably continue getting lots of them!

thoots

[spiderman2k1]

I just got my E80H today and can burn KHypermedia this is cheep media same as Memorex.

[Bob W]

louthewiz,

Yep, I tried the CompUSA 1x discs, and they have worked exceedingly well in both my E50 and E80H. They're definitely at the best price I can find "in town," so I'll probably continue getting lots of them!

thoots

I have used about 200 of the CompUSA 1X DVD-R media with my E50 without a single bad recording. Last week I bought them in 25 packs for $19 on sale.

[Coolb69]

Hello All! I've had my Panny for 6 months now and can say without a doubt that this is NOT a heat problem (mines in an open mini rack with plenty of air around the unit) but a media problem. Ritek 03's throw up on me but Leda/and now my staple discs, Princo 4x, Never Ever exhibit this problem. I just tried 'dubbing' last night for the hell of it with a Ritek and BAM, recover time. Put in a Princo and no hesitation what so ever. Now remember, I'm on my second Panny as the first one DID have a motherboard Problem. But I've put in alot of hours experimenting and I am Positive, with out a doubt, that the media causes this to happen! This is NOT to say that the media is bad-it's not! It just has something that the Panny doesnt like compared to other media. Hope this helps.... Mickboy

[Shannafey]

First spindle I used in my Samsung R4000 (same as Panasonic E50), gave me nightmares (Constant Recover Message). They were Fuji. Now I am avoiding them like the plague, although they work great in my computer's Sony burner.

[Shannafey]

Thoots, thanks for taking the time to respond. I will definitely try this and see how things go. Will let everyone know the results.

P.S. What kind of experience have people had with Verbatim media in the E80? Any insights will be appreciated.

I have ran 2 spindells of the Verbatim through it, and it's been doing wonderfully!!

[webeye]

I have run approx 20...Memorex 4x without a hitch....and a few Verbatim.
Its interesting how some media does not 'like' certain units....or vice versa.
I have yet to see any 'recover' prompts.
E80
I wonder how the Accu and the CompUSA will do archival wise....not that I know how the Memorex or the Verbatim will do....however Verbatim promotes Arhival...longevity.

[gb_eh]

Newbie to dvd recorders, DMR-E50 is three days old. First nite creating DVD-R: 2 for 2 coasters. I Read some of the msg here, thanks for the insight on things to try:

heat - moved unit from under the VCR and put it on it's own shelf in the cabinet.

Label Disc: I named the disc prior to starting the recording.

The media is Maxell not sure if they are better/worse than others for 'Recover' errors. I'm trying to clean out the hard drive on my PVR built into my Sat box.

I have a question: Can I use a Dyno type Label on the disk or should I just stay to with using a felt marker that I use with my CD-R's. My hand writing is really bad and I'd like a more professional looking disc than my scrawl.

thnx GBA

[Tearren]

Welcome!

Well first, if I was you, I would have created a new topic post. No harm done though.

I would try a different media type. Especially 2 for 2 coasters. Take them back if you can. I have a DMR-HS2 (Recorder & Hard Drive) and have had about 2 out of 50 coasters. I am almost finished with another 50 without any. I currently use ACCU disks from www.meritline.com , they have worked well for me. Can you successfully burn to a DVD-RAM?

There is much debate about labels. Personnally, I wouldn't recommend labels for DVD's. I did use them on CD's though. Stick with the Sharpie a felt marker may scratch the surface. If you really want professional looking dvd's you could try an injet printer with injet printable dvd's.

Tearren