Philips DVDR80 is having major problems

[toonarific1]

I have had my machine for about a year or so now, maybe less. Just within the last 2 weeks have I started getting a major glitch. I use dvd+rw discs, so I can add more and edit what I have whenever I want. When I put in a disc that I worked on just the other day, it now shows it as 'emptydisc'. I usually can get it to recognize the disc after a few power-ups, but some of them it doesnt recognize anymore as being written on, and I know they are. It also sometimes doesnt even let me edit certain discs that it picks on, and when Im editing seperate recordings, it will sometimes trim up a full minute, even if I select it to trim only the first few seconds off. Doing that makes it skip right into the episode when it plays, even though the rest of the footage is recorded on the disc. I know on those discs, I can still rip it down to my computer and re-author them into new menus, but it shouldnt be giving such a glitch on the mahcine in the first place. Even after I did the firmware upgrade from the Philips site, I get these errors. Anyone else get them before, and if so, how did you fix them? Thanx

[OldeMan]

Your laser in the DVD drive is going... Its a common problem in this generation Philips recorders. Happened to my DVDR75 after about a year. Its like it knows when the warrenty is up. I got a refurbed DVDR77 at a good price from Philips US outlet.

[toonarific1]

Ok, my new player came in today. Now, time to clean up some of the crap the old one was doing.

I have some discs that load in the new player fine. However, the Main disc window (the one that has the 'edit' check box) still has the edit box unchecked, which is keeping me from editing the disc. These discs are RW, so it shouldnt be preventing me from editing the disc. When I try and hit the right arrow to see the options menu for the disc, it wont allow me. It seems that the disc is locked somehow, but since it is a RW disc, I should be able to unlock it easily enough.

How do I get my functionality back in my RW discs, which I shouldnt have lost in the first place? Even when the chapter menu loads, it shows INFO in the display, and not the text it usually does.

[samijubal]

Is the recorder the same model as the old one? I had problems trying to do discs recorded on a Panasonic E-20 on the E-10, it would let me edit them, but it wouldn't let me label them. Maybe it's because the other one was defective and didn't write the info right.

[toonarific1]

Both are the same model, dvdr80. The other one wasnt defective, the laser just burned out after 1700+ dvds created on it. The discs written info is fine, since it was written before the previous player conked out. I need to be able to unlock the disc and add more footage / edit what is on there/ etc