Philips 3506 can't play recording

[Policy Peddler]

I got a new Philips 3506, read the recording instructions. One thing was not covered, stopping recording and starting again. Which I did do.
I recorded a program from my Dish network drive. stopped recording at the end of that program, the screen then said it was finalizing the recording so it would play in any dvd player. I then found another program on the hard drive I wanted to record from the dish network recorder, so i pushed start at the end of the program I stopped and got the finalizing message again. I then did it a third time.

the disks were RW disks
the screen said recording R-

I then took the disk and put it in my note book, i got the message no valid disk found.
I put it back in the dvd recorder/player, it shows the three programs in windows and plays them fine. I then brought the disk to my office and put it in a dvd player here, same results, disk not found!

What is the problem and how do i correct it?

[samijubal]

Writing the session record information isn't finalizing. You need to finalize the disc.

[Policy Peddler]

I will go back and read the manual again, the screen said it was finalizing so it could be viewed on other dvd players?

[samijubal]

If the disc had been finalized you wouldn't have been able to record on it again unless it was unfinalized first.

[Policy Peddler]

ok
per manual
went into setup, edit disk, finalize disk, Yes.
I then got a pop up window that said, "recording error" "can not record on this disk"

[jman98]

If Windows played it fine, then it's finalized.

I don't have a DVD recorder, but my dad does. I have limited experience with it. We have seen rewritable DVDs develop problems after only a few uses and we just throw them away. I'd advise using only Verbatim discs. You should be able to copy the DVD to your hard drive using ImgBurn and then burn to another disc from it. Try that.

[samijubal]

Like I said in the prior post, once the disc has been finalized it needs to be unfinalized before it can be recorded on again. All of this is covered in the manual. You really should read it before using the recorder.

[Policy Peddler]

you are not following me, you said I had to finalize the disk, as it did not actually previously "automatically" finalize the disk when I got through recording and stopped recording. At that time when I pushed the stop button on my controller I automatically got a message that said something like "the disk is being (prepared or finalized) so it can be played on any DVD player". I then tried to play it on my computer and another DVD player, I got a message to the effect "invalid disk or no disk available".
You then you told me that it was not really finalized and I needed to finalize it. So I put it back into my recorder and went to finalize it as the manual said to. When I tried to do that I got this message, "recording error" "can not record on this disk"

So there is some type of problem, either as you said it is not finalized, i can not play it in another player and I can not finalize it, or as you said it is finalized, I am trying to re finalize it, AND I can not play it in another player.

Either way, I can not do anything with the DVD but play it in the original player.

The DVD is a "Staples" dvd -R.

[samijubal]

First you said it was an RW disc, now you say it's an R disc. Which is it?

Store brand are never good quality discs. I'd try a decent disc like Verbatim first. If it won't finalize the disc then it's either that it's a cheap disc or the recorder is faulty. If you were able to keep recording on the disc it wasn't finalized.

[Policy Peddler]

excuse me, i am new to this, i was thinking it was an RW, I was mistaken as I was thinking that meant you could only record on it once, and there was another letter if you could do it over again. But I could not remember what that letter was, I guess that is why, I was wrong and there was not one.

I will get some other disks, I had used these with my computer without a problem.

[samijubal]

It's possible the recorder is just faulty. Finalization is where they usually seem to have problems.

The Funai I had, the Philips recorders are Funai, had settings in the menus to auto finalize the disc when it was full or when the recording session ended. If you were able to keep recording on the disc it couldn't have been finalized though. Once an R disc is finalized it can't be recorded on or unfinalized.

[Policy Peddler]

Here is my next question, What is the best format or type of disk? r rw + -, divx?

[samijubal]

Type of discs aren't as important as the quality of the disc itself. RW discs can be erased and reused but don't have as good compatibility with some older players as R discs do, they should be fine in newer players. R discs have better compatibility but can only be used once. Some older players don't play +R discs, newer players should be fine with either + or -. Mostly it comes down to which type of disc - or + your burner prefers, some do better with + discs and some do better with - discs.

[Policy Peddler]

I am really interested in "permanently" recording programs for my son, and tractor pulls to send to Europe.
A lot of which will be played on computers.

[jman98]

Staples makes low quality discs. Continue to use what's cheap and you will have weird problems - discs won't play on your DVD player but they will on your PC, they won't finalize and so on. For best results use either Taiyo Yuden (you will have to order them via the internet) or Verbatim.

Stick to DVD+R or DVD-R for best results. Re-writable DVDs, whether + or -, are not designed for long term storage. Eventually the material that makes them erasable will degrade and make them unplayable. Newer players don't care whether you use + or -R discs. No difference. You have no control over what other people do so if you have friends who have DVD players that are 7+ years old or are just pieces of crap that won't play anything, there's nothing you can do about it. DVD-R is just barely less of a problem than +R on some older players so you could just buy -R discs if you are really worried about problems. Some crappy older players did require DVD+R discs to be burned in bit setting mode. Newer DVD players don't need this, but it's just another headache to worry about if your friends may have older players. DVD-R discs do not have this problem.

[Policy Peddler]

Well I got some +R Verbatim DVD's from Office Max, something like $18 for 100! Recorded on them, they work fine, thank you for the help, I would have never figured that one out.
Now the problem is how to make copies of the DVD on my computer so i do not have to re-record all the programs over and over again. Note book computer came with DVD burner, but it appears no software to burn DVD's!

[samijubal]

Use DVD Decrypter or IMGBurn to copy DVDs. Both are free programs. Most people prefer IMGBurn. I use Decrypter after IMGBurn burned an 8x disc at 16x even though it was set to burn at 8x. My burner firmware didn't even support 16x with the disc I used, it should have only been capable of 12x.