Bad DVD+RW Recordings

[CorsariMac]

I've checked several places on this forum and can't find what I'm looking for so please accept my apology up front if I missed it:


I'm recording on a DVD-R using DVD+RW and I've reused the disks quite extensively since Christmas. The disks are starting to skip and/or pause. I was told I needed to reformat them but saw something here that says you can't do that - only erase. My DVD-R is erasing them, they're showing 100% free.

Does anyone know why the disks aren't recording cleanly anymore?...and what I can or need to do to clean them up? I was told disks should last for 10 years with no degradation, is that true?

I average about 3 disks a week and I have 6 disks so I"m reusing them every 2 weeks and I keep both the disks and the recorder clean.

Any help would be greatly appreciated.

[jman98]

DVD+/-RW discs don't last anywhere near as the manufacturers claim. They eventually won't work at all due to the nature of how the discs are able to be erased. Eventually the crystals in them will just break down and stop working. My best advice to you would be to buy Verbatim DVD+RW discs in a spindle. They're fairly cheap. Just throw your DVD+RW discs away when they start acting up. I have even seen a Verbatim DVD+RW disc go nuts after only one write session, but usually their discs last for a while before going bad. You can also erase DVD+RW discs on a PC using burning software such as Nero provided your PC has a DVD burner on it.

[CorsariMac]

Thank you very much. The whole "last for 10 years" statement seemed most illogical to me but one never knows.

[louv68]

I have personally noticed that when discs that have been "Quick" erased start acting up; doing a "Full" erase on your PC first, usually fixes the problem. How long this lasts, I don't know.

PS Keep in mind that even if you fully erase a disc, you may still have to do an "erase" on your stand-alone recorder prior to recording. At least this is the case on my SV2000 WV10D6. It's pretty strange how the unit knows if it's a brand new, never used disc. With new RW's, I don't have to "erase/prepare" them for use.