Unable to finalise discs

[suemalings]

My DVD player will not finalise discs when I have copied from the hard drive. Panasonic seems to be unable to help. They went through all kinds of functions which I tried but still I get the message "cannot finalise". I tried four different makes of disc but get the same message each time. This has never happened before. I have had no trouble copying programmes I have recorded on the HD to a DVD disc to send to a friend overseas. Everything else works.

Any ideas?

[orsetto]

What model Panasonic? Some of these are now getting quite old, and the mechanisms/laser/control boards begin to fail. Depending what country you live in, parts/repair may or may not be available or cost effective. If you are handy with disassembly, Panasonic burning/finalizing functionality can often be restored for awhile by thoroughly cleaning the disc clamp inside the burner. Also see if you can find a supply of slower-speed blank media (8x DVD-R or 2.7x DVD-RW), these may finalize better than typical 16x -R and 4x -RW.

Have you tried other types of discs? Older Panasonics are not particularly fond of +R and +RW, esp as they age. Try -R or -RW. If you're already using -R and -RW, most likely your recorder has reached the point it can't handle the very latest versions of blank media. Unfortunately when it comes to aging recorders, the newer the blanks, the more likely they are to fail burning or finalizing. Mfrs keep altering and cheapening the recording layer materials: now that recorders have zero influence on the market (statistically, nobody is using them anymore), blank disc mfrg has gone completely to hell. What little is left of the market for blank discs is limited to PC burning, and unlike recorders, PCs can burn almost any garbage disc successfully (whether they'll remain archival is another story).

[usually_quiet]

DVD+R, DVD-R, and DVD-RW require finalization. DVD+RW media doesn't need to be finalized to be readable on other DVD recorders or players.

My Panasonic DVD recorder was old enough to be incompatible with DVD+R and DVD+RW media. I don't think that I have ever tried to finalize DVD+RW on my Magnavox DVD recorder so I'm not sure what would happen if I tried to finalize it.

[orsetto]

DVD+R, DVD-R, and DVD-RW require finalization. DVD+RW media doesn't need to be finalized to be readable on other DVD recorders or players.

Yes, good point: I assumed suemalings already knew this, which was probably a mistake (never assume, we all overlook things even if we do know them).

suemalings, double check what type of blank discs your latest batch are: if they're marked DVD+RW, note what usually_quiet reminded us re +RW not needing to be finalized (if you try, most recorders will refuse with a "cannot perform this action" or "cannot finalize this disc" alert). This shouldn't be a problem: all players and dvd drives made over the past fifteen years expect +RW to be unfinalized and will simply play them as-is. You can send them to your friends just like your previous "finalized" discs, and your friends should be able to play them OK.

However, if the "problem" discs are +R (not +RW), -R, or -RW, you've got an issue with either the recorder or a bad batch of discs. These other three disc types all do need to be finalized to play compatibly outside the recorder that made them.

[usually_quiet]

(if you try, most recorders will refuse with a "cannot perform this action" or "cannot finalize this disc" alert).

Another possibility is that the option to finalize the disc won't appear on the menu when DVD+RW media is present in the drive. I looked at the manual for my Magnavox MDR513H and that appears to be true for that particular model....and it is probably why I don't remember ever finalizing a DVD+RW.