Pansonic Recordings stopped playing back on other machines
Ken Tun
Posts: 1,861 Forum Member
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I have a Panasonic DVD recorder DMR-EX83EB which I've been using without problems for a couple of years but I just discovered that discs recorded on it (and finalised) no longer play back on my 2 computers or other makes of player.
Recordings made prior to Feb 2013 are fine but everything since then, though ok on the Panasonic, aren't recognised as having any data on them when I put them in my PCs or if I try to play them on other DVD players at friends' houses..
The discs I am recording to are DVD-R, the same brand and type as I have always used.
I'm baffled. Any suggestions please?
Recordings made prior to Feb 2013 are fine but everything since then, though ok on the Panasonic, aren't recognised as having any data on them when I put them in my PCs or if I try to play them on other DVD players at friends' houses..
The discs I am recording to are DVD-R, the same brand and type as I have always used.
I'm baffled. Any suggestions please?
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Comments
I would be inclined to think the problem is with the discs and not the DVD recorder.
You say the discs are the same as you always use but this is not necessarily true, despite what you might have thought. The vast majority of branded discs are manufactured by different companies altogether. I'll give you an analogy: It's a bit like Sainsbury's Fish Fingers, for example. They put Sainsbury's on the label, but they are manufactured by somebody else, on behalf of Sainsbury's. It is entirely possible that the discs you used prior to Feb 2013, although identical in appearance, were made by a particular manufacturer, and your newer stocks of seemingly identical discs were made by another manufacterer, possibly in another country, with different levels of production standards.
Could you give me more info on the discs you use, both your old (pre Feb 2013) stocks which you don't get problems with, and your newer stocks. The brand, the country of manufacture etc and I may be able to help you further. Do you have the packaging for both your older (pre Feb 2013) stocks and your newer stocks? If so, is there any difference on the packaging, regarding the technical info - Country of manufacture, Product Codes etc?
I always buy discs made by Taiyo Yuden (Made in Japan) for my Panasonic DMR-EX85 and DMR-EH60D DVD recorders. I have stocks from Panasonic and Verbatim (both companies having sourced their discs from Taiyo Yuden in the past), discs which have two different brands on them and appear completely different from one another, but which I know are actually identical discs, both made by Taiyo Yuden, with exactly the same Taiyo Yuden codes etched into them, near to each disc's centre hub.
The more recent Panasonic discs were sourced from TDK (Made in India) and my Panasonic DVD recorders refused to record to many of them. Absolute rubbish discs, although to a layman, they are identical in appearance to my Taiyo Yuden Panasonic stocks.
I'm currently uploading one of the recordings from a problem disc to the hard disc and will experiment recording it back to a different make of disc to see if that works.
Can you carefully examine two of yours disc in good light, one disc from your pre-Feb 2013 stocks, and one disc from your newer stocks. If you haven't got very good eyesight, you may need a magnifying glass to do this.
All discs have codes etched or stamped into them. Do the codes on both discs appear, at least, to be very similar? Are the codes on both discs in exactly the same locations, with the same number of characters etc? If so, I'd say they are made by the same manufacturer, and if not, by different manufacturers.
Could you have a look, and get back to me on what you are finding?
Taiyo Yuden are regarded as one of the best, if not the best, blank disc manufacturer in the world. JVC bought out Taiyo Yuden fairly recently, and the new stocks of JVC DVD-R discs will be made by Taiyo Yuden, at their Fukushima plant in Japan, the same plant where Taiyo Yuden discs have always been manufactured. If I were you, I would buy JVC discs - make sure they are the new stocks which say "Made in Japan" on the packaging. The "Made in Japan" on the JVC packaging definitely means that they are manufactured by Taiyo Yuden. Fortunately, they are widely available, and reasonably priced, and you won't have much trouble finding them.
For example: http://www.totalblankmedia.com/jvc-dvdr-16x-50-spindle-taiyo-yuden-p-2216.html
That all seems to fit nicely with your theory but one with the "good" code begins to run when inserted to the PC drive and gets to the menu but then won't start playback.
The previously unopened pack, bought off the same shelf as the dud ones has the code DVD-R S0004-0903, only one digit different, so I guess that means it's made by the same company and is also liable to be faulty.
When talking about discs, in all probability, not made to the highest production standards, then I would fully expect you to get the odd dud disc, even with stock which seems to be OK much of the time.
As I say, it's best to buy discs with a known reputation for consistent quality and reliability. Fortunately, such discs are easy to identify, amongst the bewildering array of different brands, as the new stocks of JVC DVD-R, that say 'Made in Japan', will have been made by Taiyo Yuden, and they are very reasonably priced. It's a win-win, as far as I'm concerned.