Confusion with DVD recording/playback.

Let me outline what I want to do, and the problems I have encountered.

My wife and I own a Toshiba D-R17DTKB DVD Video recorder. This is a fully capable HDMI, DIVX that records onto a quite decent range of DVD discs. We use DVD+RW and DVD-RW for day to day recording of Freeview Channels from our Samsung 32" which again is fully digitally compatible with just about every socket known to man.

We have never had any problem with either device, and consider both to have been excellent buys.

When we do a scan for channels, we get around 104 channels from the Stockland Hill mast. So we can get most channels that we want to view.

What I want to do, is to buy a simple DVD PLAYER, so that we can still record programmes onto the Toshiba, but also watch any programmes that we have previously recorded on this DVD Player.

And this is where we have hit quite ridiculous problems. Virtually every DVD player that we have tried, CLAIMS to play DVD-RW and DVD+RW. But they do not!!

Some require us to 'finalise' the discs before being able to play them. The Toshiba Unit allows us to do this, and also has an 'undo finalise' capability, which is useful. So that's not a problem.

But having done this, when we place the disc into the brand new all singing and dancing DVD Player, all we get is "Disc Not Supported" or Disc not recognised.

We have tried Sony, Verbatim, Fuji, Kodak and other discs and NOT ONE of them will play in any plain simple DVD player that we have tried. All the units have been brand new. I have now returned 6 to various retailers, because they don't do what they say they will do.

So the question, quite simply is this.

I understand that there are numerous formats of DVD. But what I can't get my head round are these claims on virtually all new players on the market these days, is that they PLAY DVD+RW and DVD-RW disc, when they clearly do not.
They ALL play fine on the Toshiba. No problem at all. So it's not disc problems.

So does ANYONE know of a plain simple, bog standard DVD Player that actually does what it claims to do, because so far, none of them will do what they say they will do.

There is surely a simple solution to what many tens of thousands of people do regularly, and that's record and play TV programmes.

As far as I am concerned, if a DVD player says it will play pre-recorded discs of the formats I use in the recorder, then it should do that. I'm not remotely interested in the banding/layers/ production, or any other techno-babble that most websites go on about.......I just want a Player that works like it says it will work on the box.

I find it ludicrous that I can't take a recorded disc from my recorder, and simply play it on another player, whatever make or type it is. There seem to be big problems though.

Thanks if you can help.

Comments

  • Chasing ShadowsChasing Shadows Posts: 3,096
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    First thing to do is try using non-rewritable discs. RW discs (be they plus or minus format) are by their design far less supported than R discs. The fact that you can "unfinalise" a finalised disc says that it isn't truly finalised - the only thing you should be able to do with a finalised disc, even a rewritable one, is play it or format it completely and start again from scratch. The fact that your Toshiba is allowing you to unfinalise it, which suggests it is still remembering all the recordings that you put on it but will allow you to add more to it, means that it isn't truly finalising these discs. Whereas with write once discs, hopefully it will really finalise them, and then you will be able to watch them on another DVD player.

    If your Toshiba is faulty, and really can't finalise discs (in the true sense of the word) then you may be able to finalise them using PC software with your DVD writer and computer/laptop.
  • Chasing ShadowsChasing Shadows Posts: 3,096
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    Just looked at page 8 of the manual for this Toshiba thing you have got - where it clearly says that to watch back discs recorded on this DVDR on any other DVD player, the discs must be finalised in Video mode (not VR mode). You set the recording format of the disc when initialising it the first time you put it in the recorder (page 33).

    At a guess, you have been using VR mode for your rewritable discs. Which will not play in any standard DVD player.
  • SemiConfusionSemiConfusion Posts: 16
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    Thank you SO MUCH for this, Chasing Shadows.

    We will try this over the coming weekend, and I will get back to you.

    I think the reason this has not become apparent is that we must have something set to auto, because when we put a brand new disc into the Toshiba, it automatically just goes straight to "Formatting Disc".

    As it's done this from new, we've never even realised that there was an option to set this up manually.

    You may well have solved this........ Thanks again.
  • David (2)David (2) Posts: 20,632
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    another issue you might have is stuff recorded on the main machine in Widescreen, will playback (wrongly) in 4x3 mode on another player (or another recorder), and theres a good chance you wont be able to override the settings either.

    From what i understand, digital *broadcast* info such as picture formatting is lost when burning into dvd format, so when playing it back the machine simply gets no widescreen data and defaults to 4x3.
  • chrisjrchrisjr Posts: 33,282
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    The image recorded onto the disk will be be in the correct format either 4:3 or 16:9. What might get lost is the aspect ratio switching flag that tells the telly to switch between the two automatically. The lack of this flag should not prevent you being able to manually switch aspect ratio however.

    Though I believe DVD-R type disks can record the aspect ratio flag but DVD+R type disks do not.
  • David (2)David (2) Posts: 20,632
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    cant override the sent image setting over hdmi, at least i have never been able to.

    I think from memory the only way around it for me was to change the dvd player/box settings, which is a pain to keep doing, and putting back to normal again afterwards.
  • chrisjrchrisjr Posts: 33,282
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    Until I worked out the slightly obscure incantation required to get my Humax Fox T2 to send the correct aspect ratio over HDMI all 4:3 images ended up stretched to 16:9 on my TV. But a quick tweak of the aspect ratio setting on the TV soon got it back to proper 4:3.

    So the TV was overriding the aspect ratio sent over HDMI in that instance. Though I'm not entirely sure what exactly the Humax was sending. But it certainly wasn't a 4:3 image pillar boxed into a 16:9 frame as I doubt the TV would deal with that.

    I would image that if the OP's DVD sent a full frame signal to the TV rather than pillar boxing it, then it should be possible to expand 16:9 out or pillar box 4:3 on the TV as appropriate.
  • SemiConfusionSemiConfusion Posts: 16
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    Well, the euphoria was short lived. Nothing I do will let us play discs like I want to (see original post).

    So I have now tackled it from another angle. It may not be the best way round it, but it works, and we now have more features.

    I have put the Toshiba recorder back to where it was. Aerial from the roof into the IN socket, HDMI cable from the HDMI1 outlet on the TV to the back of the recorder, Scart into the scart from AV1 on the TV, and aerial out up to the TV. We can now play, record and use the unit just like before.

    But what I have now also done is to put up another aerial, and we have bought a Bush Digital Freeview Recorder HDD. Amazingly cheap at £47.00GBP. This has a 500Gb hard drive, and also allows timeslip tv, twin channel recording etc etc. So far it has been brilliant, and we have recorded about 12 programmes so far. These are for us to watch whilst the Olympic Games are on, because neither of us have the remotest interest in sports or Olympics.

    Again I have the second aerial from the roof into the IN socket on the HDD recorder, Scart into the scart from AV2 on the TV and aerial out up to the TV.

    As the TV only has one Aerial IN socket, we have used a simple 3 way connector to take both OUT aerial leads from the two devices, to the TV.

    We can now record 3 programmes at once, and have no issues with signal strength, because each device has its own aerial input. We haven't used one aerial with a booster, because we have tried boosters in the past, without success.

    So our problem has gone away, and we are pleased with the results.

    Thanks for all suggestions and help.:)
  • Chasing ShadowsChasing Shadows Posts: 3,096
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    Every device which accepts an aerial in except a television (i.e. a DVD recorder, a VCR, a Freeview PVR) also has an equivalent RF out. So, instead of requiring two TV aerials, each running in to seperate devices and which ultimately need you to combine into a single signal which runs into your TV, you could simply daisychain all the individual pieces of equipment together before ultimately running into the television RF in.

    My TV aerial lead runs into my Sky box, out of my Sky box and into my DVD recorder, out of my DVD recorder and in to my VCR, out of my VCR and into my television set. So, even though I have three other pieces of kit which require a terrestrial signal in, I don't need to feed any of them from a second TV aerial (or from some kind of booster).

    Not saying what you have done is wrong - just saying that you didn't need to do what you have done.

    Regarding the original problem - not being able to play discs recorded on your Toshiba DVDR on other DVD players - presumably you are now recording in Video mode rather than VR mode, and presumably you are now finalising the discs correctly (so that it won't allow you to unfinalise them later)?
  • bobcarbobcar Posts: 19,424
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    David (2) wrote: »
    cant override the sent image setting over hdmi, at least i have never been able to.

    Do you have a Samsung TV by any chance?
  • David (2)David (2) Posts: 20,632
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    no, its a sony.

    tbh, we dont make use of dvds much anymore, especially not home recordings anyway so we kinda side stepped the issue.
  • SemiConfusionSemiConfusion Posts: 16
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    Thanks Chasing shadows, but YES we did actually daisy chain the three devices together, but hit a number of problems with it, as the signal wouldn't carry sufficient clout to work both devices without a lot of glitching and pixellating.

    That's why we went with the extra aerial. It gives us a full signal to each device.

    But thanks anyway.
  • gemma-the-huskygemma-the-husky Posts: 18,116
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    i haven't burned DVD's for quite a while - but i always use DYD-R or DVD+R. I prefer -R for some reason. I have never used rewritable disks

    as others said, i would try non-rewritables just to see.

    I don't know if there is something like an azimuth setting with DVD recordings, where a recording on one player would not play on another, because some alignment is slightly off.
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