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DVD recorder not reading blank discs
harryjr101
15-09-2016
I think my LG DVD recorder is wearing out. I noticed that DVD recorders are no longer made. It now takes about 30 different DVD-r to load one that reads. What piece of equipment can I buy to replace whatever part it needs? Is it just the laser?
Ideally, I would like to find a way of copying my sky planner to an external hard drive instead of using a dvd recorder, any ideas? Thanks
Nigel Goodwin
15-09-2016
Originally Posted by harryjr101:
“I think my LG DVD recorder is wearing out. I noticed that DVD recorders are no longer made. It now takes about 30 different DVD-r to load one that reads. What piece of equipment can I buy to replace whatever part it needs? Is it just the laser? ”

Generally you need to replace the entire DVD mech, which is EXPENSIVE!! - even if it's still available.

Sony had a badged LG DVD recorder, actually two entirely different ones with the same model number (while they looked identical, they were entirely different inside, every board and the mech was different) - they were abysmally unreliable, with DVD mechs failing relatively quickly.
harryjr101
15-09-2016
Thanks for your reply. Im now looking into Dazzle which allows you to copy the planner. Is the quality as good? Can you then copy the contents from the laptop to a USB?
d'@ve
15-09-2016
Originally Posted by harryjr101:
“I think my LG DVD recorder is wearing out. I noticed that DVD recorders are no longer made.”

Panasonic still make DVD (and blu ray) recorders (with Freesat PVR). Pricey though.
chrisjr
15-09-2016
Originally Posted by Nigel Goodwin:
“Generally you need to replace the entire DVD mech, which is EXPENSIVE!! - even if it's still available.

Sony had a badged LG DVD recorder, actually two entirely different ones with the same model number (while they looked identical, they were entirely different inside, every board and the mech was different) - they were abysmally unreliable, with DVD mechs failing relatively quickly.”

Tascam used what looked like a bog standard computer CD mechanism in a number of their CD recorders. You could even take it out and find the original makers label on the thing. So you think to yourself, "great I'll get one from CPC or wherever for 20 quid rather than 100 quid from Tascam".

Then you discover Tascam heavily modified the firmware so a bog standard drive won't work so you have to buy the mega expensive Tascam version!
harryjr101
15-09-2016
I have just had a look, they have gone up alot since I first got my Panasonic one in 2003. I have got a Panasonic Blu Ray recorder but only ever copied my sky+ programmes to the HDD as I do not know how to copy to a blu ray disc, I still have 50 unused discs. I was always put off as you cannot record straight to disc and thought I have to sit through a programme twice to get it to a disc. I have just always bought a new LG dvd recorder from ebay when I could no longer get them in the shops.
chrisjr
15-09-2016
Originally Posted by harryjr101:
“Thanks for your reply. Im now looking into Dazzle which allows you to copy the planner. Is the quality as good? Can you then copy the contents from the laptop to a USB?”

The quality is dependent on a number of factors. What sort of video format the device supports, the analogue to digital conversion used and what type of bitrate compression you use.

A DVD recorder may allow you to connect via RGB while the Dazzle unit may only support the lower quality composite format. Conversion to digital may be the lesser part of the equation. That leaves how heavily you compress the data. And what type of data compression you employ.

Once the video is captured to your hard drive it is just a data file like any other you may have. So you can do with it what ever you like. The only caveat may be the file size. Video files can be very big. A modern windows PC using the NTFS file system should cope perfectly well with big files. But if you use a USB drive formatted to the FAT32 standard it can only handle files up to 4GB in size.
chrisjr
15-09-2016
Originally Posted by harryjr101:
“I have just had a look, they have gone up alot since I first got my Panasonic one in 2003. I have got a Panasonic Blu Ray recorder but only ever copied my sky+ programmes to the HDD as I do not know how to copy to a blu ray disc, I still have 50 unused discs. I was always put off as you cannot record straight to disc and thought I have to sit through a programme twice to get it to a disc. I have just always bought a new LG dvd recorder from ebay when I could no longer get them in the shops.”

Recording to Blu Ray is no different to recording to DVD. And if the recordings are on the hard drive already copying to optical disk should be easy. It will all be internal to the machine and may even allow high speed copying as you are basically just copying a load of ones and zeros from one storage medium to another.

Think of it like copying a video file from one drive to another on your PC. The video may be an hour long when you play it but can copy in a matter of minutes between drives.
harryjr101
16-09-2016
Thanks, im going to look into it tomorrow. Do you know in the panasonic blu ray recorder can copy the HDD content to an external hard drive via the USB?
chrisjr
16-09-2016
Originally Posted by harryjr101:
“Thanks, im going to look into it tomorrow. Do you know in the panasonic blu ray recorder can copy the HDD content to an external hard drive via the USB?”

Do you mean the DMR-BWT850EB?

It can copy the contents of the built in hard drive to an external USB drive, but (isn't there always a but? )

The USB drive has to be "registered" with the recorder. It is then formatted and locked to the specific recorder that registered it. The drive cannot be used with any other device not even another DMR-BWT850EB.

So if you were thinking of copying programmes to a USB drive to watch them somewhere else away from the Panasonic then forget it.
harryjr101
16-09-2016
My model number is DMR BWT735
chrisjr
16-09-2016
Originally Posted by harryjr101:
“My model number is DMR BWT735”

Ah right. No longer made by the look of it.

Anyway the same thing applies. If you want to copy from the internal drive to a USB drive the USB drive has to be registered to the specific recorder and then can't be used with any other device.

Page 76 of the manual, if you've still got yours - available online by searching on the Panasonic Support website. Can't link to it directly because of the way Panasonic do their manual downloads.
harryjr101
16-09-2016
Ok thanks, i will have a look now
harryjr101
17-09-2016
Ok, i have set up my blu ray recorder and it does not allow high speed copying to a BD-R disc. I am not sure what discs you have to have to do this, the manuel just says the two types you cannot do? Also going forward and I start to record onto a BD-R disc can I record/copy on to it one programme at a time like I can on a DVD-R, i.e. take out the disc and record again without finalizing it when it is full? Thanks
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