Hello!

I'm a newbie on here, and wondered if anyone could help?

I've had a 433 since Christmas and all was fine until recently. I've burnt about 150 odd TDK DVD-R discs with no problems and swapped recently to Sony DVD-R.

When burning the discs more often than not the disc would just spin for about 3 cycles and then i'd get the disc burn error message. Sometimes the disc would be half burnt or other times nothing would have been burnt to it. The recorder will burn sometimes and not others, it's very intermittent.

I thought it might be the media, so I swapped back to TDK, but it still does it.

Any ideas? Could it just be dust or something, and if so how would I go about cleaning it?

I have had a similar experience.

Been using Verbatim discs with no problems but recently when trying to do high speed back up disc copies the disc would just spin and then i'd get the disc burn error message and the disc was no good to use again.

It is O.K. doing high speed copy from HD to DVD so I don't know what the problem is with the disc back up facility.

Swopped to another brand of disc and so far not had a problem.

Have you defragged the hard drive?

I was thinking that it may be this problem with my machine. I have recorded/edited an awful lot of stuff, and thought maybe there was a problem transferring data from the HD to disc.

I've had my 433 since February and have mostly used Maxell DVD-Rs. About 150 of the 8x sort, and now about 70 16x, as the 8x seems unavailable, and mine too is recently failing to to do high speed copy HDD > DVD with a "cannot copy error" too.
After about 6-7 16x Maxell coasters I tried my last old 8x ones - they worked fine, as did one 8x Imation disc (also hard to find) that I had. 2x JVC DVD-RW from poundland worked fine too, but still very hit & miss on the 16x Maxell's Can't be a batch problem, the 70 successes were from a 100 drum, the rest of which seem doomed.
Am considering contacting the supplier under the guarantee.

I am having to use Maxell 16x for disc back up high speed copying.

Was using Verbatim 16x and 8x but they started to give the "cannot copy error" and after numerous coasters I changed to Maxell that Pioneer recommend in the user manual.

The Verbatim were O.K. for high speed copying HD>DVD so I don't know why there was a problem doing disc back ups (which is just another high speed copying HD>DVD).

There is a defrag warning when the drive becomes too fragmented. I would have thought if that warning didn't appear then the drive was not fragmented enough, so shouldn't effect the copying.

I am starting to get coasters using 16x Maxell now when using high speed copying

Sometimes they're not coasters - nothing gets written and you can use it in your PC, sometimes it barfs halfway with these maxell 16x, and occasionally it works!
I've recently tried some Tesco brand 8x and they work fine every time, although the speed suggests its only writing at 4x.
Looks like its a fault, so I am thinking of getting a few more 8x Tescos to clear the HDD to return it.
Pity as I have about 130 Maxell 16x (which were cheaper than the Tescos!)

My Pioneer 630 now refuses(most of the time) to perform disc backups.
My Pioneer 420 now only writes to 8x discs at 4x speed on certain brands of 8x discs

Have Pioneer said it was a fault?

How long have you had the machine?

How would you go about returning it since if it was tested they could fail to get the fault if using different media. Or they coukd try Maxell 16x and since it seems to be hit and miss they could still fail to find the fault.

My machine is perfect for everything else, it's just the disc backup that is the problem. I would hate to have to return it.

So would I.
My 630 records CCTV 24 hours a day so to send it away would be inconvenient.
But this problem seems to be spreading

I love the machine in every other way. I've had it since February. I don't know if it is a definite fault, but it is supposed to write to 16x discs.
Mine was supplied with a box of Maxell 8x discs which worked great. I ordered 100 from play.com and they were fine. The next time I ordered the 8x I got 16x. I was worried, but they worked fine - for a while. Anything that once works, and now doesn't is suspect, surely?
At present there are still sources of some 8x discs, but how long will this continue? A DVD recorder you can't get DVDs for is not a DVD recorder anymore. Its a fine PVR, and you could use DVD-RW, but I would see it as not fit for purpose. Am reluctant to query returnng it as the HDD is always being re-filled as I empty it!
If anyone has found 16x discs that work well, I'm interested.

I started out with Verbatim 16x (manufactured in 2004 in Tawian) and had no problems with them at all.

But on purchasing more Verbatim I started getting the problems with the disc-backup. I noticed that these were manufactured in 2005 in India, so I presumed that the media was the problem, what with coming from a different country, although they worked perfectly OK on normal recording and high-speed copying from the HD to DVD. It was only the disc-backup where the problem was.

So I purchased Verbatim 8x and these too were fine to start with, and then I started getting the same problems with the discs when using disc-backup.

I then switched to Maxell 16x that was recommended in the Pioneer user manual and at first everything was OK, so I purchased 150 from Play, but again problems with the disc-backup feature started with these Maxell.

I get the same problems that 'waterloo' described. It is hit and miss but for the failures I either get that nothing gets written on the disc and it will no longer work in the recorder (I didn't know that the discs could be reused on the computer since I don't have a DVD-RW) or it fails after part recording to the disc leaving another coaster.

I would just like some reliable media that I could use for the disc-backup feature, since I don't have any other problems with recording.

Even more strange ,some of the discs that the 630 refuse completely work on the 420,but only at 4x

I'll second that - any top brand hits would be good to know about.
Probably I use the high speed copy feature more than most (HDD>DVD after editing out commercials etc), and its that that I have problems with.
Often it writes nothing to these 16x discs it rejects, so I use them in my PC with its 3 year old 4x Toshiba burner with no problems for data backup, and so on. Sometimes it gives up halfway, so that's a coaster. I have a had a few successful writes also since the problem began.

The Tesco 8x discs the Pioneer is now happy with seem to go at only 4x (13-14 minute a full disc), but they do go. They're about £9 for 25, so you could try them. They also sell drums of 10.

I bought a Pioneer DVR530 just over a year ago. It worked fine for a while, on any speed discs. Then it started to fail on high speed copying when using 16X discs of any make, then on 8X discs as well. Eventually it even failed on 4X discs. I then purchased a replacement 530, and sent the faulty one back to a Pioneer repairer.
When it went wrong, it did one of the following things;
1. It attempted to write data, (made all the right noises), but after a short time the “Copy error” message was displayed. When the disc was ejected, there appeared to be no data written to the disc.
2. It seemed to be working, but then started to “rev up” for a bit, and the “Copy error” message appears. When ejecting the disc, about 5 mm of info has been written, but when put back in the machine, and opened up in the navigator screen, it said “No title”
3. When copying titles to a disc in more than one session, it sometimes “lost” the previous sessions. Most annoying when archiving a series.
After it was returned with a new drive fitted, and updated firmware, it worked with any disc once again, and touch wood, it still does.
Unfortunately, shortly after getting it back, the second one I got, started to exhibit exactly the same fault. This too was sent back for repair, and was returned with new drive, and firmware. Lets hope this is a permenant fix, as the first one is now out of warranty.
Apart from this hiccup, I love them both to bits!!!!
Considering I have had two machines with identical faults, this must be quite common.
My Panasonic DMR-EX95 has the option of slowing down the transfer, which they call "quiet mode". This would be a good option on the Pioneer.

This is exactly the fault with my Pioneer.

If it gets to a point where I am getting too many Copy Errors then I will take it back to be repaired.


I presume that was a new HD drive rather than the dvd burner?