I've recently been given a stand alone dvd recorder by a mate who has upgraded to a better model. It's intended use is to archive sky+ recordings onto disc.

I'm experiencing problems with the recorder in that if I leave it running to the end of the disc (which is what usually happens as I tend to transfer recordings overnight), I'm not able to do anything with the disc or its recordings once it reaches the end. The only option I have is to power the dvd recorder off. The recordings then appear to be wiped from the disc (this has been verified by inserting in more than one different dvd player).

If I stop the recording before the end of the disc, it will work as expected by finalising OK and creating a menu for your recordings.

Can anyone offer an answer as why this happening, what I am doing wrong (if anything) and what I can do to rectify this if possible?

Unfortunately the instruction book for this unit has been lost by previous owner during a recent house move so I'm working blind!

Any help will be greatly appreciated!

what brand of blank disc are you using?is it a dvd rewriteable?
in the old days especially there were issues on that final outer section of dvd blanks,depending on brand.
Another explanation could be the drive is on it's last legs,i had this recently with a dvd recorder,it could write,but could no longer finalise any disc,the drive was on it's way out.
Check for finger marks too on the edge of the disc furthest away from the centre circle.

The discs that I'm using are called Pleomax rewritable ones which are manufactured by Samsung. I picked them up in my local Morrisons just to get me started.

Is it an idea to try a different brand of disc then? If so, can you suggest any?

you could try sony rewriteables or verbatim both are very high quality.

Thanks for that. I'll give them a try and let you know

Don't s'pose it's a liteon m/c by any chance?

If so,I'd suggest building a small bonfire & throwing 100 brand new discs onto it,as this will do exactly the same job as the recorder,but in a fraction of the time.

You could possibly remove the cover & carefully clean the lens with Isopropyl alcohol,as it wouldn't be the first time a dirty lens has caused such a problem after appearing to record just fine according to the m/c.

Also,assuming it's an older m/c,it wouldn't hurt to try tracking down some slower media,as a few have big probs with 16x discs.