OT not reading DVD's

[Dave]

A friend has lent me some D VD's recorded off air to copy. 1 of them can't be read by either of the DVD re-writers in my computer, or the two drives I have in my hobby room. The TV DVD re-writer comes back to tell me that they are empty, the TV DVD player does not come up with a play list. The first time this happened (4 D VD's ago) he told me that it had not been finalized. He took it back and finalized it and it worked fine when he brought it back for me.

All the D VD's are RW, but he is under the impression that if he finalizes them he will not be able to re-write them.

In all the years I have used re-writable disks (CD or DVD) I have been able to erase them and start again.

Can anyone help please?

Dave

[Bernard Peek]

That's probably a misreading of a terse onscreen warning. If they are RW drives then he can erase and rewrite them even after finalizing. He will usually need to do that before they are readable on a standard DVD player.

What he won't be able to do (I think) is add extra content to a finalized disk.

[Andy Burns]

That was my first thought.

Finalising won't prevent erasing them, but will prevent writing anything else to them *until* they've been erased.

[whisky-dave]

Sometimes you get the option to unfinalize them..... Some RW discs can be formatted in Video or VR format not sure of the difference but sometimes you don;t need to finalize them for another player to read them, but that might just be the +R which tend to be better for video than the -R.

[Dave]

Yes, my Nero software allows me to add other recordings at a later date, but they are compatable with his DVD readers.

Dave

[Dave]

Thanks, that was my impression as well.

Dave

[Dave]

I didn't know that, I always thought that -R* was the oldest standard.

Just been and checked the DVD and it is -RW. But, on it it makes the point that it is only 2 hours worth long. Looks like I have a bit of googling to do tonight.

Dave

[Jake]

Have you ruled out the possibility of the re-writers not being compatible with the discs. For example my NEC re-writers won't work with Zero Defex discs at all save for reading finalised ones and there's no sign of NEC providing a firmware fix for this. Might be worth checking your manufacturers' web sites to see if they (like NEC) list the discs that work with the latest firmware for your drives.

The TV player won't read a non-finalised RW disk of course but for brands which work on my rewriters I regularly finalise and subsequently erase RW discs - my backup software routinely finalises disks so they can be read by any restore device and then erases and reuses the discs the next time they're used. If your friend cannot erase discs he has finalised, then that may also point to some incompatibility between drive/firmware and disc. Another surprisingly common "problem" is that people buy the inkjet printable discs (which don't have the R/RW symbol on each disc) and then mix up the lids of the spindles they came on.

HTH

[Dave]

My computer drives are compatable with all sorts of media, so no problem there until I encountered friends disks.

I'll not try finalizing the disk, as I do not own it and the contents are quite rare.

Just discovered a major problem with that type of disk. Last year I copied Goodnight Mr Thom from a video I had and that started to pixilate almost at the end where the lads future was decided. A wipe with IPA usually cured it.

This time the DVD contained Ice cold in Alex, so I gave the shiny side a clean up with IPA and then decided to give the label/data side a wipe. DVD re-writer does not recognise it as a DVD :-(

Dave

[Jake]

Now you've really confused me. You say you gave the shiny side a wipe and then the "label/data" side - the label and data sides are opposite. Is there any chance that your friend's disks don't match the "colours" you're used to. E.g. most DVD blanks have a blue or purple hue on the data side but I've seen some which are silver and have occasionally been confused as to which is the label side and which is the data side of the disk (particularly in artificial light).

Jake

[Dave]

Sorry for any confusion.

The data side of the disk is immediately under the label, so that puts it on the label side. The data, as you say, is read and written from the shiny side, but what got me was that I could damage a DVD by wiping the label/data side with isopropal alcohol.

Over the years (15+ or more), I have had disks of all types of colour, or none and never had this sort of problem before.

Many thanks for your help. I have been told that he can't finalise his disks with his DVD recorder today. Either that, of was saying that he couldn't erase a DVD RW on that machine. I did say to him that his computer would erase it.

Dave

[Mark]

FWIW the data layer in a CDROM is close the the label side but a DVD has the data layer(s) near the centre.

Using some software like IsoBuster you should be able to read data from the disk even if it is not finalised.

[Scott M]

It is. He must have had too much whisky.

-R is more compatible with standalone players. Newer ones are more likely to accept both but I see no advantages to +R discs and always use

-R for everything, not just video-DVDs.

[Dave]

A few years ago, I had stuck a CD label to the wrong disk and tried to remove it. Where it has stuck well, I removed the CD label, the CD became see through.

At $30-00 it wouldn't be worth me buying it for this sort of work.

New twist. When I discovered that the DVD's needed cleaning, I changed back to Kodak ones. One of them I had recorded to came back as empty from 4 different drives last week. Looks like a lot of work and investigation is called for nor, to get to the bottom of this problem.

Dave

[Mark]

There's a free version of IsoBuster. It might still do what you need.

[Dave]

A pointer would be nice, please.

Dave

[Mark]

I don't understand why you would need a pointer. It's easy to find.

[Dave]

Many, many thanks for that link. When I did a google for it, every site wanted me to get my wallet out for it.

A very grateful Dave

[Andy Champ]

When I google for it the first hit is

- with a sub-menu for various parts of the web site. What did you google for?

Andy

[Dave]

When I googled I just put isobuster into the box, as soon as I used the

site it downloaded fine and is now sat on my desktop, ready to be used. I have not had time to look at it yet, might get around to it tonight.

Once again a very grateful Dave