DVD Recorder problems

I have a DVD-Recorder (for my TV, not my PC) and it is giving me some
trouble. Is this forum a good place to get some help or can someone
suggest an alternative forum?

thanks

bt

"bt" <bt@.com> wrote in message
news:...
>I have a DVD-Recorder (for my TV, not my PC) and it is giving me some
> trouble. Is this forum a good place to get some help or can someone
> suggest an alternative forum?
>
> thanks

The avsforum.com is an excellent place to go, post your question in the DVD
Recorders section.

Philly

On Thu, 12 Oct 2006 19:50:09 GMT, bt <bt@.com> wrote:

>I have a DVD-Recorder (for my TV, not my PC) and it is giving me some
>trouble. Is this forum a good place to get some help or can someone
>suggest an alternative forum?

Can't hurt to tell us what's wrong. Here's some things we need to
know:

1) Model of the unit
2) Age of the unit
3) Usage (heavy, moderate, light)
4) What's wrong?

Let me take a guess: It's one of the better brands, at least 1 year
old, moderate usage and it is starting to become unable to read discs.

There are two opinions on this very common problem: 1) Get a good DVD
lens cleaner (Maxell); 2) Do not attempt to clean it yourself - send
it for repair.

If you have an extended warranty (you should always get one if
available), then you are covered. Use the backup unit for a while. If
the unit is about at the end of the extended warranty, then consider
making it the backup and buying a new unit, one with all the goodies
on it - HDD, DivX/XviD, Time Shift, etc.


--

Govt is an insult to human dignity. With or without govt,
you would have good people doing good things and evil
people doing evil things. But for good people to do evil
things, that takes govt. Govt is the root of all evil.

Citizen Bob

I have an RCA DRC8005N DVD Recorder connected to my TV and use it
mostly to watch movies and time-shift TV shows. Recently, it has
started to malfunction and I'm looking for some advice as to whether
or not to consider repair or just go ahead and replace it.

It is almost two years old and has worked well until the last month.
It seems to play pre-recorded movies with no problem, but the record
function is pretty bad. Anything that I record plays badly, freezes
up, jumps forward and is generally unwatchable. It started several
with just a few glitches and worsened over a couple of weeks so that
now it won't even play the discs it has recorded.

After trying to watch one of these discs for awhile, it
sooner-or-later freezes up. It eventually shows up on the menu screen
as a 'Bad Disc' and won't play at all. Interestingly, the same disc
will then play on 2 other DVD players fairly normally although, the
voice/picture sync seems to be off by a half second.

I have tried an internal disc cleaner, but it didn't seem to have any
effect. The unit gets moderate use. I imaging only 2 or 3
pre-recorded movies per month, but maybe an average of 1 hour per day
of time-shifting recording then playback.

Do these symptoms indicate a particular problem? Are units like this
generally worth further diagnosis and repair? With prices coming down
and new features/technologies being added, I'm just looking for some
advice from more knowledgeable folks.

I do know that I'm not interested in HD or other high end features.
Most of the recording I've done is at SP(?) or whatever 4 hours per
disc is called.

thanks for any assistance, I'll be glad to add any details that might
be helpful.

On Fri, 13 Oct 2006 11:30:58 GMT, (Citizen Bob) wrote:

>On Thu, 12 Oct 2006 19:50:09 GMT, bt <bt@.com> wrote:
>
>>I have a DVD-Recorder (for my TV, not my PC) and it is giving me some
>>trouble. Is this forum a good place to get some help or can someone
>>suggest an alternative forum?
>
>Can't hurt to tell us what's wrong. Here's some things we need to
>know:
>
>1) Model of the unit
>2) Age of the unit
>3) Usage (heavy, moderate, light)
>4) What's wrong?
>
>Let me take a guess: It's one of the better brands, at least 1 year
>old, moderate usage and it is starting to become unable to read discs.
>
>There are two opinions on this very common problem: 1) Get a good DVD
>lens cleaner (Maxell); 2) Do not attempt to clean it yourself - send
>it for repair.
>
>If you have an extended warranty (you should always get one if
>available), then you are covered. Use the backup unit for a while. If
>the unit is about at the end of the extended warranty, then consider
>making it the backup and buying a new unit, one with all the goodies
>on it - HDD, DivX/XviD, Time Shift, etc.

bt

On Fri, 13 Oct 2006 13:25:09 GMT, bt <bt@.com> wrote:

>It is almost two years old

That's *old* by today's standards. Most people don't get a year's
service before they have to get the unit repaired.

>I do know that I'm not interested in HD or other high end features.
>Most of the recording I've done is at SP(?) or whatever 4 hours per
>disc is called.

EP.

SP is two hour, like regular DVDs.

>thanks for any assistance, I'll be glad to add any details that might
>be helpful.

Either send it in for repair or use it for a player and get a new
unit. I recommend the HDD (Hard Disk Drive) units since you do a lot
of TV recording. Once you use a HDD Recorder, you will never be
without one.

Be sure the new one will play AVIs - DivX and especially XviD formats.

If you want to go cheap look at the Polaroid DRM-2001G (WalMart $219).
If it works for you, then be sure to get a 2-year extended warranty
for $18 online. Otherwise it's still a bit of a crap shoot even with
very expensive units. You have to get an extended warranty or you
could be stuck with junk in a year.


--

Govt is an insult to human dignity. With or without govt,
you would have good people doing good things and evil
people doing evil things. But for good people to do evil
things, that takes govt. Govt is the root of all evil.

Citizen Bob

In article <>,
bt <bt@.com> writes:
> I have an RCA DRC8005N DVD Recorder connected to my TV and use it
> mostly to watch movies and time-shift TV shows. Recently, it has
> started to malfunction and I'm looking for some advice as to whether
> or not to consider repair or just go ahead and replace it.
>
> It is almost two years old and has worked well until the last month.
> It seems to play pre-recorded movies with no problem, but the record
> function is pretty bad. Anything that I record plays badly, freezes
> up, jumps forward and is generally unwatchable. It started several
> with just a few glitches and worsened over a couple of weeks so that
> now it won't even play the discs it has recorded.

I had a Toshiba DVD recorder that started doing the same thing. Techs
said the laser was wearing out.

David E. Bath

On 14 Oct 2006 16:12:38 GMT, (David E. Bath)
wrote:

>I had a Toshiba DVD recorder that started doing the same thing. Techs
>said the laser was wearing out.

How long have you had it and what was the level of usage (heavy,
moderate, light)?

If you can get 1 year out of a DVDR you are doing quite good. That's
why it pays to get an extended warranty, assuming you want to keep the
unit operative past 1 year.

A friend had a Philips DVDR and it went into the shop 4 times in one
year.

What we need is an affordable PVR with replaceable DVD burner (my
choice would be the NEC 3550) and replaceable HDD (Western Digital)
mounted in a bay. Both would have 5 1/2" mounting. Firstly you would
get real quality of your choosing and you could easily replace a
defective unit. The 3550 is going for under $40 wholesale - and it
will last at least 2 years. A removeable HDD allows you to move files
back and forth from your computer. It's easier than a LAN or flask
disk.




--

Govt is an insult to human dignity. With or without govt,
you would have good people doing good things and evil
people doing evil things. But for good people to do evil
things, that takes govt. Govt is the root of all evil.

Citizen Bob

In article <>,
(Citizen Bob) writes:
> On 14 Oct 2006 16:12:38 GMT, (David E. Bath)
> wrote:
>
>>I had a Toshiba DVD recorder that started doing the same thing. Techs
>>said the laser was wearing out.
>
> How long have you had it and what was the level of usage (heavy,
> moderate, light)?

It started acting up after about 1 1/3 years of heavy use. I used it
to convert many, many hours of camcorder video, probably over 250
DVD-Rs. It still burned DVD-RWs just fine, but wouldn't even load
DVD-Rs successfully anymore, much less burn them successfully.
Luckily I'd taken out an extended warranty and it was replaced with a
newer model PVR which won't get near the use burning DVDs.

> What we need is an affordable PVR with replaceable DVD burner (my
> choice would be the NEC 3550) and replaceable HDD (Western Digital)
> mounted in a bay. Both would have 5 1/2" mounting. Firstly you would
> get real quality of your choosing and you could easily replace a
> defective unit. The 3550 is going for under $40 wholesale - and it
> will last at least 2 years. A removeable HDD allows you to move files
> back and forth from your computer. It's easier than a LAN or flask
> disk.

Yeah, like that would ever happen,

What I do now is if I want more than 1 copy of a DVD I use my computer
burner to copy with. I didn't have one before.

David E. Bath

On 15 Oct 2006 14:17:59 GMT, (David E. Bath)
wrote:

>It started acting up after about 1 1/3 years of heavy use.

Get a new unit. That one has outlived its usefulness.

The lasers wear out on DVDRs. I am becoming convinced that the makers
of DVDRs deliberately put crap lasers in their units to create planned
obsolescence. Next time rub it in their noses by getting an extended
warranty. They are very cheap.

>> What we need is an affordable PVR with replaceable DVD burner (my
>> choice would be the NEC 3550) and replaceable HDD (Western Digital)
>> mounted in a bay. Both would have 5 1/2" mounting. Firstly you would
>> get real quality of your choosing and you could easily replace a
>> defective unit. The 3550 is going for under $40 wholesale - and it
>> will last at least 2 years. A removeable HDD allows you to move files
>> back and forth from your computer. It's easier than a LAN or flask
>> disk.

>Yeah, like that would ever happen,

It is happening now. People are building PVRs. I would be one of them
if the software were better. I figure in about a year it will be
better.

BTW, Dell Computer is in the home entertainment and DVDR business now
so it should be only a short time that they will be in the PVR
business. A set top box with power supply, small motherboard and some
very quiet fans, a DVD burner of your choice mounted in a 5 1/2" bay,
a HDD drive of your choice mounted in a removable bay (with extra bay
included for your computer), dual channel TV card and a USB IR sensor
and a remote, and you have a PVR. Add Dell's famous 3 year onsite
warranty and you are in business.





>What I do now is if I want more than 1 copy of a DVD I use my computer
>burner to copy with. I didn't have one before.

--

Govt is an insult to human dignity. With or without govt,
you would have good people doing good things and evil
people doing evil things. But for good people to do evil
things, that takes govt. Govt is the root of all evil.

Citizen Bob