MrT

In September 2003 I bought a Philips R70 +R dvd revcorder, and have mostly been very pleased with its performance and the quality of the discs produced. However a few months ago I noticed that I was getting more of the "disc error" messages, culminating in a whole spindle of the normally excellent Maxell dvd+r discs all of which failed, some within seconds of starting a recording. Puzzled, I thought the recorder was at fault but an engineer from Comet found nothing wrong. Even more puzzling was the fact that dvd+rw discs still recorded ok, and some Verbatim +r discs.

The cause of this error has now (I think) been solved. When I bought the recorder, the "write speed" of discs was either 1 x 2.4 or 1 x 4, both of which caused no problem. Just recently however the write speed of most dvd+r once only writable discs has been increased to 1 x 16 - and its these that is causing the problem. A telephone spokesperson at Philips told me that using 1 x 16 discs on the R70 may cause "incompatability" , and that I should avoid using them . The problem is that all the dvd+r discs on offer today in our local Woolworths, W.H.Smith and Comet were - you've guessed it- 1x16. The only shop that still had a few boxes of DVD+r at 1 x 4 speed was HMV in Portsmouth. It looks as as if manufacturers are phasing out production of the slower write speed dvd+r discs.

Dvd+rw discs still seem to be available at 1 x 4 speed but for how long? The Philips rep suggested that I look for 1 x 4 discs "on line" where "they should still be available" but how pathetic is that? I never for one moment thought that blank media for my DVD recorder would be phased out before the good old VHS tapes.

Has anyone else had this problem? I don't know whether it might apply also to dvd-r recorders, but I would check very carefully the specification for those cheap dvd+r recorders stacked high on the shleves in Asda and Tesco to see whether they are designed to handle the higher write speed media. If they only recommend 1 x 4 or even 1x8 discs I'd think twice before investing in one, even at £70.

I hate technology.

Mike Taylor

Cuffy

I love the technology, just hate the way it is deployed sometimes.

Anyway.... I have the same Philips recorder, bought it around the same time (late 2003) and agree that in general, it ticks all the boxes.

With my machine though, I've found that it refuses to play any DVD-R that was recorded more than 4 or 5 weeks previously (generally record on DVD+RW and burn them to DVD-R via the PC). I've tended to avoid the cheapies and pay extra for the branded discs and although I've been right through the card as far as discs are concerned, it's the same with every brand. I assumed it was my discs at first as I'd had a simlar problem with my previous Panasonic player. However, the discs play perfectly on a cheapo £25 DVD player from a supermarket!

The DVDR70 has finally given up the ghost in the last few days - the LED display darkens to nothing and only light up briefly, on an intermittent basis, and the discs are starting to skip.

It's probably the longest any of my DVD players/recorders have lasted and I still think it's a pretty poor show to fail at about 3 years old.

I've always believed that, to a certain extent anyway, you get what you pay for so always went for decent brand names. I've had enough now though!! The supermarkets here are selling players for £12.99, I've no longer got room for a surround sound system that needs a decent player so for under £20 I'm happy to buy a player and get 6 months out of it.

Rant over!!

ChristineCB

The website www.CDFreaks.COM is a great product-reviews site that illustrates problems with the so-called 2.4x burning speed (which has a poor compatibility record with many Players), as well as lengthy discussions on the non-existent DVD Manufacturing Standard.

Since Sony-Phillips forces a royalty payment on every CD disc made, the DVD makers refused to observe any standard and pay no royalty, and every DVD maker has their own manufacturing guidelines for discs.

This means that, from plant to plant, even at the batch level, DVD Blanks can be made differently. Having a brand-name spelled like "Maxell" isn't guarantee that Monday's purchase of Maxell blanks will be the same as next month's purchase.

That's where a DVD Burner's firmware updates come in.

CDFreaks offers the best 'clearinghouse' section on Firmware updates, although I usually revert to the original manufacturer's website, if possible.

But for a company like "Sony" or "Phillips" or "Panasonic", finding the DVD Firmware Website can be tricky.

CDFreak's Burner Reviews are some of the most exhaustive (depressingly so, at times) reviews I've seen, where they'll use 6 or 8 or even 15 different DVD Blanks on a certain burner to get quality tests on both the burner and the disc-blanks.

The short analysis: GOOD LUCK. The best advice they offer is "Burn at slowest 2x or 4x speeds, never use a fractional speed and remember - burning speed is NOT the goal - PLAYING the disc is the goal."