Liteon hdd/dvd recorder

[Joe Fraguela]

I wondering whether someone can help me with a problem I am currently experiencing with my LITEON HDD/DVD +R/+RW/-R/-RW Recorder (HD-A740/760).



I purchased the above about 2 years ago and occasionally would record programmes onto the Hard Drive to then copy onto to Disc. Last year I bought a pack of Philips 4.7gb DVD-RW discs and copied about 12 programmes onto disc without any problem. The discs were reading OK and they formatted OK to then enable me to copy and then to finalize the disc.



I hadn't done any other copying since, on Tuesday I had planned to do some copying from the HDD to Disc and planned to use the same discs as before, I tried 12 discs and neither of them worked, the DVD recorder was not recognising the discs and a question mark would appear on the left hand side of the screen, it was not allowing me to format them.



I have a lens cleaner disk and this is played regularly, so I can't imagine that it needs cleaning.



I am completely at a loss. I have no problem with playing discs, the HDD/DVD recorder works perfectly fine for playing discs.



I have noticed at the back of the manual the recommended disc list, however, I do have to say that obtaining these recordable discs is very difficult indeed. Many of the names I haven't heard of.



I have contacted the technical team at LITEON, but no reply yet. I was wondering whether any forum members have a LITEON HDD/DVD Recorder and have experienced the same problems and can recommend a brand of recordable discs.



Any help would be most welcome.



Many thanks

[autolycus]

I have a targa which may have the same interface, in fact it may be the same rebadged model.



Are you using the actual same disks (as oposed to the same type?)



Have you got an erase disk option in the disk tools? Or perhaps you could erase them on a PC first (if they are full, or don't have enough room). I've found the targa a bit temperamental copying from HDD to dvd (mainly the PC didn't always read the disk i'd produced)- that's why i went for a humax pvr eventually

[Joe Fraguela]

name='autolycus']I have a targa which may have the same interface, in fact it may be the same rebadged model.



Are you using the actual same disks (as oposed to the same type?)



Have you got an erase disk option in the disk tools? Or perhaps you could erase them on a PC first (if they are full, or don't have enough room). I've found the targa a bit temperamental copying from HDD to dvd (mainly the PC didn't always read the disk i'd produced)- that's why i went for a humax pvr eventually

They are brand new recordable discs, Philips DVD-RW so the discs are blank. I still haven't heard back from the Technical Support Team at LITEON. However, I understand from browsing on the Internet that there have been problems before LITEON HDD/DVD Recorders, whilst not the same model, I 've found out that possibly the problem could be rectified by downloading a Firmware Upgrade onto CD and then upgrading the Firmware onto the DVD recorder, I will have to chase up LITEON Technical Support Team.

[MrT]

I had a Liteon dvd recorder which was supposed to record to all formats Dvd+/-r, DVD+/-rw. Despite this specification the machine struggled to record or playback any discs in the -r/-rw formats. Occasionally it would recognise a -r disc but more often the message *no disc" appeared! So in my simplistic way I just stuck with +r/+rw discs and was very happy with the results obtained.



Dvd players can also struggle to read both formats. To even up scores I have one player that will only read +r and another that prefers -r, whilst my trusty Pioneer reads everything!



The moral of this is - if you have a disc in either format and your machine fails to read it, try it on some other machines before deciding that it is the disc at fault.



Mike (MrT)

[Joe Fraguela]

name='MrT']I had a Liteon dvd recorder which was supposed to record to all formats Dvd+/-r, DVD+/-rw. Despite this specification the machine struggled to record or playback any discs in the -r/-rw formats. Occasionally it would recognise a -r disc but more often the message *no disc" appeared! So in my simplistic way I just stuck with +r/+rw discs and was very happy with the results obtained.



Dvd players can also struggle to read both formats. To even up scores I have one player that will only read +r and another that prefers -r, whilst my trusty Pioneer reads everything!



The moral of this is - if you have a disc in either format and your machine fails to read it, try it on some other machines before deciding that it is the disc at fault.



Mike (MrT)

Many thanks Mike, I think I will have to see about getting some other format recordable discs and seeing whether they work. I still haven't heard back from the LITEON Technical Team, which I am disappointed about, I have downloaded the Firmware CD disk so I will also be testing that as well.



This is my 3rd DVD recorder and I have to say that compared to the old video recorder which I still have, the DVD recorders have not lasted as long.

[julian_craster]

All DVD recorders seem to be 'fickle'.........if they are used intensively (say more than 2 hours a day....) they tend to develop problems after 2 years or so, just outside the guarantee period.



Repairs are, of course, fiendlishly expensive, and probably not worth the outlay....



Whereas VHS technology has had 30+years to develop and improve !

[Joe Fraguela]

name='julian_craster']All DVD recorders seem to be 'fickle'.........if they are used intensively (say more than 2 hours a day....) they tend to develop problems after 2 years or so, just outside the guarantee period.



Repairs are, of course, fiendlishly expensive, and probably not worth the outlay....



Whereas VHS technology has had 30+years to develop and improve !

Well, it's something which is becoming more & more apparent to me. I don't particularly want to have to buy another one and I really would like to get this problem sorted out as I have lots of programmes/films to download from the HDD to DVD, before I even think of buying yet another DVD recorder.



At least with the VHS you were at least guaranteed a good lifespan!



I shall persevere and hopefully have this problem sorted.

[Sam Webster]

Is this thread still active? I only just found it.



There's a forum for Liteon recorders here

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The actual amount of traffic there is quite low, but don't let that fool you there are some very knowledgeable folk who will have an answer.



DVD burners only seem to last a couple of years in these machines, there are a few different accounts of people replacing them with relatively cheap pc drives.



HTH

[jimbot]

i bought a liteon dvd writer made for a pc and adapted it to fit my liteon dvd recorder ,works fine you just need to make sure you make it region free by fitting it in your pc first then downloading the appropriate software to make it region free. little bit of fiddling around with the front of thr dvd writer to make it fit into the dvd recorder but not really that difficult.

[Joe Fraguela]

name='jimbot']i bought a liteon dvd writer made for a pc and adapted it to fit my liteon dvd recorder ,works fine you just need to make sure you make it region free by fitting it in your pc first then downloading the appropriate software to make it region free. little bit of fiddling around with the front of thr dvd writer to make it fit into the dvd recorder but not really that difficult.

Unfortunately, i don't have a PC at home. I have tried using Verbatim disks this weekend and no joy whatsoever, basically, I think the drive has had it, as no matter what type of blank disks I use it seems unable to read the disk.



I will now have to look at purchasing yet another DVD recorder. Disappointment is an understatement, l guess prices have come down over the last few years so hopefully, I will be able to buy a good brand at a reasonable price.

[Sam Webster]

name='Joe Fraguela']Unfortunately, i don't have a PC at home. I have tried using Verbatim disks this weekend and no joy whatsoever, basically, I think the drive has had it, as no matter what type of blank disks I use it seems unable to read the disk.



I will now have to look at purchasing yet another DVD recorder. Disappointment is an understatement, l guess prices have come down over the last few years so hopefully, I will be able to buy a good brand at a reasonable price.

For £15 - £20 why not risk buying a drive?



You can even set the region using a usb adaptor on a laptop as I had to, similar to this page (in a desktop PC but using a usb dongle) Perhaps someone you know would lend you 10 minutes of time on their machine if you don't have one yourself?



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I did my Liteon 5025 following the instructions on this page, it works great and will now burn any discs I throw at it, the only problem is fast forward does not work on all DVD discs and can freeze the machine. Since I don't use FF anyway when playing discs this does not worry me (FF is unaffected on hard drive recordings - works as normal)



Hope this helps