DVD-R & DVD-RW..What?

[burrelld]

I just this week bought a "Classic" DVD Player and Recorder, made by Mustek. It came with one blank, two hour DVD-RW disc, so to test the recorder out I put that disc in and recorded two hours worth of programing.

It recorded that two hours just fine. Later the same day I put in a new blank 4.7gb DVD-R disc. The recorder keeps telling me that "no disc" is in the unit. So I tried several different sizes and brands of blank DVD-R discs and the recorder "saw" none of them.

My computer writes and reads just fine to those 4.7gb DVD-R discs so why won't the DVD Recorder "pick them up"? The "manual" for the recorder, two pages in English, tells me nothing.

I did a Google search to try to find a site explaining the difference between a DVD-R and a DVD-RW but found nothing. Any help on this thread?

[TommyCP]

I could be wrong on this, but as far as I know Mustek DVD-recorders can only record on DVD+R and DVD+RW media. Are you sure that the disc supplied with you recorder isn't a DVD+RW?

[burrelld]

Yes, I just re-checked the disc that came with the player/recorder. It is a DVD+RW disc. So I've been trying the wrong format. I also, finally, found the following info at another site. Looks as though I'll be buying some new DVD+R or DVD+RW discs today.

........DVD-R is a recordable DVD format similar to CD-R and DVD+R. A DVD-R can only record data once and then the data becomes permanent on the disc. The disc can not be recorded onto a second time. There also are two additional standards for DVD-R disks: DVD-RG for general use, and DVD-RA for authoring, which is used for mastering DVD video or data and is not typically available to the general public.

DVD-RW is a re-recordable format similar to CD-RW or DVD+RW. The data on a DVD-RW disc can be erased and recorded over numerous times without damaging the medium.

[TommyCP]

Hehe, that was solved quick. Good luck with your new media!