Trouble with DVDR75/17

Consumer Electronics
#1

Hi, I just found this forum while searching the Internet looking for an answer to my problem. I have a Philips DVD recorder, model number DVDR75. I’ve have it for two years now; I bought it in December 2003.
I’ve been very happy with it, and I’ve been giving it a LOT of use. My main purpose for it was to copy all of my home family videos on DVD. It’s been working great for me, recording, making the titles, giving each index picture my favorite scene selection, etc.
NOW, just in the last couple of days, it stopped recording! I’ve already gone through 5 or 6 discs, and it keeps saying “DISC ERROR”, after a few seconds of trying to record. At first I thought I had a bad disc, but it’s been happening over and over, and I even bought brand new discs this morning.

I do have some firmware that Philips sent me LAST year, and I tried updating it again, but after a minute or so, it just says “UP TO DATE”, and says to remove the disk.

Anyone have any ideas what could be causing this? :confused: I can still play DVD’s.

Thanks,
Sheila

#2

It doesn’t sound great news, if the problems occurred whilst using good discs. Presumably you were using +Rs? Will the machine work with +RWs?

Otherwise, do you have your machine in a cabinet, or placed with other AV equipment which runs hot? Some users have found that using it in a cool environment can reserrect a seemingly broken machine.

Nevertheless, it could be the laser assembly which is damaged, and this was a known manufacturing fault by Philips. Although your machine is out of the 1-year standard warranty, Philips extended the guarantee on some machines to 2 years, and you could try the procedure documented here.

#3

Thanks for the advice! I do have it in a cabinet, with a VCR on top of it; maybe moving it will do the trick. Otherwise I’ll see if Philips extended the guarantee. I"ll have to move fast though! My purchase date was December 5, 2003!
Thanks again.

#4

Just an update… I tried recording with the +RW’s, and it works! Why would that be? I’ve never had any trouble in the past using the +R’s, and already transferred over 40 of my VHS home videos over to DVD+R’s. NOW I always get “disc error” when I use them. BUT out of curiosity I tried the +RW’s, and now I’m able to resume my recording again. Why would it not work with the +R’s all of a sudden, but work fine with the +RW’s?

#5

It probably works with +RWs because the reflectivity of the disc’s recording surface is higher than +Rs, and thus would bring the data signal modulation back within the limitations of a gradually failing laser. This process is not confirmed by Philips, but a strong working assumption built up by forum members from very similar experiences with the DVDR8x0 series of recorders.

It’s good news that you can carry on recording, but the evidence is that eventually the recorder will start to fail on +RW as well. The signs of this are that “disc error” comes up during a recording (even though at first the actual recording may not be faulty). The last thing that happens is that even commercial DVDs will not play.

I presume from your DVDR70 model number suffix that you are in the US? If so, the warranty details I posted may not be of any use since they are UK specific. My advice would be to keep vigorously investigating the route to getting your machine repaired, and if you speak to Philips, emphasise this sudden failure of the machine to recognise +Rs.

#6

Thanks for all your help and explanations! It really helped a lot. Yes, I am in the U.S., and as far as getting the machine fixed, I’ll definitely see what I can do. Thanks again!

#7

You might try cleaning the laser. After two years, it might just be crap settling on it.

I have used my Philips DVDR75 aggressively for about two years without any problems at all until a few months ago - probably burned at least 500 discs with many different brands of media. A while back I started seeing errors like you described, so I thought the recorder was dieing. I, too, discovered that +RWs would still record, so I just started using them and dubbing all of the discs on one of my computers to the blank +Rs I had left. Oddly enough, I began having more and more errors on these copies too. Sometimes the copy wouldn’t finish, but many that did wouldn’t play correctly on any of my players, especially toward the end of the recording. I was also noticing that the errors in recording that I saw on both the Philips and the computers seems to mostly happen toward the outside edge of the disc. If I wouldn’t try to fill them all the way up, many more recording sessions worked fine.

It turns out that the recorder wasn’t going bad, it was the MEDIA! I had purchased several hundred blank DVD+Rs on sale sometime last year, various brands, and the errors were happening on all of them. And all of these were down to the bottom 1/4 or so blanks on the spindles. I had been using them all randomly, as some were sitting in by my computer, some by the TV, etc. I had originally opened each package and started using them to verify the compatibility with my recorder, so I knew that all of them had been working fine (BTW - every brand I have ever tried, most on sale and not major names, has worked perfectly with this machine). Now the problems were happening with all of them, and not just in the Philips DVDR75, but also in three burners in two different computers.

As soon as I bought new media, the problems went away! It seems like blank DVD+R media have very definite shelf lives, and it doesn’t matter much if they are stored in the dark or out in the open. True, I was having more errors on the disks that had been sitting on the open shelf, but even ones that had been in a dark cabinet were causing problems. I don’t know for sure how old they were, but most of them were bought around the same time, probably 12 - 18 months ago, and they all seemed to start having problems around the same time. And I had 5 or 6 DVD+R blanks that I had only partially recorded and left sitting in folders waiting to find just the right thing to add to them - every one of those that had been sitting for close to a year went bad when I added something else and tried to finalize the disc.

Since I finally figured out it was the media, I have burned through about 95 more blanks without any problems, not even a single error. And these are bulk no-name blanks bought from Comp-USA. I know you said you bought new media, but I thought I’d share my experience with y’all anyway - hope it helps someone! Good luck,
Goose