-RW discs have stopped playing

[bossychloe]

Although I am using the same -RW discs on both of my Panasonic DVD Recorders as I have done trouble free for the past 6 months I am now faced with some of them not playing. I frequently get the screen message that the disc is not formatted correctly, although if I try,try and try again it sometimes works ok. Any ideas as to why his should start happening now? The discs seem clean and undamaged.

Also,why will my -RW discs formatted in video mode not play on my friends machine? His manual says they should.

[fo3nix]

They can be a bit temperamental. First off, are they still being finalised with your burner software?

Second, have you tried using any other discs? Different discs use different dyes, and though the problems of certain dyes working better than others was more a problem a few years ago, I think it could still be a small problem sometimes.

[bossychloe]

Thanks for your reply.

I am using maxell dvd-rw discs, I am just using them to record from the TV. When I first used the blank disc the recorder formatted it into video mode and everything was fine, I could record, play and then delete perfectly well until recently. Now it says it is not formatted correctly and won't let me do anything.

Pre-recorded dvd's bought from a shop do play okay.

[BillyNoMates]

As has been suggested, I would say this is a 'reflectivity' issue. Try a more silver or gold type of CD-RW. It may also be that your laser lens in your DVD player is a little dirty.

You can buy cleaning CDs/DVDs with small brushes although I have had limited success when using them in CD players.

[Confab]

I had a very similar problem with mine. Shop bought DVD�s would play fine but some pre-recorded would freeze, skip or just refuse to play. I threw away 5 perfectly good DVD�s and bought a new pack but I still had the same problem.

Took the recorder to a shop who said that they cleaned the read/record head and charged me �40. 00. They said that if that didn�t fix the problem then I would need a new drive at a cost of about �140.00. I suspect that the shop just used one of those DVD cleaning disks because within 2 days of taking it home I had the same fault.

Anyway to cut a long story short I took the whole thing apart and cleaned the read/write head with isopropanol. This is not a task to be taken lightly. That was about 2 months ago and I have not had one problem since.

If you are not confident in doing this then take it to a qualified repairman