DVDR3480 can't finalise DVDs - or is it me?

[bcrabtree]

Bought one of these at a no-brainer price recently from Tesco, thinking it would be good for archiving footage off of a PVR but only just found time to look at it.

Turns out that my first recordings were done for a friend, with four MiniDV tapes being burned to four DVD+RW discs with no issues at all - and under the full control of the Philips's handset (I always forget how great machine control via FireWire can be).

But when I went to finalise any of the four discs, I couldn't do that because the finalise option was greyed out.

Am I doing something wrong (I've checked and double-checked) or have I got a wrong-un?

What concerns me, of course, is that the product has gone end of line and if it is faulty I may not be able to get a replacement unless I act quickly (or maybe, not even then).

TIA

Bob Crabtree

 

[SeeleyBooth]

Philips recorders use the video format that RW disc Dont Need to be finalised only +r discs need finalising

 

[bcrabtree]

Philips recorders use the video format that RW disc Dont Need to be finalised only +r discs need finalising

Thanks VERY much for the prompt and massively helpful reply!

Perhaps I should have known this but, fact is, Philips really ought to have had something about this in the manual because, surely, it's something to crow about and also something that must catch out no end of users.

But - having now done a search through the PDF version that I downloaded - I can say for sure that the manual makes no mention of this fact at all.

D'oh!

Again many thanks for your response!

Cheers

Bob

 

[bcrabtree]

Sorry, I should have commented further and posed a couple of additional questions.

What I was trying to do last night was use Ulead DVD MovieFactory 4 to pull off the video for editing from these DVDs but it wouldn't recognise it as containing any files it could import.

Now that it's clear that what I have is a VR disc, though, I am able to access the disc by choosing the option to edit it, rather than the option to import from the disc - though I have no idea why one option is okay but not the other.

Even so, that's a considerable improvement from where I was.

Actually, I had worked around the problem by using SlySoft's CloneDVD Mobile to convert VOB files to MPEG - and yes, I really should have twigged at that point that what I had was a disc that didn't need finalising - but the conversion process takes time I don't want to spend.

The question I should have asked relates to updating the firmware on the Philips - and whether, in fact, I am right to assume that the version I'd downloaded is newer than the installed version.

The latest available firmware is 03_08.

And, I'd assumed that this was later than my version 03_05 and so attempted an update. It's also the case that the loader version appears newer in the update - 68092400 vs the installed 68091700.

However, the CD-R disc that I'd burned wasn't recognised.

D'oh!

And nor was the next one (I'd burned another presuming I must have set something wrong in Nero 7 first time round).

I'd made that assumption because the instructions say,

Note: The recorder will indicate "Unknown Disc" in the following 2 situations.
- When the software upgrade is not meant for your recorder (Check the applicable models above) [I had, of course checked that - Bob]
- Problem with writing of CD-ROM. Try again with a different CD-ROM if possible.​

After reading around the subject hereabouts, I downloaded IMGBurn - following instructions provided in another thread - and burned to a CD-RW disc (I was fed up wasting blanks) but even that RW disc resulted in the same "Unknown Disc" message.

So, the question is:

Are the firmware and uploader versions I downloaded newer than the ones already installed and, if so, then what the devil could I be doing wrong in creating the update disc?

TIA

Bob

 

[musukebba]

Have you checked that the discs (CD-R and CD-RW) were finalised?

 

[bcrabtree]

Have you checked that the discs (CD-R and CD-RW) were finalised?

Not sure if that was said tongue-in-cheek or not so, in the absence of a smiley, I'll assume not.



However, as best as I can tell - yes, the disc is finalised.

I say, "as best as I can tell" because the disc is seen by PCs other than the one in which it was created - but all of which have DVD-writers, rather than CD readers, and installed burning software.

Also, there is no indication from Nero's disc-info tool (or the stand-alone DiscInfo program) that it's not.

But is there any better way to check?

TIA

Bob

 

[musukebba]

It was a serious question; so if you download CD-DVD Speed, start it up and put the disc in the drive. Then look under the 'Disc Info' tab to see if it says "Closed" (= finalised).

Are you absolutely sure you followed accurately the instructions in the other thread; particularly points 5 and 6..?

 

[bcrabtree]

Thanks for staying with me on this!

Yes, I am pretty sure that I did follow all the steps.

I have Nero DiscSpeed (the new name for Nero CD-DVD Speed) installed here as part of my Nero 7 set up and this is what it says for the CD-R discs:

Nero DiscSpeed: Disc Info
Basic Information
Disc type: : CD-ROM
Capacity: : 00:22.61
: 3 MB
: 3504128 bytes
Extended Information
Tracks : 1 (0 audio, 1 data)
Sessions : 1​

Also, when I look at these CD-R discs in My Computer, the free space is shown as 0 bytes.

Cheers

Bob

 

[bcrabtree]

Any verdict on that info?

TIA

Bob

 

[bcrabtree]

Pretty please?

 

[musukebba]

Bob I'm not sure what is going wrong from your description. If you really followed all the steps verbatim then the CD should be read by the 3480. The only other thing I can suggest is that you ask Philips to send you an upgrade disc; which they offer to do.

 

[kebamo]

Not that it's any help to you but i also just brought one of these from Tescos and have just completed the firmware upgrade without a single hitch.

All i can say is i followed the burning instructions on the Philips website verbatim, i used Nero 7 to create the data disk and used all of the settings in the instructions, 2 or 3 different tabs to look through but all the settings they recommended were there. I burnt it onto a CDRW and it installed first time. Just burnt the files straight to the root of the disk.

I did assume that once i had transfered from my Sky+ to a DVD-RW i would be able to view this disk in a stand alone dvd player, this doesn't appear to be the case, even if i try to look at the disk on my PC it won't recognize it.
Is this normal? do i need to be doing something else? should i be using some other software to make this disk viewable via another dvd player?

However i still think this is a cracking player, it even allows me to connect my 250gb 2.5" mobile hard drive to the USB to play divx files, something i couldn't do with my 5960. With my 5960 i had to use a USB memory stick to watch divx files and the file names were always truncated which was always
annoying, this player displays the full file names of divx files stored on this drive.

 

[musukebba]

I did assume that once i had transfered from my Sky+ to a DVD-RW i would be able to view this disk in a stand alone dvd player, this doesn't appear to be the case, even if i try to look at the disk on my PC it won't recognize it.
Is this normal? do i need to be doing something else?

Did you finalise the disc in the 3480?

 

[kebamo]

There doesn't seem to be the option to finalize a DVD-RW in the menus