I've been searching this forum for a few days and haven't found quite what I'm looking for. I use a Toshiba RD-KX50 recorder to capture tapes I record on camcorder and make into DVDs. Great menu and editing features for a standalone recorder, and until now rock solid relaible DVD structure.
Lately the discs I make are not playing on any set-top boxes, though they finalize on the Toshiba and will play accurately on the Toshiba, a Panasonic HS-2, or any computer drive.
What it looks like on the forum(s) is the drive unit is failing in some manner. I have followed the suggestions and cleaned the drive wheel and laser while in there.
I have been using TU 4X discs and am still in the same stacks of two 100 disc spindles. These discs burn perfectly good in my PC. So is the likely cause of my failures a failing burner?
Several posters have reported good results with replacing the burner with an OEM DVD burner that has multi-disc capability. I'd be willing to attempt this, but I don't see any information on how to proceed. The inside view of the stock burner doesn't look anything like the standard DVD drives I have in my PC. In the PC the drive is enclosed in a metal box. In the Toshiba RD-KX50 the burner is a custom shaped plastic form that screws to the base and aligns to the front panel. The connections are not the same between the two.
Also some posters indicate the RD-KX50 and the RD-XS52 are the same but for the size of the hard drive. Is this also true?
My operation manual title page is for the RD-xs52su, rd-xs52sc, and the rd-kx50su.

If you're using a spindle of discs that worked fine til now, yeah, it's probably a failing burner. If I remember correctly you're right that your unit is related to the XS52. Being as I don't think the XS52 line supported DVD-RW discs they must use a slightly different burner unit than the XS32, but you might want to check the XS32 burner thread for some tips about replacement units to swap in. I'm kind of confused about what you're talking about, though, with looking at the burner-- have you opened the KX50 up? I'm wondering if what you're seeing is just a mounting bracket and not really the drive itself?

It's not particularly hard to do it, just go slow and keep track of what goes where..

Have you seen any on screen messages about the disc being dirty, or a problem with the disc? Those are typical of a failing burner. If not, and since (after finalizing) they play in pcs and a Panasonic, I'm not yet sure it's the burner. That would be a strange burner failure mode. I've had a few XS burners die, and I don't remember mine or anyone else's producing dvds that would work well in some players but not in others.

Do all of the recent discs definitely play in some machines and not in others in the same way, or is it random? I assume you're recording to the HDD, then editing and hi speed dubbing to dvd. Have you tried just a cable/satellite HDD-DVD dub of an LP or SP speed recording? Have you tried both burning and finalizing in one step, and also finalizing separately? Maybe you could run CD/DVD Speed on a couple of the discs in a pc burner, and see if there's a difference between old and new burns. Even though the rest of the spindle was fine, I'd try some different media to rule that out. Are you using any unusal bit rates, settings, a huge number of chapters, etc? Any recent power surges or outages? I'd also try resetting the unit to factory defaults, formatting the HDD, etc. Holding down the power button for ~10 seconds or one of the other reset techinques might help. A few resets are posted in one of the Toshiba XS threads, or in my XS HDD swap thread.

Yeah, the KX50 and XS52 are basically the same machine except for the HDD size. You can use either HDD in either model. Like jmscott42 said, take a look at the Tosh XS32 Burner thread, as some of the info there applies to the KX50.

Now for the bad news: The KX50 and XS52 use non standard, Matsushita burners (that's why the burners look different). A few of us have tried to get a typical IDE burner to work using parts from other XS models, but without success. On paper it looks possible, but there might be some hardware, software or timing incompatibility. I still want to verify the connector signal paths, but haven't had time. For now, your best bet is to find that same model burner. Unfortunately, it isn't used in any other XS models. The XS32, XS34 and XS54 burners can be replaced with LG, Memorex and others.

Have you seen any on screen messages about the disc being dirty, or a problem with the disc? Those are typical of a failing burner. If not, and since (after finalizing) they play in pcs and a Panasonic, I'm not yet sure it's the burner. That would be a strange burner failure mode.
I have seen no error messages from any of the activities of dubbing from the HHD to the DVD or from finalizing discs. I haven't seen any error messages at all.
Do all of the recent discs definitely play in some machines and not in others in the same way, or is it random?
All of the recent discs (about the last dozen or so) behave the same. No error messages from Toshiba RD-KX50, yet they give me a "no disc" error on a set top box but will play fine on a PC, the Toshiba, or a Panasonic HS-2 DVD recorder.
Have you tried both burning and finalizing in one step, and also finalizing separately? Maybe you could run CD/DVD Speed on a couple of the discs in a pc burner, and see if there's a difference between old and new burns. Even though the rest of the spindle was fine, I'd try some different media to rule that out.
I don't know how to burn and finalize in one step. I always dub from HHD to DVD then finalize from the easy nav menu or the edit menu. CD/DVD Speed reports show me nothing unusual in terms of jitter or faults. The disc quality tests come up consistently scoring in the 90's. I opened another spindle of TU 4X DVD media to see if being at the bottom of the previous spindle might have given me a bad media result. I use these same media when I make duplicates on my DVD duplicator and they are consistently good out of the duplicator, so I don't suspect the media.
Are you using any unusal bit rates, settings, a huge number of chapters, etc? Any recent power surges or outages? I'd also try resetting the unit to factory defaults, formatting the HDD, etc. Holding down the power button for ~10 seconds or one of the other reset techinques might help. A few resets are posted in one of the Toshiba XS threads, or in my XS HDD swap thread.
My settings for both the HHD and the DVD are setting 2 which is for SP at 4.7 for DVD. I have done a system reset with no improvement. Interesting that I have a Toshiba disc for a firmware update that the factory sent me a while back. It is for a XS52 and has never been recognized in my KX50 - it simply displays that this disc is not for this machine and reboots the machine without upgrade.
The KX50 and XS52 use non standard, Matsushita burners (that's why the burners look different).
Yes, the drive sure looks different froma typical PC DVD burner. In trying to follow the forum discussion on burner replacements I couldn't figure out how to swap out with an off the shelf DVD drive. I could probaly make a bracket that would position a DVD burner at the drive slot opening, however the electronic connection to the board stumps me. The KX50 connects directly to a circuit board with an odd ribbon cable and a 4 pin connector, but I didn't recognize a power source. Really I didn't see the similarities. The Matsushita brand is Panasonic, so are there any sources for compatible drives beyond the $400 Toshiba part number?

I suppose my issue is whether it is my drive giving me the problem at all?

Thanks for your input and help.
Gene

Is it possible the "dvd compatibility" setting has any relation to this? I'm not exactly clear how it works, myself, but maybe it is worth checking out in your menus?

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I suppose my issue is whether it is my drive giving me the problem at all?That's what I'm wondering. The only common problem seems to be the set top box. Are you sure that the problem isn't with that instead? With NO error messages, quality scores in the 90s and playback across multiple machines, I'm really having trouble blaming the drive.

I always dub and finalize in separate steps, but a number of people seem to like using the DVD-Video Creation option from the edit menu. This allows you to select multiple titles, then burn and finalize in one step.

Mr. Hanky brought up dvd compatible mode. You can check the setting from Quick Menu -- dvd compatible mode. The choices are Main, Off and SAP. I always leave mine set to Off, except when using bit rates from 3.0 to 3.8. Then, I set it to Main to prevent a nonstandard chapter error message while hi speed dubbing.

I haven't had my XS52 open in a while and don't have the schematics in front of me. Does your KX50 have a small pc board attached from the ribbon cable to the burner? If so, it's probably a standard IDE, and a splitter from the HDD power supply connector or splicing into the power cable might work (I think it connects to the power supply board next to the HDD power connector). If not, then the data cable may be a problem, too. I might have been thinking of the XS35's custom data cable in my last post. I thought that someone else here couldn't get a KX50 burner swap to work. Check the Toshiba threads for posts from last year by, maybe, nextoo or benwhitmire.

If you decide to change the burner, I'd take a chance on a lightly used KX50 from ebay before I'd shell out $$$ for an official replacement burner.

Wow, you have a firmware update CD for the XS52? Toshiba told me one wasn't available. Don't lose it! I'd be happy to buy it from you if you ever want to get rid of it.