Hi,

Ive got a panasonic dmr-eh65 that shows 'unformat' every time I try to play a dvd+rw disc (verbatim brand). The discs work in other dvd players. any ideas on how to overcome this would be appreciated. Thanks

What model year is the EH-65?
Panasonic DVDRs didn't support the +RW fromat until '06.
'05s supported the +R but not +RW format.

Other factors that could cause the unformat error -

Even though panasonic started supporting +RW in 06, it still wasn't "full" support, by that I mean some of the features of +VR recording are not supported at all. This means that if the +RW wasn't recorded on the Panny, then there is a good chance that it may not be playback compatible on the Panny, unfortunately. How was the +RW generated in the first place? Was it recorded in +VR mode or plain vanilla Video mode (which requires finalization, I believe - though I am not an expert on +RW media capaibilty)?

Also, the Panny's are notoriously finicky on media brands. Try another brand of media. I have had success using Verbatim DVD-RAMs in my Panny's, but that doesn't necessarily mean they will like Verbatim DVD+VR. To verify compatibility with the Verbatim +RW, try recording to a blank Verbatim +RW ON THE PANNY and see if will play back on the Panny without problems (you may have to preformat the disk). If you can't format or record to the Verbatim +RW or reliably play back a Panny recorded +RW disc, then the Panny very likely has compatibility issues with Verbatim +RW media and that is the root of your problem. In that case, if you want to record to and/or playback +RW on the Panny, then you will have to find a compatible +RW brand. If you have no problems with the Panny recorded Verbatim +RW, then the problem is likely the fact that your other legacy +RW's were recorded on a non-Panny machine and this is causing a comptibllity problem. If this is the case, then to enable the content on the legacy +RW's to be viewed on the Panny will require that you copy the legacy +RW discs to a more universally compatible disc type (such as -R or +R) media using a disc copy program on your PC or by hooking up one of your DVD players that can handle the +RW discs to the video inputs of your Panny and dubbing to a universally compatible disc or to the HDD (and then dub to a universally compatible disc) on the EH65.

Good luck.

Thanks jjeff and vferrari for your replies.

I checked my unit and its from June 2006.

The discs I have tried were generated on my PC using Nero. Will try your suggestion of recording from my unit to the disc and see whether playback is possible. Im hoping its just a case of my unit not liking the verbatim discs as my PCs burner won't record to -R media.

Thanks again

I checked my unit and its from June 2006.

Beginning with the 2006 models all formats are "supported." As many Panasonic users have found, Panasonics are "friendlier" toward DVD-R formats than DVD+R formats. It's best to stick with a "friendlier" format than taking chances with "less friendly" formats, especially now with the proliferation of inferior 16X media in the marketplace.

Owners of older machines should make sure that they run the latest firmware updates to "work with" whatever good quality 16X media may still be in circulation.

It appears that high quality 8X media is starting to disappear from the marketplace. The time is now to buy whatever quality 8X media may be found before it's gone.

While some recent computer DVD burners claim speeds up to 22X, I've yet to even hear of any HDD/DVD recorder capable of high speed dubs that exceed 8X. Wajo suggests that the Magnavox 2160 may have a DVD Drive rated/operating at 8X. Yes, my 2160 high speed dubs are "blazing fast" well, sort of, because the 2160 is much faster than my Philips 3575 or Magnavox 2080, but 8X? Well . . .

I copied a show from my units hard drive to the +RW disc and it copied and played with no issue, so I guess that rules out the media as a problem. Sadly, I think i'm all out of options at this point. Thanks for your help everyone!