All:
So far, my refurbished Philips DVDR 3505/37 seems to be working OK except for one thing. At times, when I record a movie, it will record and playback fine on the Philips DVDR 3505/37 but won't play back at all on my Philips DVDP 3040 nor will it show up as anything but a blank DVD on my PC. I make sure that my Philips DVDR 3505/37 is set so that it automatically finalizes at the end of each recording and that it records so that it is compatible for other players.
Since this doesn't happen all the time, I am not sure what is happening. Any ideas?

Keith

I've haven't had a problem with mine so far. I use all sorts of brands of discs. I did have the same problem you had with my Sylvania recorder though. I wonder if you have a buggy machine.

All:
So far, my refurbished Philips DVDR 3505/37 seems to be working OK except for one thing. At times, when I record a movie, it will record and playback fine on the Philips DVDR 3505/37 but won't play back at all on my Philips DVDP 3040 nor will it show up as anything but a blank DVD on my PC. I make sure that my Philips DVDR 3505/37 is set so that it automatically finalizes at the end of each recording and that it records so that it is compatible for other players.
Since this doesn't happen all the time, I am not sure what is happening. Any ideas?
Lots of people thought they were "auto-finalizing" but it was just a message advising them to finalize, etc.

One way to tell for sure is load the disc and press the left-arrow key from any title on the 1st page. That gives info on the disc status, incl. Finalized or not.

Don't forget that auto finalize doesn't kick in until you run out of disk or get to the end of the timer. The timer also pads the time by a few minutes. As wajo said put the disk back into the recorder and go to set up. If it was finalized "Disk edit" will be greyed out. If not hit "finalize".