hi, i have a pionerr dvr 320. i put in 2 different blank dvds from different manufacturers and both were rejected. the only thing i can think of is that both these dvd-r's were 16x and i think the manual says it only accepts dvd-r's that are 2x or 4x?! for sure, these are dvd-r's and not dvd+r's so that is not the problem. i went to staples today and they only have blank dvds that are 16x. what do u recommend, plz?

16x DVD media is now primarily a loss-leader commodity product for retail stores. The mfrs constantly fiddle with new production methods and dyes to lower the price. Computer-installed burners can handle these changes or be updated cheaply and easily, but the burners in old DVD recorders are "stuck in the past". You need to shop online at supermediastore.com or rima.com for "old-school" 8x DVD-R. The most popular high-quality brand is Taiyo Yuden, you can get 100 of these premium made-in-Japan DVD-Rs for about $25-32 shipped to your home (depending on weekly sale promotions). Older Pioneers burn TY just fine, try these discs. If your 320 cannot burn them, its drive has worn out (its five years old after all, so thats not unusual).

If you really love your 320, there are ways to replace its burner, but its tedious and requires you to track down an old but still functional Pioneer DVR-107 generic PC burner (no easy task). You would then remove the old burner from your 320, open it up and take out its controller board, and put that board into the "new" burner. The recorder should then recognize the "new" burner as if it were still the old one, and function properly. This doesn't always work, though, and American consumers are probably better off putting the money towards a new Magnavox DVD/HDD recorder from Wal*Mart (many more features than the old 320, HDD recording doesn't use discs for simple timeshifting. has up-to-date digital ATSC/QAM tuner).

thx for the response. im just using the unit to copy some vhs home vids to dvd so once i finish my collection, ill be getting rid of it anyway. for burning dvds in general i usually use my pc (but converting vhs via pc is too tedious).

when u were mentioning them as loss leaders, were u saying that 16x is less good than 8x? sounds like faster would be better...

looking at taiyo yuden... seems to be various options... r there ones i should veer towards? eg:white, silver or Premium?

thx for the links and recommendations!

There is fierce debate about the advantages/disadvantages of high speed media coupled with high speed burning. I fall on the side of those who think 16x is a complete crock, and can't fathom the thousands of PC users who aren't even satisfied with 16x and try to find overclocked burners that will do 20x or 22x. What these people gain from the 90 seconds they save over using 8x media baffles me, I guess they have thrill-packed lives with no time to spare. To please them, the industry threw the near-perfect 8x standard out the window. 1x, 2x and 4x media all had major compatibility problems in DVD recorders, 8x was much better, then 16x plunged us back to incompatibility issues. Yuck.

16x media is largely just average media, because its made to meet a warehouse club price point. This has forced consolidation of many brands into two or three generic OEM factories, all spewing the same lousy discs under a dozen brand names. The only independents left are Sony, Verbatim and TY. Sony used to be a bit better than average but is now making flakey discs on par with the generic OEMs. Verbatim 16x is made by one of the junk factories but on a separate production line with better materials and tighter quality control: if you must buy 16x Verbatim is the way to go. TY makes 16x, and its good, but their 8x is superb and arguably the best price/performance deal in media. It burns more easily than 16x and is archival quality. AVS member wajo recently posted tests showing TY 8x requires 40% less laser power to burn accurately, which puts much less stress on burners. This is especially good for DVD recorders, whose burners are not throwaway $25 consumer-replaceable parts.

If you use a PC and up-to-date burner, Verbatim 16x is generally excellent. Other brands of 16x media can be decent when burned in a PC, but you take your chances- some batches from some factories are great, others fair to poor. If you don't absolutely need 16x burn speeds, TY 8x Premium Silver Lacquer is about the best DVD-R media available and certainly the best for use in standalone recorders.

thank you for that really thorough explanation... i had absolutely no idea about this. i read pc world every month and have never seen this issue covered. really appreciated it. and thanks for the reco.: ordered Taiyo Yuden Silver Thermal Lacquer 8X for 25.99 at supermediastore.

why dont either rima or supermediastore carry cd-rws? my car cd player doesnt play mp3s or have a line-in, so to make a different mix every few days, its cheaper to use cdrws than to install a new stereo system. appreciated those stores for the Taiyo Yuden dvds but im really surprised they dont carry cdrws. are they that obsolete?

i bought the recommended Taiyo Yuden 8x DVD-Rs. but even these are rejected from my pioneer dvr 320. do i now need to go down to 4x discs? or is the machine just not working?

i bought the recommended Taiyo Yuden 8x DVD-Rs. but even these are rejected from my pioneer dvr 320. do i now need to go down to 4x discs? or is the machine just not working?

The Taiyo Yuden 8x DVD-R media you purchased for $25.99 were probably "Value Line" discs packed in shrink wrap without a spindle. At the moment the TY "Premium Line" 8x DVD-R discs packed in the "cake box" are priced at $26.99. I purchase Premium Line discs by the boxfull (600 discs). Premium Line discs are never a problem for my Panasonic, Magnavox and Philips recorders.

See yesterday's post summarizing my TY "Value Line" experience:

http://www.avsforum.com/avs-vb/showthread.php?p=17350780#post17350780

If you machine isn't reading/writing Ty 8x DVDs it's probably a lost cause. One last ditch option might be the spit test. What you want to do is moisten your index finger with saliva and then gently rub your finger around the innermost bottom clear part of your DVD. Only the clear part nearest to the center. Then while the disc is still wet insert it into your machine and see what happens. On Panasonics if this fixes your problem a spindle cleaning is needed. I've been told cleaning the spindle on a Pio is much harder if not impossible to do. I've been doing this for well over a year on one of my Pannys and I've had no problems.
Don't do this if you've just eaten something or probably drank anything sticky like cola. You don't want the spindle to get sticky but clean saliva seems to add just enough grip to make Pannys grab the disc without slipping(which causes bad or failed burns).
I don't think you're going to be able to find 4x R discs and truthfully I don't think the speed is your issue, either it's a bad drive or maybe a spindle issue.

tried ur suggestion and it didnt work, so im actually glad to hear its probably a dead unit, instead of now trying to locate 4x discs. thx for the help!