Hi all,

Yes, newbie question: i have a Sony DVDrec-VHS combo (RDR-VX500) and am seeing 8x media (DVD-R has worked well for me) dissappear from the shelves.

I've tried 16x media and, while it does record "normally", it's not recognized by the recorder after i'm done recording.

Sony tells me "don't worry, we'll be making 8x media for a while" but couldn't tell me why the newer format is incompatible (the "1-16" doesn't mean "all formats up to 16x", i guess).

Can anyone shed some light on this matter ? Should i stock up on as many 8x DVD's as i can ? (i can still find good deals on the web, though i don't know if they will "go out of style" in a few months).

Doesn't this seem a little ridiculous, like i'd have to buy a new DVD recorder every couple of years ?

Thanks for any help,
Benny

Is it the same machine that you recorded the disc in that doesn't recognize it? It may be that the 16X media burned so poorly that it can't be read. My experience with a Pioneer 633 is that the quality of 16X media burns is much poorer than of 8X media. This is from burning both types in my Pioneer and then testing the burn quality using my PC. If you have a PC with a burner and software that can test the burn quality then you should check the burned discs you're having problems with to see how good they are.

If it's another machine that can't read the discs then double-check that you've finalized them. Unfinalized discs are the most common reason that a disc can't be read.

thanks for your answer Sean, but it's the same deck and, no, i can't even get to the finalize page.

after i record, i usually name the material but it simply doesn't see that anything was recorded (although it was doing something with the record light on and the counter was going..) and tells me there is an imcompatible disk in the drive.

when i place an 8x disk inside, everything goes back to normal, hence my panic that 8x disks will not be made a year or two from now (though i'm sure i'm not the only one with this problem, hopefully some DVD manufactures out there also own 8x recorders !).

It just could be the media brand & batch that your Sony doesn't like. How many brands & batches of 16x discs have you tried?

Also what format have you been using -R or +R or both?

Hi all, Yes, newbie question: i have a Sony DVDrec-VHS combo (RDR-VX500) and am seeing 8x media (DVD-R has worked well for me) dissappear from the shelves.

I've tried 16x media and, while it does record "normally", it's not recognized by the recorder after i'm done recording.

Sony tells me "don't worry, we'll be making 8x media for a while" but couldn't tell me why the newer format is incompatible (the "1-16" doesn't mean "all formats up to 16x", i guess).

Can anyone shed some light on this matter ? Should i stock up on as many 8x DVD's as i can ? (i can still find good deals on the web, though i don't know if they will "go out of style" in a few months).

Doesn't this seem a little ridiculous, like i'd have to buy a new DVD recorder every couple of years ? Thanks for any help, Benny

Benny, some members have reported this same problem over the years - trying to use higher speed rated media in their recorders, then what the manufacturer says will work. Some have had no problems, others have had no success.

Members here use soo many different combinations of recorders and media, that it would be very time consuming to try and keep track of it all. And at this point, no one has bothered making a thread on the subject, however helpful it would be. Besides, that topic would be worthy of a sticky and up until now, it's seems next to impossible to try and get the moderators of this section to stick any seemingly noteworthy threads. "Disc Fade is REAL" is one noteworthy subject that comes to my mind, especially considering another new thread on that subject was just started a few days ago.


...Can anyone shed some light on this matter ? Should i stock up on as many 8x DVD's as i can ? (i can still find good deals on the web, though i don't know if they will "go out of style" in a few months)

Doesn't this seem a little ridiculous, like i'd have to buy a new DVD recorder every couple of years?...Benny

My Sony manual specifically states that my recorder, (a Sony GX300), will not work with media that has a faster speed rating of 4X for +RW, 2X for -RW and 8x for +/-R's. And fearing your exact problem, I've stocked up on +RWs because I figured that 4x +RW would be the first off the market. Although, I'm sure 2x -RW isn't that far behind it either.

I would try different brands of 16x media and see if you can get any to work but I wouldn't put too much faith into them.

Obsolescence, planned or not, it's the law of Consumer Electronics.


nx211

Incidently, I also practice what Sean does.

I test the quality of each and every burn for parity errors on both my RW and R media. I've found the results to be quite interesting as it has been revealing of what one would classify as "A" verse "B" grade media and consequently I no longer shop from one of my original online media sources.


nx211

When I couldn't find 4x media for my old Emerson, I found I could get a free firmware update and now can use 16x. Unfortunatly, I see no update available for the vx500. When and if they put one out, you will probably find you've moved on to a newer machine anyway. (Like I did)