Magnavox 537, 535, 533, 515, 513, 2160A, 2160, 2080 & Philips 3576, 3575 - Page 634

I never get errors with +R, -R or -RW. The E4 error is supposed to be for OPC but it was nearly finished dubbing when it happened. I cycled the DVD tray and checked the title list and it showed only the Empty Title. I started the dub again on the same disc and it completed without error.

I often get the errors soon after starting, which is a lot less annoying than when it happens in phase II write about the time completion is expected. My errors always start E4, but the rest of the code isn't always the same. +R I've never bought because one of my Pioneers can't use them. +RW I've only bought once for essentially the same reason. -R I've bought several thousand of, -RW, probably 200 or 250.

Try 'Skip 987' to recalibrate your burner.

Would this Skip code work, and or be harmful if used on the non hard drive Magnavox ZV457MG9?
I get an error code on non Sony -RWs when trying to record. This unit doesn't seem to like anything other than blank DVD-Rs and the Sony -RWs.

I did the Skip 987 with a TY -R and Sony +R. I'll report back if I get another +RW error.

I really can't say. It may be unrecognized in this machine.

Amazon dropped the 515H price again. Guess there were not a flood of buyers at $500.

The Skip 987 didn't seem to fix the problem. I got the disc error again.

How many discs did you try? How many of those you tried errored? What do the business side surfaces look like?

OK, my refurb 515 arrived from WW Distributors. As others have reported, plain brown carton, but perfect cosmetic condition - looks new. Skip 079 gives HDD = 21 hrs. Skip 321 gives DVD-WR = 0:00, DVD-RD = 0:05 and CD = 0:00. My FW is the oddball 726V. Manufactured July 2011 (tag on back). Refurb date = 02/03/12 (from carton). A single test with a DVD-RW recorded on an LG DVD was fine. Recording now on the HDD and will report back.

Is there an advantage to going to FW 727V from 726V?

hi ken...

i get these errors as well on my 3576 Philips machine with -RW discs. usually after they've been used quite a bit. may or may not be important.

HOWEVER... i have 3 Philips 3576 machines and only one of them seems to be tempermental in this regard. the same disc in the 2 other machines never yields an error...

not sure how important the recal stuff would be, since the machines do their stuff using -r and +r media for the cal, and the rw discs are a horse of a different color to begin with...

i've never had the error toward the end of burning, but only at the beginning, like mrmazda stated... this could be a function of where on the disc a blemish might be located... closer to center and you get an early error, closer to edge and you get a later error...

when this error occurs, for me, i do a short manual record ( 30 seconds or so ) to the disc, then erase, then try again... as i recall, this usually maks the thing work.

FWIW, when i load the problematic disc, i can hear the machine hiccuping as it tries to seek, and it usually takes a bit longer for it to lock up and be ready.

this makes me believe that the disc in question may be nearing its end of life cycle or some such thing....

also with the problematic discs, i regularly burn some shows for my sister ( she has a Mag 513 ). We went through a chronic problem with these discs not loading up on her machine and i finally popped the top on the 513 and cleaned the optics, which cured that issue. i'm sure that the problematic discs are still problematic, but cleaning the optics did help her machine load the discs without error...

of course, i ended up cleaning the optics on my 3576 ( the source machine for the burning side ), and that did help things as well...

so maybe you're seeing a combo of ' end-of-life disc ' and slightly tempermental optics ... your machine might be more sensitive to any surface scratches that might be on the discs...

hope this helps..

rgds,
ron g

The disc surfaces look good. I just tried the third disc since the Skip 987 and it burned OK this time. I have 5 different +RW discs in rotation and they all give the disc error once in a while.


I've had this happen early and late in the dub process. Last night the dub went to 100% and just when the "Writing to Disc" part started the error popped up.

I've done that too.

It doesn't make any unusual noises with these +RW discs.

I've had problems with these discs right out of the package. They might have 10 or 15 uses each.

I don't think it's dirty drive problem. I don't have any trouble with -R, -RW, or +R discs.


Thanks for the ideas.

hi ken...

don't discount the dirty optics. as stated, the RW's are a horse of a different color ( as well as +RW vs -RW with their sync and timing differences ), using a phase change layer to allow for re-write operation. the characteristics can be different in terms of optical power, as well as beam focus.

the RW's CAN be less forgiving when burning.

a gentle cleaning with a swab and 91% or better alcohol might just clear the issue up.

whenever i have opened up my machines, i've been surprised by how much dust accumulates in there from the circulating air. the fan pulls straight air in with no filtering. while the area where the optics are located is somewhat shielded, it still allows air to circulate inside the burner body. unless you're operating inside a ' clean-room ' , daily use WILL accumulate microscopic dust particles on the optics, possibly providing just enough beam diffusion to cause a hiccup with the RW discs.

personally, i consider this issue the ' achilles heel ' for all DVD & CD drives, since the manufacturers never make it easy to clean these things.

rgds,
ron g

I'm going to try some different +RWs before I take it apart to clean it. The hardest part of the job will be tearing down the stack to get the 515 out. It's second from the bottom in a stack of 6 interconnected components.

It was turned off so I now have it turned it on.

finally got around to loading 727V into my 2160A. I used CD-R. I've only ever used CD-R and DVD-R on all systems and never have a write problem.

scott s.
.

I deleted the dubbed title, made a short recording, deleted the title, made another short recording, then did Erase Disc from the disc menu. I dubbed the title again, then added chapter marks at the beginning and end of each commercial break, then hid the commercial chapters. I then selected "Make Edits Compatible". It's currently writing to disc but it's taking a very long time. It went to 4% and stayed there for about 5 minutes. It then quickly went to 8% and got stuck again. I have to leave the house for a while so I guess I'll let it run while I'm gone. I'll see what I have on the disc when I get home.

Edit: When I got home the disc was finished and plays fine. It seems to be working OK with +RW discs again but time will tell.

I got my refurbished 515 from WWD yesterday as well. My report is almost identical to yours except that my HDD = 2 hours and the DVD-R = 0:11. The manufacture date and the refurbish date were the same as yours. The tuner is superb and is able to capture very weak OTA stations.

I too have the same oddball 726v firmware. In a direct comparison with a 2160, I've noticed that the 515 is much quieter in its functions. The HDD on the 515 does not power up a full minute before it's ready to make a timer recording as does the HDD on the 2160. However, after making a timer recording, the 515 does not power down but continues to run for about a minute after it is done with the timer recording. When it did that, I feared that the 515 was not going to shut off. It was a very long minute while I waited for it to shut down! The 2160 HDD shuts down immediately after a timer recording is completed. Obviously a firmware change.

I dubbed several two hour shows from the 515 HDD to various disks without any problems. I tested Sony DVD+RW, Verbatim DVD+R and Verbatim DVD-R. All the burns were flawless.

Same good results here. HDD recording has been fine. Direct DVD recording and dubbing from the HDD (real-time and high speed) were also fine on a no-name DVD+RW. The tuner also seems fine, but local Comcast has every interesting station behind the digitally encrypted 'firewall'. But the clear QAM channels look great...

Ken, please check your SKIP 321, are the values changing or stuck?

I haven't checked it lately but I think it's changing.

DVD-WR: 94:11
DVD-RD: 267:28

Skip 079 shows 3962 HDD Power On Hours.

I believe this is normal in all models since at least the 2160A's. If within that 1 minute after a timed recording ends, you bring up the recorders screen on your TV, you'll see a message on the screen asking: "Do you want to turn power OFF? YES/NO". If a selection is not made, unit will automatically power down.

Probably designed that way to save a little wear & tear on the system, should you wish to continue using the unit.

Thought I should report that I opened one of the new 513's I purchased from Wally World last month, and the first thing I noticed was that the unit did not fit snug in the styrofoam packaging, there was about an inch gap where the unit was able to slide from front to back. Thinking this strange, I did my HDD and burner checks:

HDD power on: 43 hours
DVD-WR: 0:00
DVD-RD: 0:10

So, obviously while I bought this "new" from walmart.com, it wasn't. My firmware is:

E2S00UD
HD6A269726H1E

I haven't opened the other one yet.

EDIT: So far, everything else checks out. One other thing I noticed: I placed this 513 on top of my existing 3576, fully expecting to use the barrier method to prevent the remote from controlling both units, but I was pleasantly surprised that the 513 and 3576 remotes did not control the other unit. I tried power, record, stop, play, source, and a few other buttons. I may be remembering wrong, but isn't the old Philips line and the Mag line supposed to have this remote control issue?

That's what my 3575 has always done.

From: OPERATING ONE UNIT IN MULTI-UNIT SYSTEM
"If you have one Philips and one Magnavox recorder, no problem for you either since neither remote will operate the other brand."

I figured it was a middle-aged moment.

Following up...probably not the last message on this topic, but a good place to weigh in. I have the new Funai drive on hand to replace with, but I wanted to try the cleaning first. I just did that, put it back together, and played a regular DVD - no problems. But when I put in a blank DVD, on the DVD setting and it started to format it (guess it does that automatically) I again got the "recording error, can't record on this disc the error E 4 54039000". Why would it be able to read and play already recorded DVDs fine but not burn new ones?

Sounds like I have to put the new drive in.