I know Digido has addressed this in another thread, but for the life of me I can't find it, and it was actually in another thread, not specifically talking about this grinding problem so I thought it deserved a thread of itself.
I know this problem effects Panasonic DMR-es30, es-15, es-25 and EZ-17. I assume all Panny's, but have personally only observed the grinding in the above models.
Problem-especially noticeable during finalizing, changing thumbnails, writing titles, etc. What will happen when trying to do the above the machine will make a loud grinding noise, sometimes followed by a self check, which may make disc unreadable or unfinalizable.
I've tried cleaning discs, which don't really help. Today I had this problem again, this time I noticed the inner hub of the disc was all scuffed up(like it had been slipping in the machine). I know it did not previously have this scuffing. So on a hunch I looked at all my previous discs that failed finalizing, and sure enough the inner hub was scuffed. So I think what is happening is the rubber part that holds the DVD is dusty, causing the DVD to slip, when the speed needs to change fast, for whatever reason. When it slips when writing to the disc I believe it causes dire consequences.
To test this thought I took another disc to finalize. I slightly moistened the upper and lower inner hub of the DVD(with saliva), and tried finalizing the disc. This time it worked fine with no grinding. After I looked at the inner hub and this time it had some dust stuck to it. I tried this same thing with several DVD's and they all worked fine, and the dirt on the inner hub lessened with each disc.
I suppose the correct thing to do is to take the machine apart and clean the hubs with a q-tip and alcohol, but if you're in a jam, or don't want to take the machine apart, spit seems to work fine. Note only a little will do, you don't want to have it spin off the inner hub and get on the laser. I also think saliva will work better than water, since it's slightly sticky and will attract the dust to the inner hub of the disc, where it can be wiped off after taking the disc out. I think water would not attract the dust as much, also water would not make the DVD stick to the hub as well as sticky saliva.
I'm sure this sounds like a rather unorthodox solution, but it made a old Panny of mine, that had been previously ruining discs left and right, work for all 10 discs I needed to finalize with no problems. Before this I would never think of finalizing discs on this machine, due to chronic grinding/crashing.
Note cleaning CD's only clean the laser with it's brushes, they do nothing to the rubber hub, that holds the DVD from slipping. I think this hub's ability to hold the DVD is crucial to reliable finalizing. Previously I had always blamed the laser for unreliable finalizing, now I think it's more related to the slippage of the disc during writing.
I know this problem effects Panasonic DMR-es30, es-15, es-25 and EZ-17. I assume all Panny's, but have personally only observed the grinding in the above models.
Problem-especially noticeable during finalizing, changing thumbnails, writing titles, etc. What will happen when trying to do the above the machine will make a loud grinding noise, sometimes followed by a self check, which may make disc unreadable or unfinalizable.
I've tried cleaning discs, which don't really help. Today I had this problem again, this time I noticed the inner hub of the disc was all scuffed up(like it had been slipping in the machine). I know it did not previously have this scuffing. So on a hunch I looked at all my previous discs that failed finalizing, and sure enough the inner hub was scuffed. So I think what is happening is the rubber part that holds the DVD is dusty, causing the DVD to slip, when the speed needs to change fast, for whatever reason. When it slips when writing to the disc I believe it causes dire consequences.
To test this thought I took another disc to finalize. I slightly moistened the upper and lower inner hub of the DVD(with saliva), and tried finalizing the disc. This time it worked fine with no grinding. After I looked at the inner hub and this time it had some dust stuck to it. I tried this same thing with several DVD's and they all worked fine, and the dirt on the inner hub lessened with each disc.
I suppose the correct thing to do is to take the machine apart and clean the hubs with a q-tip and alcohol, but if you're in a jam, or don't want to take the machine apart, spit seems to work fine. Note only a little will do, you don't want to have it spin off the inner hub and get on the laser. I also think saliva will work better than water, since it's slightly sticky and will attract the dust to the inner hub of the disc, where it can be wiped off after taking the disc out. I think water would not attract the dust as much, also water would not make the DVD stick to the hub as well as sticky saliva.
I'm sure this sounds like a rather unorthodox solution, but it made a old Panny of mine, that had been previously ruining discs left and right, work for all 10 discs I needed to finalize with no problems. Before this I would never think of finalizing discs on this machine, due to chronic grinding/crashing.
Note cleaning CD's only clean the laser with it's brushes, they do nothing to the rubber hub, that holds the DVD from slipping. I think this hub's ability to hold the DVD is crucial to reliable finalizing. Previously I had always blamed the laser for unreliable finalizing, now I think it's more related to the slippage of the disc during writing.