help with new dvd recorder (1 Viewer)

[Mike<R]

I just bought a Ilo dvdr04, well kind of a xmas present from my wife and from me to each other. Yeah I know a cheap(very cheap) recorder.
Here is my problem-- I tried to burn some home movies but it keeps stopping on me, at about the 20 minute mark. This happened three times on the fourth time it recorded but stopped later on. This seems to be the case that it will stop then after a few tries start again. I thought it might be the parental lock but I changed that to adult. Now it said something about copy protected, or parental control, but I do not remember what exactly it said. If it is copy protected how can this be? I taped this on my camcorder, then dubbed it to vhs tape, and now am trying to burn it to dvd.
Any help would be appreciated.
thanks

 

[ChuckSolo]

It sounds to me like you have a defective unit. Unless the unit senses that the source is copy protected in error, that should not even be an issue with home movies. I have successfully burned 4 discs on my Gateway DVDR directly from my camcorder with no issues whatsoever. Do you still have the camcorder tapes? If so, try it that way. But the fact that the unit is stopping and giving you weird messages leads me to believe that the recorder is damaged somehow. Will it record TV channels? Try that too. If it stops while recording TV channels, something is definately wrong.

 

[Mike<R]

I don't have it hooked up to directv. I have it just hooked up to a spare tv. I do not have most of the original camcorder tapes. I might just bring it back and exchange it for a new one.
thanks
mike

 

[Mike<R]

So I brought it back and bought a new model a sanyo drw-500 and I am having problems with this one also. First thing do all dvd recorders not record if the screen has static on it, cause if there is static are it goes blue, it stops, it also stops then starts up again at a latter time. This is also the first time I have ever opened an instruction manual in my life, and people I know come to me for help with vcr and dvd player. The manual gives no help at all. The main reason I bought this is to put home movies on dvd some which are over ten years old, with some static. Any advice would be appreciated
thanks

 

[ChuckSolo]

Static should NOT be a problem. I know that my Gateway appears to do what you are saying, starting and stopping, when I put in a new disc, but that is because it is auto formatting the disc. Also, you don't say if the recorder uses DVD-R/-RW or DVD+R/+RW discs. There are some recorders that can write to both, but not in your price range. Make sure that you are using the proper media. Mike, with all due respect, with these new "contraptions" now a days, it is ALWAYS wise to open the instruction manual and to READ it. It is NOT as easy to use a DVDR as it is to use a VCR. There are a couple of steps that the DVDR has to do to be able to record. Also -R/+R media has to be "finalized" before regular DVD players will recognize the disc. Keep in mind also that not ALL regular players will recognize your burned discs. Some players will recognize both -R/-RW and +R/+RW media but most will only read one or the other. On my Gateway there are a couple of steps you must go through before making a recording unlike VHS where you just select the channel and then push in the tape and press record. Mine makes me pick the input, S-Video, TV or other input source. This has to be done through my "Disc Tools" menu. Since your experience is the same with two machines of different brands, there must be something you are doing wrong that is causing this problem. I have done the same thing you are attempting to do with my Gateway DVDR and my Sony camcorder hooked up via the Gateway's S-Vido input and my tapes are all more than 10 years old, dating back to 1989. Mine have some static on them so I know that is not the problem.

 

[Mike<R]

Give me some credit, the recorder takes r+ and rw+ so those are the disks that I use. Also I have been just using the rw+ until I become more familiar with recording a dvd.I have never had a chance to watch this on another dvd player cause it will not record. I have also read the manual, it is not a very good booklet there is not much info in it for troubleshooting. During recording it just stops, so if I had a r+ I could not finalize it. A few other things it does not stop at the same place every time. It might stop at ten minutes into a recording then on the same thing being recorded stop twenty minutes. As far as steps it is pretty simple and basic.
also it when it stops a message says input changing then it stops
again any advice would be appreciated
thanks
mike

 

[ChuckSolo]

Mike, sorry to sound condescending, but many times you have to ask these questions to get some idea of what is going on. Now that we are a little more in depth on this I can say with a bit of certainty that I believe it to be an issue somewhere between the camcorder/camcorder connection and the DVDR. You say that the screen goes blue and the message says that the machine is switching inputs? Check the cable going from the camcorder to the DVDR. It could just be a bad case of bad cables. Does the camcorder have more than one output? For example, my Sony Hi8 camcorder has a composite (yellow) video output and an S-video output. I usually use the S-video output into the S-Video input on my Gateway. Try using another output if one is available. If that also fails, try going to Wal-Mart and buying some fairly inexpensive cables and swap them out with the old ones to see if that doesn't do the trick. Another issue could be that the camcorder itself is going bad and the output signal is being interrupted. In any case, since 2 different DVDRs are experiencing the same behaviour, it certainly points the finger back at the camcorder itself or it's connections to the DVDR.

 

[Steve Berger]

Have you tried making a DVD from a clean source , say with the camcorder in camera mode (not playing , just viewing)? The idea is to determine if the recorder has a problem or if it is just poor source material (drives mpeg encoders nuts). If it records clean sources OK but not your tapes then you're going to need to clean them up somehow. The better DVD recorders have timebase correctors and noise reduction circuitry which inexpensive machines may not. If it won't record a clean signal then either the machine is bad or you hae a disk incompatibility (try a different brand of disk ?)

If the bad spots are repeatable then you might be able to start and stop the recorder during the good sections instead of trying to record through the bad spots.

 

[Mike<R]

I have been using a brand new vhs machine not a camcorder, the tapes are taped from a camcorder around 10 to 15 years ago. I changed the jacks, changed vcrs, and also changed disks none of them helped at all. I am also getting a recording prohibited. I also called sanyo's help line and they said that this is a problem with this dvd recorder so they are sending me some firmware to download onto the dvd recorder. Now should I wait for the firmware or buy another dvd recorder? Since recording home movies is the reason I bought this I don't want to be stuck with a machine that is not able to do this. I will try to record from my video camera this weekend to see if that works.
thanks for the help
mike

 

[ChuckSolo]

Chances are, the Ilo recorder and the Sanyo may be one and the same machine, using similar or matching electronics. I would try the firmware upgrade (what have you got to lose!) and if that doesn't work, get a different brand of machine. On my Gateway, I tried to copy a tape of "Pumpkin Head" that a friend who owned a video store copied for me more than 10 years ago. When my DVDR tried to copy the movie off VHS tape, I got the "Protected Content" message and my recorder stopped. I hope everything works out for you.:frowning:

 

[Mike<R]

Well I got the firmware and it did not work at all, it actually got worse. So I took it back tonight and tomorrow I go to best buy and buy a more expensive machine(around 250 to 300 I don't want to spend alot).

 

[Karl_Luph]

Mike, before you go to BB, check out this machine, Balance DR4111 ,they sell them at Wal-Mart. It might be able to fit your needs.