Bad discs from DVD-R camcorder & one way to recover them

I work at a video duplication/post production place, and a good portion of what we do is convert people's home videos from one format to another. Four times now, people who have the new DVD-R camcorders have had one of their discs appear to record fine, but when it came time to play it back, it wouldn't for some reason. The camera wouldn't properly finalize the disc, or it already had been finalized, but the camera, nor any dvd player or computer would recognize the disc. In one instance, I was able, through chance, not skill, to finagle a woman's camera to play back her video, and I just recorded it to another DVD recorder. Two other times, I couldn't do anything to help the customer get their videos back. A friend of my sister just had a baby, and the birth was recorded, and the disc did the same thing. It clearly had something recorded on it, it was a clean disc, but it wouldn't play anywhere. I tried finalizing it, but it failed. Putting it in my computer, it recognized it as a blank DVD-Rom. I downloaded two trial recovery programs, but only one worked, IsoBuster from www.isobuster.com. It was able to recover the whole thing, and I then used NeroVision Express to burn a new disc. Tomorrow, I'm going to recommend we get the program at work. Just posting this, in case anyone runs into a similar problem. I wish I could remember the two customers I couldn't help, 'cause, now, I probably could.

Greg

 

Thanks for the information Greg. I haven't needed something like this, but I am always wondering what I'll do when I do.

This is one of the reasons I purchased a hard drive camcorder recently instead of a DVD based one. I had heard of problems with the discs.

 

Great info Greg.

Not to thread crap but I think DVD-R cameras are one of the worst ideas to ever hit the electronics world. So unreliable and fragile to start with, not to mention an iffy archive option. Also, when it does work you're stuck with compressed video as a master. Yuck!

dan c

 

I agree with all of that, but they have a convenience factor and a trendy factor to them, so I keep seeing them come in. If anyone decides to go that route, get the best discs you can (Sony's seem to be decent, of the ones I've seen) and KEEP YOUR FINGERS OFF 'EM! Hold those things by the edge, or you'll get a finger smudge shaped hole where the laser couldn't write, when you were recording your precious memories.

 

My brother was transferring some older HI-8 camcorder tapes to a DVD based recorder and had problems with Finalizing the media. Are DVD-Recorders acting the same way with playback issues?

 

We have used Panasonic (mostly) and Sony DVD stand alone recorders with very few problems. The most common issue we have had, is that discs we make play fine on our machines at work, but don't necessarily play well in the machine a customer has. Unfortunately, for the customer, this tends to be more of a player issue than a disc issue. I do think we tried some cheaper DVD's once, and had more problems with them, so we stick with Taiyo Yuden (sp?) DVD-R's, which we buy in bulk. So, don't skimp on discs, but aside from that, no the DVD recorders haven't had as many issues as the DVD camcorders seem to.

 

Hi all,

isobuster is one application all CD/DVD owners really need if possible. It has saved my bacon many times when a critical disc wouldn't read. I also feel like you need EAC to go with it. When burning discs you need proven quality media which is compatible with your equipment.

 

Agreed - it has saved many discs which didn't finalize correctly - discs that were years old that I never knew there was a problem with. A great program, definitely recommended.