Quote - the problem was the Disk not the players.

The disks may be made to the same format, but the way disks are recorded is not the same across different recorders. Frankly, even the disks aren't the same from one manufacturer to another and older disks are not the same as newer disks rated for higher record speeds. Look at negative reviews at Amazon for DVD-R disks to see that some disks aren't universally usable on all recorders. I've found that DVD+RW disks from Magavox become unusable after a few dozen recordings, but haven't had the same problem with Sony disks. Even when using the same recordable DVDs across all recorders, I've found many incompatibilities with the different DVRs I have. Recorders, nearing the end of their lives, don't reliably record disks and may not indicate a problem till somebody tries to play the disk. Don't forget that Europe and the Americas use different TV systems so that even entirely compatible players and disks are not going to work in a country that uses a different broadcast system--be it analog or digital HD.

DVD-R disks, if not finalized, are not likely readable across different DVD players/recorders. DVD+R disks don't always need to be finalized to be playable on different players, but it's still a good idea to finalize the disks. DVD-RW disks, recorded in the default VR mode, are not playable in many DVD players/recorders. I have to remember to format RWs in video mode to avoid that problem. New DVD disks, rated for high record speeds, aren't necessarily playable in older DVD recorders/players. My old laptop cannot record on new DVD-R disks, but can record new DVD+R disks. It can still record the few older DVD-R disks that I have.

I've got a few different DVD recorders and they have different levels of compatibility with each other.  With VHS, I could take a tape, record an hour on it with one VCR, bring it to a different brand VCR and continuing recording on the disk. If I try to do the same thing with a DVR, the second DVR probably won't recognize the disk as even being formatted--let alone see that it has room for more material. Between my Pioneer and Panasonic DVR, the disks can be exchanged and recorded on. The same disk is seen as unformatted in my Magnavox DVR. An edited VR mode DVD-R on my Pioneer (using the built-in editing features on the DVR), even after being finalized, is not playable on anything I've tried other than on the Pioneer. It is not playable on any other DVR, DVD player, or computer that I've tried it on. I haven't even tried to use disks recorded with PC software, but that probably has whole new levels of incompatibility. DVD recording software typically does not close the disk session after recording, so the disk is less compatible than if the session was closed.

I've learned that not all recordable DVDs are the same. Not all DVRs are fully compatible with one another. A finalized disk at least has a better chance of being playable than one that isn't finalized. The odds are that a problem with playing a user recorded disk is not with the disk (assuming the disk is made by a reasonably reputable company). There are far too many levels of incompatibilities with hardware to easily blame a disk as being bad.

It's very frustrating that new technologies are less compatible and often less flexible than the ones that they replace.

My visual indexes of Poser content are at http://www.sharecg.com/pf/rgagnon