I bought Toshiba DR4, taiyo yuden 4xdvd-r and Sima 100. With a copy protected movie, I tried recording from about 5 years old Sony dvd player to the Toshiba recorder. The recorder's display showed recording (red light and counters ticking) but stopped about a third way through the disk and gave a message that the disk is defective. I tried again and this time the disk was used about half of first try and stopped with a same message. I found a post in Afterdawn that dvd player to dvd recorder may not work because of some frequency differences, except when recorder has a hard drive. But, in this site, I find many postings that sound as if dvd to dvd recording is possible with stand-alone machines. What is the answer? Did I waste money or do I need new disks? Sorry for the lengthy post, just trying to be detailed. Thank you all in advance.
Those 4x TY discs are gone, they can be 8x or 16x. Some standalones don't like 16x discs. If you have a PC burner, you can get the media code and find out what speed the discs are. The recorder may be defective, same with the Sima.
Thank you for your reply. I can record fine from dvd player to vhs using Sima 100. The kids don't really care, although I wanted them the dvd clarity. The dvd recorder was bought from "wegotgreatdeals.com" on e-bay. It was refurbished and there is no refund. I won't buy electronics from e-bay again. Disks are from Supermediastore. I assume they will not sell 16x as 4x. I will try to find out the disk speed. Again, thank you for your help. What I wrote here is really for the benefit of anyone thinking of doing the same. If I want to follow up, I'd go for pc burner.
They do sell 16x discs as 4x. TY quit making 4x discs around 1 1/2 years ago, I doubt there are any left. They are B grade 8x or 16x discs. The discs are still fine, I've had 4 bad ones out of over 2000. 16x discs may not work in a standalone. Before you give up on the recorder, try some different discs.