Railfan Technology > Disc Errors, What (If Anything) Can I Do?

I'd like to ask some advice from those of you more digitally inclined then myself.
I own a Sony Handycam DVD 305, and I have three discs that won't play. I would really like to see the video on them.
The first disc is a Sony DVD-RW. I recorded about five minutes and played it back and every thing worked fine. The next day I was recording again when I got an error message that read: "disc error unsupported format". If the first five minutes was recorded and played back without any problems, how can the format be unsupported?

The second disc has a similar problem, it is a Sony DVD-R disc. I recorded and played back about ten minutes of video. The next day I recorded another ten or fifteen minutes but did not play it back. Later that night I tried to see the video and got this error message: "drive error turn on power again". Turning the power on and off did nothing and the disc is difficult to eject.

The last disc, also a Sony DVD-R has eight minutes of video on it that was shot back in October. I didn't use the camcorder again until this week. I shot about twenty minutes of video when I got this error message: "disc disabled". It will play back the eight minutes of video from October but not the new stuff. The camcorder shows the disc as being full, yet only eight minutes will play.

I'm hoping that since the data is recorded on the discs, there is a way to recover it. Is there something I can do or someone I can pay to do this?
Any help will be appreciated. I never had this trouble with my super 8mm movie camera!
Thanks,
Ken Gear

Are you trying to play it back in a DVD player or in the cam?

Probably why I prefer the Canon brand over others out there and while I had a choice when I went to buy a new camcorder being tape vs. CD's, i wrote a letter to Canon of which they replied in great detail which solidified my camera choice: ZR series MiniDV. I'm sure glad I opted for tape over that of plastic discs. It's bad enough when the CD won't load up in the desktop computer...........

LVFoamer Wrote:
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> Are you trying to play it back in a DVD player or
> in the cam?

I'm trying to play it back in the camcorder.

First, I am not familliar at all with camcorders, and even less how they would record directly onto a DVD.

However, as far as computers go, when you record "burn" a DVD or CD, you do it once and once only, and have to close or finalize the disk. Yes, there is the RW format, but I personally will not use that as through time many professionals that I know state that the RW format can be problematic.

It sounds like its been finalized already. Have you tried to play it in computer or DVD player?

LVFoamer Wrote:
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> It sounds like its been finalized already. Have
> you tried to play it in computer or DVD player?

Maybe I'm showing just how much I DON'T know but, the disc is too small to play in a dvd player or computer. Do I need some sort of an adapter?

PM me and we can fix this all up for you

James

LVFoamer Wrote:
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> PM me and we can fix this all up for you
>
> James


not going to help anyone else learn anything - reason for forums 101

bob



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 03/05/10 04:53 by robj.

robj Wrote:
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> LVFoamer Wrote:
> --------------------------------------------------
> -----
> > PM me and we can fix this all up for you
> >
> > James
>
>
> not going to help anyone else learn anything -
> reason for forums 101
>
> bob

Well Bob... I am going to have him see what files are on the DVD's.. Then after I see that I will figure out what point the files are at.. Then I will play them trough a scan converter and capture the video or burn the files to a DVD depending what the files are. Most PC computer DVD players will take the small DVD his camera use but most home DVD players will not. As long as the camera burned something to the disk odds are I can retrieve it. So before I post on a form that I could I wanted to ask him some questions like where he lives and is he willing to send me the DVDs.. So I didn't think everyone on here needed to know that. Don't feek out.. I will even show everyone how I can do it.. But most people don't have a $2000 scan converter or the knowledge of DVDs and the file structure that I have.. I think thats just being nice 101...

Well you are being very nice and thank you for letting us know what you are going to do.

Bob

LVFoamer Wrote:
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> PM me and we can fix this all up for you
>
> James

I've sent the PM.
Thanks again,
Ken