Railfan Technology > Need Help With Unplayable Videos on DVD

Years ago I used a Sony Handycam DVD-305 camcorder to shoot my railfan videos. I have several Sony DVD-R discs that I recorded on, but I cannot play the video. Most played when I first recorded on them but will not play now, or only partially play. I get an error message telling me it is an unsupported format when I try. How can that be when the disc was recorded and played back at least once on the that same camcorder?
Can anyone suggest a way to retrieve the corrupted video from those discs? Is there a mail-in service I can send them to or a software I can buy? I would really like to see all that unplayable video, it amounts to 10 or so discs.
Thanks,
Ken Gear

look an ebay for another unit maybe?   a friend may have one for sale, but he is out of reach for a couple weeks



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 07/14/18 13:28 by dan.

I've had a number of home made DVDs go bad on me and several friends have, as well.

Since I'm the 'computer geek' at church, I naturally looked at a number of DVD recovery programs I could find on the web.  The one I bought was ISOBUSTER.  Here's the link: ISOBUSTER site.  I don't recall whether the freebie version will fully recover a DVD (there's a number of products on the web these days that the free version either leaves 'ads' in the output or only does a partial job).  So I bought the home user version.  $40 as I recall.  I've recovered 3 of my own and 3 church videos.  One of those was only partially recoverable, the software recovered 14'32" of a 15" video.

Other than being a satisfied customer of ISOBUSTER, I have not, am not, nor will I be in any way affiliated with ISOBUSTER.COM. 

Thanks very much! I'll give them a try.
 

The dirty secret is DVD-R and CD-R are not even close to permanent.  They die in a few years.  The last time I checked, the Library of Congress still recommends magnetic media (hard drive) as the only means for archiving electronic media.  You still need multiple copies, and files need to be periodically transferred to newer hardware.  Anything less, and you will lose your content.

While video and audio tape are magnetic media, they will suffer from the loss of playback hardware even if the tape itself survives in playable condition.  VHS, Beta, and DAT machines will fail just from sitting because the rubber belts and roller harden.  Repair parts and skilled technicans are getting scarce.  Transfer those tapes to hard drive NOW.


 

Apparently bluray when recorded on a non-organic die disk is the longest lasting storage medium...

exhaustED Wrote:
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> Apparently bluray when recorded on a non-organic
> die disk is the longest lasting storage medium...


......but we won't know for at least a hundred years!  chris uk

The end is near - for everyone and everything.

Gold plated DVD, archieval stuff. But let talk the reallity of it, the DVD is dead format, just like 2" video tape.

CPRR Wrote:
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> Gold plated DVD, archieval stuff. But let talk the
> reallity of it, the DVD is dead format, just like
> 2" video tape.

While DVD useage may be down or on the way out for watching movies, it is still greatly in use for data archival purposes.