I have a Panasonic DMR-ES20 and have 2 discs (DVD-RW) that i haven't finalized yet, one with 4 hours of stuff and the other with 2 hours. I took the 2 hour one out of the machine to record something on another disc and then put it back in the machine 2 minutes later and now suddenly it says that the disc needs to be formatted to use. ummm....no i've already used it! It's doing the same thing to the 4 hour one, but there are 2 other discs i have that aren't finalized that are just fine. I'm fully aware that formatting it will erase all of my work. I'm in the process of converting about 100 VHS tapes onto DVD format and have already thown away some of the tapes i've already transferred. I'm thinking I'm just SOL...please SOMEONE tell me this is a temporary glitch and it'll work fine tomorrow!
Why are you using RWs for VHS transfers? You should be using R discs. RWs don't store like Rs do. The discs may be unreadable in a few years. Verbatim makes the best RWs. Stay away from Memorex discs.
Wow, i didn't know anything about the RWs possibly being unreadable in the future! I started using them because I was irked that I could delete things on the Rs but not get any space back, so I was trying to cut down on my creation of coasters if my cat or child accidentally changed the channel mid-record. I know everyone seems to have their own opinion on what's the best brand of discs to use, but would you also suggest Verbatim for -R as well? I'm not interested in the price, I just want my discs to work!
Verbatim or Taiyo yuden for R discs. TYs can only be bought online. You should be connecting the VHS to the DVD with RCA cables. It sounds like you may be using coax, don't. You can copy those RWs to Rs in a PC if you have a DVD burner.