Bad disc-error i have recorded my daughters 1st b.day on my samsung vp-dc 171w it was playing fine on the camcorder but is now saying bad disc- error, i am worried i have lost the footage that i have recorded and am in turmoil as it is something i cannot replace please can someone help me to resolve this if it is possible as i am feeling gutted. Claire. I got same problem, i have recorded my Brother-in-laws registry wedding. It was ok but last moment it gave me a message bad disk and now i lost all footage. Need help from some one.

If your using DVD-RW make sure you format it in video mode. Do your recordings then when you want play them back on a dvd player you have to finalise the disk in the camcorder first.
If you want to continue recording you will have to un finalise the disk.

Windows media player is not the best for playing dvds. You can get other players for free that will support the DVD format much better for you.

Here is one of the better ones. http://www.avsmedia.com/download/AVSDVDPlayer.exe

Remove the DV tape from the camcorder and check the position of the red tab on top of the tape. Reverse the position and see if it protection goes away.

RE; smasung DC 161(i) pal and possibly other models The reason why there is no disc message when there is definitely a disc is installed is because the disc programming has malfunctioned, Its because of Samsungs poor design, after powering up the camcorder and inserting a disc, the disc will load and a green flashing light appears for a minute or two while loading if the Samsung camcorder is switched off while loading the camcorder will essentailly self destruct and their is no remedy, however that does not mean the Samsung is completely useless,the camcorder can record on a 4 GB SDHC(max 4GB) card using the switch from disc to memory card

what ever size disc your using simply dont record the whole disc, example if you are recording on a 30min dvd-r only record 28mins then finalising will not be a problem.

are u sure about the media type tat is supported in ur cam.

i bought a camcorder from currys model vp dc 172w back in october. i took it to las vegas to record my wedding. its recording fine but i cant finalize the disks. iam folowing the instructions from the book. on 1 disk its trying for about 30 seconds then is saying disk error. the other disks i cant even get them to start running. can you help me please.

BAD CCD. SAMSUNG IS KNOWN FOR THIS. YOUR OLD TAPES WITH GOOD RECORDINGS PLAYBACK GOOD? YOU CAN RECORD AUDIO BUT NO VIDEO ? IT IS A BAD CCD

What a load of rubbish this camcorder is and Samsung customer service is a load of rubbish too.

Put it back in the Camera and see if it tells you the disc is finalized when it tries to format the disc. If it does then you know for sure it is finalized..