Will not finalize

I have different version of Panasonic but all the siblings in this family have the same problem. (see forums in Europe and US)

More Timeconsuming troubleshoot:
One of the files being burned to the disc has a skip in it.
See about when/where it cancels the burn. That'll clue you about where it is on the file. Look for a section that shudders/ skips or otherwise displays only 1 frame for a time and doesn't forward. You'll need to go through the entire file on a slowfastforward (not superfast) to see where it begins to skip. Remove that section (set A-B) points and delete that section.

Try again. I found that it will record even with skipped frames to DVD-RW but will not burn to -R even if I took the RW burn and copied it back to the HD because the skipping portion is still part of the file.This happened whenever I edited very closely and was fine-tuning out any commercials. It happens also if you are watching another file while recording. When fast forwarding through a commercial on the file you watch, it taxes the portion that is recording a file at the same time.
If you're not sure and the other files have no dropped frames, then just let this one go. You can burn 1 file at a time to narrow down which one it is.

Prevention: best to let it record and not watch another file at the same time. Let it focus on 1 thing at a time. I know the manual says you can do both. They never mention that it doesn't do it well. See if you can juggle, ride a unicycle and carry on a conversation simultaneously. You could and there are exceptions who can do this professionally. DVDRs are not one of them.

Easy Troubleshoot: When it does this, reformat.
If you have anything on it, sorry, reformatting will erase everything. Do soon because these are warning signs. I had to reformat every 3 months or so. The last year it lived, it was 1xmonth.

I loved mine but they don't market HD recorders with HD an dno subscripton service anymore. After yours dies, consider a HomeTheatre PC but get one that can record HD ATSC signals. PCs can do it now but there is no living room recorders that can record HD yet. You have until 2009 to consider this for a future option. If all your stuff comes in on cable anyway, then no worries. Nothing will change for your situation.

I have different version of Panasonic but all the siblings in this family have the same problem. (see forums in Europe and US)

More Timeconsuming troubleshoot:
One of the files being burned to the disc has a skip in it.
See about when/where it cancels the burn. That'll clue you about where it is on the file. Look for a section that shudders/ skips or otherwise displays only 1 frame for a time and doesn't forward. You'll need to go through the entire file on a slowfastforward (not superfast) to see where it begins to skip. Remove that section (set A-B) points and delete that section.

Try again. I found that it will record even with skipped frames to DVD-RW but will not burn to -R even if I took the RW burn and copied it back to the HD because the skipping portion is still part of the file.This happened whenever I edited very closely and was fine-tuning out any commercials. It happens also if you are watching another file while recording. When fast forwarding through a commercial on the file you watch, it taxes the portion that is recording a file at the same time.
If you're not sure and the other files have no dropped frames, then just sacrafice this one. You can burn 1 file at a time to narrow down which one it is.

Prevention: best to let it record and not watch another file at the same time. Let it focus on 1 thing at a time. I know part of the features say you can do both. They never mention that it doesn't do it well. See if you can juggle, ride a unicycle and carry on a conversation simultaneously. You could and there are exceptions who can do this professionally. DVDRs are not one of them.

Easy Troubleshoot: When it does this, reformat.
If you have anything on it, sorry, reformatting will erase everything. Do soon because these are warning signs. I had to reformat every 3 months or so. The last year it lived, it was 1xmonth. Then start over. As soon as you have something to test. Do it before letting the drive pile up more stuff. Then if it works again, great. Otherwise, you may have to reformat a few more times. If it's under warranty, get a work order and have them check it.


I loved mine but they don't market HD recorders like this anymore. After yours dies, consider a HomeTheatre PC but get one that can record HD ATSC signals. PCs can do it now but there is no living room recorders that can record HD yet. You have until 2009 to consider this for a future option. If all your stuff comes in on cable anyway, then no worries. Nothing will change for your situation. When mine died, the contract let them refund my purchase price but there was nothing to buy so I started looking at building one instead since the store also sells computer components. Good Luck.