Hello.

I've been given the above DVD recorder/VCR machine to try and sort, on a 'nothing to lose by trying' basis!

'Bought' DVDs play fine, but it really struggles with any recorded DVD regardless of format. It can't even cope with discs recorded and finalised on an IDENTICAL machine (the owner used this one for transferring his video camera recording onto DVD and the other acts as a 'normal' machine to record TV in his sitting room...) The symptoms are that it 'hunts' very noisily - lots of whirs/clicks - for the 'start' of the disc and it's pure chance whether it'll actually play it or not; you can often have some success by repeatedly reloading a disc.

I've used a lens cleaner - repeatedly - and have also opened the machine and gently targeted the lens directly with a cotton bud and alcohol (as I said, nothing to lose!)

No improvement.

Any ideas on what I can try next?!

Many thanks.

Scoodle, October 2009

Thanks to you both for your replies. (Sorry for delay - I had quite forgotten that I'd posted on here... Oops.)

Sounds like a generally 2nd-rate machine!

Kirky, I can't remember the dismantling sequence as it was a few months ago - it is currently boxed up in the garage until I can be bothered to have another go at it! In general, it was a logical process - remove case, target the DVD drive, try and remember which screw goes back where...

I think the lens was a bit awkward to get to, but a cotton bud can get into pretty inaccessible places!

Bear in mind I had nothing to lose by taking it apart - it's a pretty useless machine in its current state...

Scoodle, February 2010

Had similar problem when I first bought this machine. There is the option not to finalise a recorded DVD. See if this works. Problem I've got is machine tends to squeak/whine when playing back home recorded DVDs. Advised it could be dust build-up on the spindle. No problem on pre-recorded DVDs. Just wondering how you managed to get the spindle housing off to get to the DVD.

Kirky, February 2010

I have one of these machines. Its generally very slow and clicks and whirs a lot. It even fails to play back disks it has recorded on SP modes after it has finalised them. I think its just a poor product. It probably needs a software upgrade, but nothing is available from Samsung.

D Bav, December 2009