I have a panasnic dvd player/recorder and the manual states that if I record on dvd-r that i have to fianalize the disc in order for other dvd players to play it.
I have a panasonic model dmr-es45v

Joseph Mcdonough, September 2007

in other words its like puttin a full stop at the end of the dvd so it know where to start and stop the movie.

Lee, October 2007

Your DVD burning software will have an option to finalise the DVD when you burn on to it.

Finalising means that after the data is recorded on to the disk, the DVD is closed or finalised. (You won't notice any difference.) You can't add any more files or data to a disk which has been finalised. If you haven't finalised a disk you can burn more files on to it at a later date. Some DVD drives in players/recorders can't play disks which haven't been finalised.

Pete, September 2007