DVDR Troubles

I had wanted to put together a system that would allow me to import, edit and burn video files to DVD-R discs. I approached an on-line acquaintance to pick his brain on the subject and he suggested I get an older iMac, a fireiwre DVD drive and go to town.

So, about a year ago, I bought an iMac off of eBay.

I bartered some 16mm films with the aforementioned acquaintance to grab some additional peripherals, and here I am with a small pile of stuff sitting on the desk in my family room.

I tried hooking up the DVD drive and got a big goose-egg from Mr. iMac.

Gee, whiz! Where's the drive's installation disk, I wondered.

Oh, no. The 'Mac will instantly recognize the drive and it will be usable without installing any drivers. After all, THIS IS AN APPLE NOT SOME CRAPPY (99.99999% of the market share) WINDOWS-BASED SYSTEM!

Uh... no.

After a couple of panicky e-mail to my mentor, he finally came up with the suggestion to unhook everything, unplug the computer for five minutes and then restart the whole mess.

Bingo! That did it. The DVD drive seemed to come to life and it was displayed as being present on the iMac's desktop.

I tried out the Roxio TOAST program. There was a six minute cartoon on my hard drive, so I figured I 'd use it to burn my first DVD.

People, The danged program started running. And running. And running.

I went to bed.

I got up at 2:00 AM and it was still running.

When I woke up the next morning there was a message that my disc was now ready.

I hit the "eject" button and ran upstairs to see the fruits of my Apple's labors.

Eagerly, I popped the disc into my DVD player's drawer and hit the "play" button.

The player started running. And running. And running.

Finally the dreaded "Disc Error" message was displayed on the TV screen.

Dang!

I popped the disc into my DVD-R recorder.

It played!

Not exactly a total success, but at least I now had a single cartoon that could be played on 50% of my household DVD machines.

And that's been it.

I have gotten only "Windows OS X" error messages ever since that one and only disc was burned.

The iMac's DVD PLAYER application doesn't work and the TOAST program doesn't work.

My mentor has offered to help me over the phone, so I'll have to figure out some time that is mutually beneficial to contact him.

Oh, well, at least I still have my PANASONIC DMR-ES10 DVD recorder...

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1. Last weekend I was walking by our "entertainment center" and something caught my eye.
   
   The digital clock display on my good old PANASONIC DMR-ES10 DVD recorder was blank.
   
   Not flashing, not dim, but blank.
   
   "Oh, geez," I thought to myself. "Either we've blown a fuse or one of the cats pulled the plug again."
   
   A quick check of the breaker panel and the unit's power cord brought about the consideration of a third possibility.
   
   My PANASONIC DMR-ES10 DVD recorder has died.
   
   It is just plain dead.
   
   Back in the day, I would've taken it my friend's AV repair shop, but there are only two things wrong with that plan now:
   
   1. I moved from Buffalo, NY to Fayetteville, NC ten years ago.
   
   2. He went out of business eleven years ago.
   
   Looks like I won't be burning any DVDs until (dare I even think it?) after the old IRS refund check arrives this Spring...