This post is in reference to DVD-R players, not DVRs. DVD-R players are those recordable devices that are one step up from a VCR but nowhere near as cool or user friendly as a TiVo or other brand of DVR. I haven't joined the rest of the world yet and bought the latter. Anyway, if you have a Magavox DVD-R and you record your movies or TV shows to a DVD-R disc instead of to a DVD+RW disc, you're not going to be able to watch it on any other DVD player in your house until you finalize the disc. I learned this lesson the hard way this morning when I went to watch last night's Criminal Minds and couldn't get the darn disc to work on my regular DVD players.I used to just use DVD+RW discs, but I filled the two that I had with unseen Heroes episodes that I have yet to watch. Not wanting to record over those episodes--one day, I plan on catching up with my favorite mutants--I asked my mom to get me a pack of regular DVD-R discs for Christmas. They tend to be a lot cheaper than the rewritable versions so I thought that I wouldn't feel so bad if I filled them up. However, what I didn't realize when I made that request was that I would have to fill up the discs to watch them on other DVD players or at least be willing to sacrifice the unused disc space. As it turns out, the only way that you can watch the discs is to finalize them with your Magnavox DVD-R. Finalizing, from what I understand, is the DVD version of snapping that little tab off the corner of a VHS tape. Once you do it, you can no longer record on that particular piece of media.
As I have another two hours left on my DVD-R disc, I don't want to finalize it just yet. Consequently, I'm going to have to watch Criminal Minds later in my guest room, the current locale of my Magnavox DVD-R. (The guest room is one of two rooms that don't have a cable box. Thus, when I set it to record, I don't have to worry about having the cable box on the right channel.) It's no big deal really. There's a futon in there that I can sit on. I had just planned on watching the episode while wrapped up in my electric blanket.
So like I said before, if you have a Magnavox DVD-R and you want to watch your DVD-R disc elsewhere, be prepared to sacrifice recordable space and finalize it or wait until the disc is full. Also don't panic when your regular DVD players start making funny noises after you put the nonfinalized disc in and tell you that there is no such disc. You neither broke nor scratched the disc and DVD players. The players just can't read the disc.
