I have owned a Symphony DVD recorder (VCR/DVD combo) for about a year and a half now. It is virtually an RCA recorder with a new label on it (it looks, acts, and operates just like my friend's RCA recorder so I am going to go out on a limb and say they are the same thing.)

It has given me only a minute ammount of problems in the last 19 months, but they are becoming a little more frequent and I was wondering if anyone might know why.

Ever since I got it, a few discs in every spindle would get to a point while dubbing or recording a program in which it would stop and give an error message saying that the disc was not recordable (as if it had gotten to the end of the disc or was already filled up, even though the register clearly showed anywhere from 2 to 3 hours left.) This usually occured towards the second half of the disc.

In February it got to the point that no disc would record at all. I was about to give up on the recorder when I ran a lens cleaner through the system just on a whim. After that it began working perfeclty again.

I have started running a lens cleaner through the machine once every other week now, however last week I began getting those similar errors. They tend to pop up most often while i am using Maxell or Sony discs, however Imation and Memorex will occasionally give me issues as well so I can not pin point a certain type of disc that causes these problems.

In extreme cases the recorder will not even want to finalize once it hits the error point, and basically becomes a dead disc with playback only available in the recorder itself.

With all that being said, is this indeed a problem with dust or debris getting on the lens and I need a better lens cleaner, is this something more technical, or is it just in the disc?

I am doing my best to hold out on this DVD recorder until at least November when I can justify using Christmas money to buy a replacement. So any help on keeping this thing working seven more months would be a big help.

Thanks in advance from a board newb. Hope I get some help, and maybe I can be of service to some other while I am here.

Update: The past few days I have been using the recorder without problem. *Knock on wood*, but an Imation disc did give me problems Sunday night. So at this point I am convinced it has something to do with the recorder itself and not the discs.

Anyone got any advice yet?