DVD-R Iincopatability?

Rsjm80, Any idea what models the Sanyo and RCA units you tried it on are? I looked at the specs on your LG and, similar to my Toshiba, it reads and writes just about every format under the sun (except BluRay). I still think, if worst comes to worst, you should be able to hook the outputs from your machine to the inputs of another recorder and dub the disc so you don't lose your recording. As you probably don't have another recorder handy, you may have to find a service that does this. Many camera stores used to do this but they're a dying breed.

I don't see why you can't rip the disks and just re-burn them however you like.

I think in order to rip the discs they will have to be recognized by the computer. The OP mentioned that Windows 7 and 8 didn't recognize the discs but it's unclear to me whether this was a hardware issue or a software issue. If the problem is Windows Media Player and not the drive, I find that the Windows program VLC (VideoLAN) can play almost anything. It would be very unusual for any computer DVD drive to not recognize a DVD-R disc. They've been around for a long time.

Rsjm80,

I assume you do not own a Blu-ray universal player to try your recorded DVD-R disc/s in.

Just a suggestion you could take one of the DVD-Rs you recorded to a B&M box store and try the disc in a few different universal Blu-ray players and see if the problem is indeed the LG recorder recorded DVD-R disc/s. The problem could just be your friend's DVD players are not DVD-R compatible.

For what it is worth I have an old Panasonic DVD-R recorder that I have played recorded DVDs in 3 different model Sony DVD players. Played the same DVDs in two different Marantz Blu-ray universal players, and a cheapo Samsung Blu-ray universal player. No problems at all.
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I did look at some of the specs for the LG players and found that it stated that they won't play on other units because the format is different! Now this sucks big time as I might or will have to search for another unit that will be compatible with what is so precious to me. I just thought that all the DVD layers had universal formats to play everything. Thank you everyone for your help and suggestions.