Older player/recoder DVDR3545V/37 refurbished, video formats played

The manual is as confusing as the functioning of this unit Rather than giving a list of what can be played it shows little copyrighted images....hard to compare to what is shown in the led box of the unit! I cannot get several discs to play, mostly the ones I recorded from downloads on Win 7 computer. Our new Sony BluRay plays them...whether mpeg 1 or 2, MVW, avi or others. I notice it says discs must be finalized to play. I am only assuming the computer finalized them because it said so. Is there another step? Does anyone have a LIST of formats playable by this player? Philips support site is NO HELP! I have a video converter program. If I know what could be played I could find a format supported by the BluRay and do all discs in that format (If I knew what it should be!!!) Just would like to be able to play all on both machines!!! Help!