DVDR-985 Playback Quirk on Pismo & iMac SE 400Mhz

[K.]

    I just bought a Philips DVDR-985 +R/RW video recorder. Its a DVD
recording form of a VHS deck. When I play the +R discs on the 985 they
play fine but on the Macs the video is shifted up and to the right
several pixels. What is left is snow on the left and bottom edges of the
screen. On the menu scene there is also a shimmy in the video even when
the screen is static. There is also the shimmy in the Apex DVD player
deck I have but video on that is not shifted as on the Macs. Could the
DVD-ROMs in the Macs just have some problems reading the + media? Its
not a major problem as it does not take long to ignore the snow but...
Does anyone know of a solution?
    At first I thought it could be the firmware in the 985 because I
read a review on CNET that talked about a similar problem of video shift
that could be corrected by updating the firmware but I really wanted to
get converting so I just picked up another at CC and I'm going to return
the other one. The original unit was manufactured in August and the one
I just picked up was made in September. The problem is still there but
neither of the above problems occur when playing on the 985 itself.
Perhaps the firmware fixed playback on the 985 itself? I don't know how
to determine what firmware the units have. Philips tech. support was
supposed to call me today...well Monday.
    Aside from that the unit is great. The quality of video it churns
out from ten year old VHS at SP (two hour per disc mode) is quite
acceptable. Scenes with lots of motion pixelate at LP and EP settings.
Soon I will try editing video on my iMac and then exporting it to the
985 via. FW. I bought the unit b/c it would take days to create a DVD on
this iMac and I have hundreds of hours of video to transfer. It can
create copy-protected discs too. If you belong to SAMs Club you might be
able to get them to handel Maxwell discs. The local one sells a 10 pk.
of DVD+R for around $17.50!

    JK