Help! How do I finalize these home minidvd's?!

Ok, my wife just called in a slight panic. We have been using our home mini-dvd recorder for about 6 years, recording the ususal family occasions. Typically we just plug the dvd recorder directly to a tv, and play the videos.

1 year ago, our sony gave out, and we replaced it with a toshiba. Well, to my naive surprise, the minidvd's won't play in the toshiba. And, many of them have not been finalized, so they won't play on our dvd or computer either. Crap.

How do I finalize these mini-dvd's? We do have the original recorder, but its broke.

Is there some other way to do it???

I never had this problem with the vhs tape !!! Isn't technology wonderful???