can anybody help. Why is the rw dvd that I downloaded from my computer and also erased on my computer now showing unsupported on my recordable dvd player?

try rebooting...works for me...every once in a while I have things like this happen..just recently had Nero loose knowledge of the fact that I have a DVD burner, and it decided I didn't...and changed the recorder to my HD...and even upon reboot I had to go in and manually change it back...it saw it, but still had itself set to using the image recorder (my HDD)...go figure...

I still do not understand how I can get this disc to play in my Toshiba DVD recorder?

most likely you have not created a DVD movie disc..I bet its just basically a data disc at this point...DVD compliant video is NOT what you downloaded (most likely), rather its in a format for play on your computer...to play in a DVD player it will need to be converted to DVD format...I recommend Nero7 as a very simple tool to do it for you..

if you have further interest in this subject, might I suggest visiting the following website: http://www.videohelp.com/