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309 of 311 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
Toshiba D-R400 w/up-covert $139.00!!!, May 10, 2007
I looked around for about two weeks before I decided to buy this unit. I wanted to go with a Panasonic because I have always had good luck with the brand, but, after reading all of the reviews on Panasonics in this price range I decided to look at other brands. And I mean I looked at EVERYTHING. It seems that Panasonics have lots of problems reading DVDs burned by other machines. Every brand I looked at had some kind of problem except for this Toshiba. This is a very nice product...
I am impressed with the features/performance of this recorder for $140.00!!! For this small amount of money you get a DVD recorder that up-converts to 1080p. It's a steal! I have played many different DVDs burned by at least five different machines as well as computer DVD burners, and I have not had a single problem. In fact, I can now watch several DVDs that I couldn't watch on my old DVD player!
(Keep in mind that this is my first DVD recorder)
Something that surprised me in a good way... When writing to a DVD +R/+RW and -R/-RW if you select "Auto Finalize" this makes the DVD viewable on other machines. On a computer when you "finalize" or "close" the disc (DVD) you cannot write to it again. This is not the case with this recorder. With this Toshiba when you finalize after your recording you can still go back and record something else until the DVD is full. What this means is you don't waste a 'full' DVD on a 1/2 hour show. This is a GREAT feature. Another thing is that when you load the menu to select your recording, each recording (thumbnail) is showed on the screen. If you click on any of them you get a full video preview of what's recorded. Why is this cool? Let's say you record seven different shows but you can't remember what order you recorded them in, and, you want to watch a particular show. How are you going to find it? The menu lets you look at every recording so you can choose the one you want.
Things I like:
- Highly compatible with DVDs burned by other machines
I have not found a DVD I can't watch yet
- Very easy one touch recording
Hit the button and it does the rest
- Very easy menu creating (auto if you like) and editing
Let's you create and edit your own menus or let it do it for you
- Commercial skip 30, 60, 90, 120 seconds
Very nice for when you record TV shows, just hit the button and say good-bye to the commercials
- Pause live TV, Chasing Playback DVD -RW (go back to the beginning of the show you are watching while it's still recording)
Pretty cool feature for when you get a phone call and don't want to miss anything (just like a DVR)
- Auto finalize feature
Select this and it will finalize (close the disc) after everything you record
- Use the same DVD 1000 times DVD -RW, just format it and record away
You will NEVER use a VCR again
There is nothing I don't like... >;-)
Honestly, for the money, you could easily spend $140.00 for a DVD "player" with up-convert. With this unit you also get a DVD "recorder".
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64 of 66 people found the following review helpful:
4.0 out of 5 stars
If you have an HDTV, you need an Up-Converting DVD player., June 11, 2007
I definitely notice a big difference in quality from my old normal DVD player and this up-converting one. My 57" DLP HDTV showed how bad my old DVD player displayed an image. It was very pixelated. But this looks very nice coming through in 1080p. Since the image is up-converted it is not quite as good as the 1080i HD channels, but still looks much better than the old DVD. I have only recorded to a DVD once and it worked perfectly. I guess I thought I'd be recording more often. I love that it plays DivX files and I use that frequently. Complaints: I don't really care for the remote. It feels a bit awkward and too squarish. But that's not a big deal. The best input is S-Video, so when you record something that was on an HD channel it will not be as good of quality as the original. I don't know if this is the case on all DVD Recorders or not. And when you first put in a disc it spends about 30 seconds loading it befor it plays it. I guess this is because of the up-converting, I'm not sure. That's not a big deal, though, I guess.
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110 of 120 people found the following review helpful:
4.0 out of 5 stars
Good Value for money, April 16, 2007
I was looking for months for a product that is under $200 range, can upconvert to 1080p and record on DVDs. Toshiba D-R400 is the solution.
The product works great out of the box. I can definitely see the good upconversion quality but to be honest, I cannot tell much difference between 720p, 1080i and 1080p. All of them look almost the same on my 1080p LCD TV.
For those of you who do not know, please remember that you cannot expect the black bars above and below of the widescreen DVD movie to get removed using this upconverter. I was under the impression that an upconverter lets view the picture full screen but that is not true. Only Blue Ray/HD DVD will do that. But hey, still for $140, you get good quality upconversion using D-R400.
I tried recording on one of those cheap GQ DVD RW from Frys and it works fine. The disc preparation is fast enough and does not take forever as my old junk Lite-On DVD recorder used to. This DVD recorder did not complain for a particular branded DVD. The TV program recording was of very good quality.
I have a HD receiver and its HDMI input cannot be given to D-R400. You have to give an S Video or RCA input and record the program and when you are watching the replayed DVD, you see the upconvered quality at 1080p.
One disappointing thing is that there is no HDMI cable in the box. Circuit city and other retail stores sell those monster HDMI cable for $89. What a rip off! But you should be able to find a good HDMI cable under $10 on various sites.
Overall, I would say this is a great value for money!
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