Toshiba RS-TX20 DVD Recorder with 120 GB TiVo Series2 Digital Video Recorder

Rating:
Summary: Well, it is a great concept...
Review: However, this product will be extremely out-dated very quickly. It is nice to be able to record to DVDs straight from shows you have recorded with Tivo, but the machine is not technologically advanced. Some of the technological problems:

1. SOUND!!!- There is no digital input, so the best quality sound you can get is standard stereo RCA, as that is the only input. There is a digital output which you can connect to your Audio Receiver, but you will not get true surround sound from this DVR, as your sound is only as good as what is going in. As a result, the sound of all my television shows are also SOFT sounding, in comparison to my HD cable box that sends raw digital sound to the receiver. Definitely the most disappointing drawback from this otherwise decent machine. One small positive note, at least the DVDs are not affected (professional ones, not the ones you record), you still get true surround sound.

2. Picture- If you have a HD TV, you will be disappointed as this DVR only accepts S-Video as the highest quality video input. The DVR does have YPbR as an output, but once again, this only really utilized in the playing of professional DVDs (DVDs from movies studios encoded in 16:9), not the ones you record. Because the only video input is S-Video, you can not take advantage of an HD Cable box or HD Satellite Receiver. You are basically left with a DVR that record DVDs and television shows in 4:3 Ratio Stereo DVDs.

3. DVD Player and Tivo - The DVRs only strong points, which are ultimately affected by its technological inferiorities. The DVD player works great and has the User Interface of Tivo, which keeps the navigation consistent. The DVD Player can also delivers a progressive, wide-screen picture and Dolby DTS and Pro Logic II, etc., as long as the DVD is encoded to those specs, most are. The Tivo works great and has plenty of storage to store all your shows, not to mention a home-networking feature so you can display your Camera / PC photos or play your PC music files.

I can not imagine this device being useful in a few years. Once High Definition programming and media become more popular, this machine will be left in the dust. For the $500+ price tag, this DVR creates DVDs that basically have the same technical specs. as a VHS tapes. Also, the television viewing experience is also ruined as you are forced to deal stretched pictures and stereo sound, not exactly a home theatre experience. You are basically left with a progressive-scan DVD player.

On a side note, if you have a 4:3 ratio TV and no Audio receiver this DVR is perfect for you. As you will have the simplicity of many consolidated devices with all the conveniences of a TIVo and DVD-Player. Just as long as you take into account that this device is completely incompatible with High Definition programming and devices, which is slowly going to be the new standard in a few years.

EDIT: I have found a solution to the HD concern. Recently, I rented a HD-DVR cable box through my cable company (Adelphia) and this cable box remedies all the problems I had with this unit. The box is made by Motorola and uses the MOXI interface (same type of user interface as TIVO, with season pass, show search, etc.). Also the box can record up to two simultaneous HD shows (16:9, Dolby sound, etc.), plus all the features of TIVO, with room to expand (It has built in USB ports for DVD Recorder, etc.)

In conclusion, I recommend the Motorola Moxi unit to those who have HD-TV, but these units are very new and only available through certain cable companies (check with yours). For everyone else, I actually recommend the above Toshiba unit, at least until the MOXI become more widely available. The DVD Tivo would be useful in this case, as at least you'll be able to keep some of these DVDs for future viewing.

Rating:
Summary: MUCH better than a VCR
Review: After having 4 different companies, including Amazon.com, cancel my order for this machine I finally have it and love it!

The setup is as easy as can be. It walks you through every step. I'm impressed that it comes with all the cables and connectors you need for the various scenarios a user might have (i.e. by-pass cable, telephone split line gadget, etc).

I do have a normal TV so I don't have the problems that the other reviewer has. No more not recording an episode because I didn't turn the VCR off. In fact, I can still use my VCR for watching a movie or recording something while TiVo runs in the background recording something else.

I haven't tried it out yet, but am looking forward to using it to convert my VHS camcorder home movies to DVD.

Rating:
Summary: A TiVo I can (affordably) live with...
Review: This is a pretty nice unit. 120GB hard drive, which means 32 to 141 hours of recording capacity depending on video quality. MPEG encoding artifacts become pretty apparent in motion scenes at medium quality (94 hrs) so I'm sticking with High for most recordings, which means 46 hrs storage on the hard drive. Of course the great positive here is that you can archive to DVD the stuff you want to keep. There's no editing of the material before you burn, but if you have a PC at home, you can always rip the DVD and probably edit more easily there. This unit, as well as the Pioneers, has a major advantage in that it comes with TiVo basic (3-day program guide, no "season pass", "wish lists" or home media features) so you don't have to pay TiVo the $13/mo subscription unless you really want that stuff.

A few nits:
* menus can seem pretty slow at times, as does the program guide
* does not display amount used/free on hard drive
* even "live tv" is displayed with "best" compression (i.e. not the native line-in signal)
* DVD burns are only at the same quality you originally recorded the show
* remote is too symmetrical; i've pointed it the wrong way 3 times already!
* $100 rebate requires perhaps 10-12 weeks of premium TiVo subscription

As for the HD complainers, come on. How many people are even receiving HD content, let alone recording it? Since the dawn of analog videotape, home recording options have always been inferior in quality to broadcast/prerecorded-content. I agree that if you have satellite HD, it's much more compelling to go with an integrated DVR/converter box that can save the programming in its native format. But most of us don't live in that world. We just want to time-shift our shows. I had been using a VCR up till now and this is much better. I don't doubt there will be better recorders in the future, but this is a nice combo IMHO.

BTW, I suggest doing a websearch/price-compare as you may not find your best deal here (hint hint).