Toshiba D-R2 DVD Player / Recorder

Rating:
Summary: Toshiba comes through again!
Review: I bought one of these as I already own two six head VCR's and a Toshiba television. I've had no problems whatsoever with any of them so I figured why mess with a good thing!

This DVD recorder is absolutely awesome! I wasn't expecting much for a lower priced unit but this one comes shining through in all aspects! Perhaps the only thing i'm a bit ticked about is the load time for a DVD. It takes the unit a good 20-25 seconds for it to read what was placed into the tray. Whether it be a blank DVD for recording or a DVD movie, it takes a bit to load up.

Besides this, there isn't anything to complain about. It's easy to setup for recording and all the various features are straight forward and easily figured out.

Do not hesitate to buy one of these units. It has replaced my VCR's beautifully!

Rating:
Summary: Good but not quite there yet
Review: I finally decided to try DVD recording and bought a D-KR2. As far as I can tell it is the same as the D-R2. Primarily my goal was to transfer all the 8mm videos of the Kids to DVD. When it worked the recorder did a nice job. Unfortunately about one in four Disks would error, recording would stop, and the disk was flagged as unusable. This is not the worst thing in the world when you have the source tape and can just restart, but when recording TV programs it becomes a bigger problem. If you have a few episodes recorded and it errors on the last, you loose everything on the disk. I was using a new stack of TDK 4X DVD-R's that I purchased at the same time as the recorder and am always very careful not to touch the surface of the disk. I could not see any disk flaws but D-KR2 somehow did. I recorded using the default SP mode. This enabled me to fit the entire two hour tape on a single disk. The quality (on my 10 year old TV) was very good. None of the sound sync problems I see in other recorder reviews.

In looking at various recorder reviews in Amazon and VideoHelp.com I see I am not alone in the creation of coasters. I seems that the recorders with hard drives don't get as many coaster complaints so maybe breaking the process up into two steps. A/D compression to the HD and then copy to the DVD is a better way to go. I am also investigating video capture boards for the PC. Unfortunately I see more complaints with these then the standalone DVD recorders.

Maybe this is a good as it gets with the current state of the Technology.


Rating:
Summary: A Masterpiece -- Get Them Before They're Gone
Review: I have had some regular experience with many DVD players, and rather unhappy experience with three DVD recorders. The two Philips DVD+R units I had were complete junk: more coasters than at your local Hawaiian pub. (Are there still Hawaiian pubs?) You could count on NOTHING from those machines(the 985 and the more recent 80). A recording would go along, seemingly fine. But then hit the "stop" button and during menu creation the disk would be ruined by the recorder. (For some goofy reason, I bought into the "DVD+R was the future" argument. A sad mistake.) Every Philips firmware upgrade seem to make the machine worse! Then I tried an Aspire machine, which shows how dumb I can really be.

Finally, I thought outside the box<g> and began looking at DVD-R units, and I found the Toshiba D-R2. RUN -- do not walk! -- to your nearest computer and buy this unit. Yes, the manual is long and requires study. (If this manual locks up your brain, then it's time for remedial reading courses.) Yes, the machine is sensitive to the type of media it's taking in. (Especially with DVD-RW media.) So what? You want to know what this Toshie likes, I'll tell you: it likes Taiyo-Yuden and Ritek -- both of which are cheap(less than 50 cents per disk) and very easy to find on the internet. With the right media, this machine never fails. It does exactly what you want a recorder to do. Records everything you want it to record. Stops and pauses on a dime. Gives you great packaging options. (Menus and such.) Gives you 50 different speeds, so if that movie is 2 hours and 33 minutes long, you set the recording speed to 2 hours and 33 minutes -- NOT 3 hours as you'd have to with all other machines, thereby sacrificing picture quality.

And you know what? It's also a great player. Right now, I'm also using the legendary Panasonic RP91 and the Denon 3800. The Toshiba is giving me a better picture(on my 61" Toshiba TV) than either of them. It also has a great zoom feature. Meaning -- Zoom Out. (Who uses Zoom In anyway? -- besides guys who wear trench coats in the house.) It is amazing how much more frame information you get when you zoom out. The sound is sterling, too.

And look at the damn price! Really, this should be a no-brainer. Buy this, and you will be very happy.

ADDENDUM: Just read the turncoat's comments on eventual failure by disks made with the D-R2. Horse hockey! Remember Tony Bennett(as Hymie Kelly) in "The Oscar"? (The greatest film ever made, not counting "Au Hasard Balthazar".) Tony would always say: "Lie down with pigs, come up smelling like garbage." Using Memorex disks is like lying down with pigs: all you're gonna get is garbage! So, use the Riteks & Taiyos(no need to locate the hard-to-find Panasonics) and you're in the jack. ("That's what I call ballin' the jack!" Was that a dirty song?)

Rating:
Summary: keep it simple
Review: I have had this machine for about a month and have thought about returning it several times. If you have had trouble seting up a VCR,forget about this one. Much to complex for most.
Who needs all these features? Seventy or so buttons on the remote. Only fair documentation. Get an electronics degree before you buy one. I will say the quality is good but I preffer my simple VCR.

Rating:
Summary: Reliable!
Review: I have to admit the first couple of days were frustrating because this DVR is capable of so many things-more than I need! After reading the manual thoroughly, the dots did connect. I have owned it for over a month now and really have been enjoying it. This is my second DVR, first being a Magnavox which was a fair unit at best.

Rating:
Summary: Important Information
Review: I must say that I never thought that buying a DVD Recorder would give me so much grief. But at least I can now say that I know more than any sales person out there.

There are 2 issues I had where the manual (missing information) and sales people couldn't help me. I figured it out and now I want to pass it on to you.

In all my research of different brands and models I've noticed that all recorders didn't play the DVD+R's. For me this was a big thing because the movies I've backed up were on DVD+R disks. I needed to find a player that would play these disks, and I found one, it was the Sony RDR-GX300. After talking to the sales person at Future Shop and confirming that no other recorders would play the DVD+R's, I bought the Sony. After hooking it up at home and testing it out, I liked it except for one problem. I have an RCA 40" projection widescreen t.v. and the DVD recorder was making all the people on t.v. short and fat. I tried all the different settings and nothing worked, the recorder even stopped me from changing the aspect ratio on my t.v.. After hours of frustration and many calls to Sony, and Future Shop no one knew what the problem was or how to fix it.

So, I decided to buy a different DVD Recorder all together to see if the same problem would occur. I decided to buy the Toshiba D-R2 even though it said that it wouldn't play my DVD+R disks. I brought it home and hooked it up and was able to change the aspect ratios so now my t.v. shows weren't stretched. I was happy for about 10 mins, when I was no longer able to change the aspect ratio. After driving myself crazy for a bit, I figured out what was stopping me from changing my aspect ratio. It was the Progressive Scan feature. If you have Progressive Scan turned on you cannot change aspect ratios. I turned mine off and everything was good.

And one more thing, all my DVD+R's play in my Toshiba D-R2 recorder and they play on my parent's Panasonic DVD player as well.

I guess the thing that gets me is why the manufactures are not telling us that the DVD+R disks will play on these recorders. And no where was I able to find anything about the Progressive Scan feature disabling the aspect ratios. The manufactures need to update their manuals and the sales people need more training in simple problems like this.

Rating:
Summary: Picky on Discs
Review: I really regret buying this. I bought a big stack of TDK DVDs to use, but this machine won't accept them. They recommend Panasonic DVDs in the manual... no other recommended or tested. I wish I would have read more of the other reviews on this product. It's not too bad for the money as long as you don't expect it to accept a lot of DVDs!

Rating:
Summary: A Fantastic Buy!
Review: I researched DVD Recorders for the last year and a half while waiting for the prices to come down and quality to improve. I am so pleased that I chose the D-R2 as my first DVD Recorder. It is absolutely fantastic! Very easy to set-up (follow the manual and you will be fine). The manuals are not very long or difficult to read at all. I practiced with the DVD-RAM a few times so I would know how to adjust settings and create titles before I began burning disks. Nearly 60 disks burned and not one "coaster". I was pleasantly surprised that the advanced settings perfected otherwise poor VHS recordings in my library - the picture and Dolby sound quality is phenomenal now! I have duplicated a significant portion of my library and recorded a number of television shows and have been pleased with every recording. This recorder is a fantastic buy!

Rating:
Summary: Annoyances and one defect
Review: I was pleased with this unit when it first arrived. The picture quality was good, recording to a DVD-R was straightforward (you can use the default settings and just push the "record" button), and the Time Slip feature using the included DVD-RAM disk was very slick. The recorded DVD-R's played fine in other players I tested. MP3 CD's played fine too.

However, one major annoyance from day one was the slow loading of discs. If you think you're going to pop in a blank DVD-R quickly and start recording, as you could with a VHS VCR, think again. It takes over a minute for the unit to recognize the blank DVD-R. Likewise pre-recorded movie DVDs and music CD's take an excessive amount of time to begin playing.

If you stop recording, the unit takes a minute to actually write all the content it captured, and you can't press the record button again until the unit finishes. So, don't stop the recording (to skip a commercial, for example) unless you know the show isn't going to come back on for at least 30-45 seconds. This particular annoyance may be common to any DVD-R recorder.

The defect that prompted me to return the unit involved music CD's. One brand new CD would not play at all. The unit would not recognize the disc. If I kept removing and reinserting the disc, it might finally recognize and play on the 3rd or 4th try. With another brand new music CD, the unit stopped playing after the 4th song. Both of the CD's in question played without error on other CD players.

It is possible that my unit was unique in its defectiveness, and that the slow loading of all discs and the failure to play certain CD's were both the result of the same defect. As long as you purchase this unit from a place with a good return policy, it may still be worth your attention. Speaking of which, kudos to Amazon for smooth handling of the return.

After experiencing DVD-R recording first-hand, I've decided the unit I purchase to replace this one should have a hard drive, which will allow editing prior to burning the DVD-R. Without a hard drive, the only way to insert chapter breaks or remove commercials is to do this real-time while recording to the DVD-R. With dozens of hours of home video to copy from VHS to DVD, it will be nice to get the entire VHS on the hard drive without being present, then interact with the speedy hard drive to insert chapter breaks and delete scenes, and then fast-dub the result to a DVD-R.

Rating:
Summary: The Disc Error Machine
Review: The Toshiba D-R2 would have been more appropriately named the Toshiba R2-D2 because it's just as quirky as the robot of Star Wars fame. While the interface isn't the most user-friendly, it shouldn't take very long for the average user to become familiar with it, though it did take a while to learn how to edit a title. While recorded picture quality is adequate, the main problem with this machine is its uncanny ability to record entirely through a disc without detecting "disc errors" and then during the finalizing process (DVD-R) discs, you commonly get the message "DISC MAY NEED CLEANING OR IS DAMAGED PHYSICALLY".
As I've been using DVD recorders for almost two years, I didn't think that brand new DVD-R discs required cleaning, but I cleaned a couple anyway. No cigar. After trying to record approximately 40 DVD-R discs FOR VIDEO on this machine, from both Fuji and Ri-Data, I've had to throw away almost 45% of the discs. If you like to spend much money on discs, this is the machine for you. It's highly doubtful that I was unfortunate enough to purchase two bad batches of discs, from two different companies no less. Rather than contacting Toshiba, I threw the D-R2 into the trash with the latest disc it couldn't finalize successfully. To provide company for the Toshiba D-R2, I also tossed the Philips DVDR-75 recorder, another nearly worthless machine that has caused many people much grief. Does anyone know of any DVD recorders manufactured to be relatively grief-free?