Rating: 
Summary: Fantastic Recorder - Not For Dummies !
Review: The Toshiba DVD recorder has too many great features to list in small review.If you are new to DVD Recorders or not willing to learn. Then get one desgined for dummies. But once you learn all its features, you will be rewarded with the finest quality recordings. Yes this unit has a 150 page manual, as well as two smaller ones. That alone should give you a clue as to how many features this has. The remote, does not have the strongest signal. However, you could always replace it with a universal remote. It does have some oddly labeled buttons. But once you learn them , all is fine.The virtual keyboard that is used to name your DVDs. Is your standard "QWERTY" keyboard. Should you make a mistake there are a delete, backspace, and clear keys on the Keyboard. One odd feature is that you must press the PAUSE button for CAPS LOCK. But once you know that,it's simple to use. Just be sure to press the * key after you named your DVD disk. You are NOT able to edit chapter information on a DVD-R with ANY DVD RECORDER using DVD-R Disks. That's why this unit uses DVD-RW and DVD-RAM disks. Those disks are used for editing. The picture quality is excellent. There are three noise reduction units to prevent blocking and mosquito noise. Unless you record in the six hour speed you will not have to use them. In reply to the person who thinks this unit is difficult to use. He obviously needs a simple plug 'n' play tinker-toy unit like the $200 Gateway.
Rating: 
Summary: Incomprehensible user interface
Review: The Toshiba DVD recorder seems like it was created as a textbook example of how not to engineer a user interface. The underpowered remote, which will not work unless pointed directly at the recorder's sweet spot, is covered in a bewildering array of incomprehensively-labeled buttons. I'm a smart guy, but seeing buttons labeled "*" and "O" really puts me off. The virtual keyboard was evidently designed by a sadist; combinations of moving the cursor around the screen merge with strange elections like "pause" to toggle caps lock. Should you make a mistake (easy with the box's slow response times to its weak remote), you'll need to flip a little door open on the remote to find the "delete" button. Just be careful not to press the identical "clear all" button that's right next to it. When I tried to edit chapter information, I got highly uninformative error messages about the option not being available. I had to dig through the 150-page instruction manual to find that I was getting the error because I was trying to add chapter information to a DVD-R, which is verboten. The picture quality is decent. The built-in line doubler works tolerably well. But using this thing is like pulling teeth, and in fact I've barely touched on the pounding headaches this device will give you. Mine is going back to the store. I'll get a DVD recorder manufactured by a company that actually hires people to create usable UI.
Rating:
Summary: Solid product with some really bad quirks
Review: Three reasons not to buy this device:
1) It's very slow. Want to eject a disk? Hit eject and find something else to do for 3 minutes. Reinsert a disk? Wait for it to load for 3-10 minutes (these are not exaggerations).
2) Unreliable. Some people say the UI is bad. I found it pretty easy to use. However, I set it to record about 40 shows. 3 of them didn't work. It wasn't that I did something wrong, it just didn't go. Right time, right channel, internal clock was correct, set to "execute" but it didn't even turn on.
3)Waste a lot of disks. About 1/5 of what I recorded eventually failed for one reason or another. In one case, I had 6- 1/2 hour shows on a disk. When recording the 7th, a very small finger print ruined the burn and consequently the disk. Countless other times, it simply said the disk was dirty or ruined.
I went back to my VCR. It never fails (unless I make the mistake) and it works quickly and efficiently. Why buy new technology that's worse than the old stuff?
Rating: 
Summary: LOVED IT, BUT DISCS UNUSABLE
Review: UPDATED REVIEW: tried to change stars from 5 to 1, but it's not showing up.
So at first I just LOVED this item and I burned a whole bunch of discs... the problem was when I actually started to watch them... or rather TRIED TO... virtually NONE of the 60 or so discs I burned can play all the way through without either stuttering, freezing, or just giving up altogether. It doesn't matter if I play them on a different machine or the Toshiba itself, they are UNUSEABLE. It's a shame b/c everything else about the machine -- design, # of inputs & outputs etc.-- is excellent.
I've spoken to Toshiba Customer Service & they say the problem is the brand of discs I use (some cheap little upstart named Memorex) -- Toshiba only recommends 2 brands as truly working with their machine, one is a Japanese brand I've never seen available in the US and the other is Panasonic. This information is presented as a footnote on p. 9 of the user manual.
Considering that the product itself is a DVD Burner, an item that exists for the sole purpose of burning blank DVDs, a compatibility issue with blank media is not just some minor concern but rather a MAJOR CONCERN which Toshiba has an obligation to alert its consumers to in an obvious, impossible-to-ignore fashion.
Between blank media and materials copied, I have easily wasted over $100 cash, to say nothing of my valuable time and efforts in: purchasing media, burning discs, labeling discs, and cataloguing a library. Now I have to start all over again. Thanks a lot.
Needless to say, I am FURIOUS and feel completely ripped off.
To sell something that is so severely limited in its ability to perform its designed task is appalling; to fail to alert consumers to these limitations is shameful at best and mercenary at worst.
OLD POSITIVE REVIEW:
I've truncated this so as not to waste anyone's time. The upshot is I did a lot of research & was really happy with the machine & all it's features & recording quality, until I realized that virtually all my discs were unusable, even though the machine had happily burned & finalized them. I don't find the menu too confusing, as others have written, but rather intuitive & user friendly, It would be the perfect machine if it didn't have this disc problem.
PS: And don't buy the Lite-On 5000, I tried & returned that. It's a total piece of junk.
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