Great recorder/player...but not perfect.
Written: Jul 12 '07 (Updated Jul 16 '07)
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Pros: Big Hard Drive...Easy Editing...Lot's of features...TVGuide is FREE.
Cons: Internal fan runs constantly-No way to choose record stop time "on the fly".
The Bottom Line: Works great. Big step forward from the VCR we've been using forever. Wife can even operate it and she had a very hard time with a vcr.
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| dragracer's Full Review: Toshiba RD-XS35 (160 GB) DVD Recorder / HDD Record... |
I'm going to make this as short as possible since it would take a very very long writeup to explain everything I have learned about this machine. This is the first and only DVD/HDD recorder I have owned/used so I have nothing else to compare it too....other than the VCRs I have owned. There was definitely a learning curve, but after using it for a week or two it all gets to be second nature. I will NOT be going back to the old VCR any time in the near future. :)
The TV Guide online is OK for free. It's a little slow but still tolerable. I was NOT about to pay a monthly fee for something like TIVO, so it suits me just fine.
This in not an issue as far as I'm concerned, but I've read a lot of complaints about the internal fan. It runs constantly(even when the unit is powered off) and can be annoying in certain situations I guess. The location I have the unit placed I hardly even notice it.
If I had to pick one thing that really bugs me about the unit, it's the fact that there is absolutely no way to set a timed recording by simply pressing record(unless setting the recording from the TVGuide screen). If you want a recording to stop at a certain time(say two hours), you HAVE to set up a manual recording with a start and end time. Otherwise it will just record the maximum 9 hours and then stop. Every VCR I have ever owned you could just manually press record repeatedly to set the record time(in 15 minute increments). This unit has no option for doing this. Kinda silly if you ask me. Maybe there is some sort of hack for this issue, but if there is I have not found it. I'd give this unit five stars if it weren't for this one "glitch".
Other than that one thing, I cannot complain about the many great features this thing has. I have recorded tons and tons of programs at a very good(SP) quality and the hard drive is yet to get even close to half full. At the lowest quality settings I can get something like 10 hours of video on a single DVD. It's not great quality, but it is definitely watchable. I'd say comparable to the EP setting on the old VCR.
I looked at several DVD/HDD recorders before I purchased this one. There are much more expensive ones out there but there was always something that lead me back to this model. If there's a better one out there for the money I have yet to find it. I like it a lot.
Recommended:
Yes
Amount Paid (US$): 330
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Epinions.com ID:
dragracer
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Reviews written: 11
Trusted by: 0 members
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