Toshiba DR560 1080p Upconverting DVD Recorder with Built-in Tuner

Toshiba DR560 1080p Upconverting DVD Recorder with Built-in Tuner | Toshiba DVD Recorder

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Toshiba DR560 1080...

	Toshiba DR560 1080p Upconverting DVD Recorder with Built-in Tuner Toshiba Toshiba average customer review:based on 81 reviews view larger image
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highly recommended

What I wanted

I have only had this machine a couple of weeks; so far it has been just what I wanted. I now have a digital tuner for my analog TV, and even though I live in the hills over 50 miles from the city I get stations from via my rooftop antenna, reception has been very good. I made a copy of an old video tape, and it played back perfectly on my old DVD player. I was thinking of getting a VCR/DVD recorder combination, but my old VCR plugs into this machine easily.

Toshiba DVD Recorder

I first purchased an USB device to connect my 8mm camcorder to my computer in order to convert the tapes to DVD (safe storage, added effects, etc.). As may be viewed on my other review, it did not work as advertised.

The Toshiba DR560 did what the USB device failed to do, in a ridiculously short amount of time. I was able to convert over 60 hours of 8mm video to DVD in about 2+ weeks. The method was simple.
1) connect cables from device (camera) to DR560
2) insert DVD (multiple formats compatible)
3) push play on device, push record on DR560
4) when finished press stop on both
5) select "finalize" - DVD burn for ~2 hours of 8mm completed in 5 minutes.

There are other options, like when to add "chapters" (stopping the recording in the middle creates new sections that may be selected as new headings from your other DVD devices), or to add section breaks (future fast forward areas). For example, one of my tapes had Tgiving, Xmas and Easter. I was able to break these into three chapters (must be done while recording), and then go back at the end and break up each chapter into subsections (can be done anytime before finalizing).

You may also label each chapter with about 30 characters before finalizing. It takes a bit of effort, as the numeric keypad is used to create the letters and symbols, which toggle in a similar way to texting with your cell phone.

I have not used this to upconvert current DVD's, so have no opinion on this product claim.

As far as recordings, it sets up like old VHS recordings. Select when you want it to record (options for a single recording, daily, M-Sat or M-F), the channel and time range. There are several time options, up to 8 hours per disk. My favorite feature is that you can record, pause and then watch at your leisure. This only works with DVD-RW format.

I highly recommend this product for converting video files to DVD. It also works well to record shows and play DVD movies. The added feature is that it has an internal digital tuner, so after February 20, 2009, you can continue to use this product without a special digital converter.

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Nice but some quirks

Overall, this is a very nice system. The real question is will it hang in there for the long haul. I've owned it for about a month and so far it has performed as advertised. In reading most reviews, it seems like new DVDs players (all brands) have a high DVD failure rate after a couple of months.

I've recorded DVDs and VHSs without issue. Note: without an external interface such as a Grex it will not record copyrighted material.

One reason I bought this recorder was because it had a Digital tuner. I had a Samsung T451 tuner and was tired of having to switch from that tuner to the analog tuner that is built into my Westinghouse LCD TV/Monitor. Both the analog and digital tuners work; however, they are not tied together. You must switch tuners. This is a simple step -- press a button on the remote. That said having to do this is an annoyance. Nether of my Sharp LCD TVs make me do this.

Another annoyance is that while it will automatically hide encrypted Digital channels, it will not allow you to manually delete a channel that you do not want.

I did experience one issue that at first caused me to believe the digital tuner had a problem. I unplugged the system and when I plugged it back in the digital tuner would not allow me to up and down channel. I could type in a Digital channel and it would acquire the signal, but when I up or down channel it merely cycled through L1, L2, L3, DV and would not return to the channel I manually punched in. I went back into the menu and had the system re-tune all the stations and it worked fine thereafter. I'm assuming this is normal -- old VCRs do this when you unplugged them. However, the analog tuner did not lose the memorized channels. Hence, some concern.

As been written before, the remote is difficult to read even with appropriate lighting.

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Very Good Dvd Recorder

When ejecting the dvd it sounds like the tray this slaming up against the door. Un analog the tuner is fast (Feb 17,it's over anyways) but the Digital is slow, but it brings in HD channals quite clearly even in the basement wjth no antenna. It also picks up Clear qam so I've been watching subscription channels for free, my last 2 movies were Get Smart and The Chipmonks. Another complaint is the remote has a very low degree range I have to point it exaltly at the sensor.

Digital tuner didn't work

I bought this based on reviews as a digital tuner. I have cox cable and this unit did not see any of the local HD channels through coax as suggested. I was able to find another unit made by panasonic which did work. Once I found I couldn't use as a digital tuner I returned therefore I can't speak for the DVD player/recorders performance.

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