Toshiba DR560 1080p Upconverting DVD Recorder with Built In Tuner

Toshiba DR560 1080p Upconverting DVD Recorder with Built In Tuner | Works, but not perfect.

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Toshiba DR560 1080...

	Toshiba DR560 1080p Upconverting DVD Recorder with Built In Tuner Toshiba Toshiba average customer review:based on 36 reviews view larger image
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highly recommended

Record your favorite home movies directly to DVD with the D-R560. 1080p upconversion via HDMI will get the most out of your DVD collection, and the built-in tuner completes this convenient home theater addition. The built-in ATSC/NTSC/QAM digital/analog tuner allows you to tune analog or digital channels from over the air, or cable, including "cable-in-the-clear" digital channels. It can also be used to dub recordings from other components onto various DVD recordable disc formats. An HDMI output enables the D-R560 to play DVDs to your widescreen HDTV delivering sharp imagery on screens optimized for 1080 resolutions, in an upconversion mode. Video Upconversion to 720p/1080i/1080p DivX Home Theater Certified Digital Photo Viewer (JPEG) One Touch Recording makes recording your favorite show simple. Just connect your DVD recorder to your cable or satellite box and you are set to record with the push of one button Auto Finalize with Undo simplifies the recording process by automatically finalizing your recording for playback on standard DVD players 24bit Audio DAC with 192kHz Processing Plays MP3 and WMA formats (2-Ch) Dolby Digital Recording L-PCM Recording (XP mode only) 3D (Virtual Surround Sound) Features - Instant Skip, Zoom, Editing (Playlist/Rename Title/Chapter Creation), Commercial Skip Connections - Component Out, HDMI Out with REGZA LINK, Front S-Video Input, Rear S-Video Input/Output, Rear RCA-Video Input/Output, Front Audio Input, Rear Analog Audio Input/Output, Coax Output, Front DV Input Approximate Unit Dimensions - 16.54 (W) x 2.32 (H) x 9.72 (D)

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This is a good one! Top of the list of everything I've seen.

This unit has about every feature you can imagine & then some. It has a built in tuner for both analog & digital. Something you want to have for a number of reasons. Automatic channel scan; add or delete channels as you like. Beware the cheap ones that are just players. Read the reviews; most are pretty negative. The Toshiba has input & output connections for all kinds of devices so you can connect other components you have. All brands of DVD-R & DVD-RW blanks work. I've had no problem playing commercial DVD's or ones I made off my computer. DVD-RW's automatically format when you insert the disk. The set-up menu allows you change most anything to suit your specific needs, but the defaults will do just fine. You're good to go from the time you plug it in. The complete list of defaults is in the manual so it's easy to find & change anything to your liking.

Don't be intimidated by the 117 page instruction manual. In case you think it's long because it's multi-language, not so. The reason it's long is because each feature is treated separately & explained in very simple instructions with diagrams. The manual has index tabs so you can find what you're looking for very easily. Unlike most, you don't have to read all of it to do the task you want. The topics stand alone on one page. Best manual I've seen. There's also an index of terminology. Not needed to use the machine, but you can impress your friends.

You can select recording quality just like on a VHS machine. The higher the quality, the less recording time you get. I use the middle setting which gives 3 hours, 45 minutes with excellent quality. I can't see a difference versus the highest Q that gives only 1 hour recording. But, the low end Q, 8 hours recording time is poor so I wouldn't recommend it. Remember, the maximum quality is dictated by the source not the recorder so adjust according to what you're doing.

There have been comments about the lettering on the remote being hard to read. Yes & no. For all the primary functions (channel, play, record, fast forward), the keys have bold white on black which is very easy to see. The lesser functions (set-up, program timer) are harder to read but that's the same on all remotes since black became the popular color. But, the keys are logically placed & after a week of use, I was able to use all functions on the remote at night with no lights on. The objections are overstated.

The second big objection I noted in these reviews is that you have to add the closing code to the DVD to make it transportable to other players. That's the same with CD or DVD off your computer. Computer software does it automatically as default. Not so with the Tosiba but it's mentioned on every applicable page in the instruction manual & very easy to do. You can set the Toshiba to do it automatically, but you don't want that on a VCR because it complicates the erase of recorded tracks on DVD-RW's. Read the manual. Do the disk closing by your command.

Negatives. None major. (1) On DVD-RW's, the track recording has to be consecutive. So, if you have 4 programs recorded, deleting # 3 will not allow you to record a replacement in the empty space. Deleting both # 3 & # 4 will allow 2 more. (2) The video screen format can be adjusted using the "zoom" key to cover various source material. But, what you enter isn't retained. Have to set it each time. (3) An HDMI cable isn't included. But, you may not need an HDMI cable depending on what TV & cables you already have. A quick look saves time & money.

I like it. Best deal was on Amazon. From the mouse click to my door took 48 hours so I'm really satisfied.

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Works, but not perfect.

I just received this dvd recorder yesterday so there's not too many details I can go into except for some "pros and cons" I've discovered.

The pros: I like the fact that it will play DVD RAM discs. Not many others will except for the Panasonic line. It's played every disc I've put in it so far including, DVD+R and DVD-R discs as well as CD-R and CD-RW. Of course it also plays store bought discs well too. It picks up and plays digital channels very good as well as analog. I have it hooked up to a rooftop antenna. The digital picture quality is great.

The cons: When playing a DVD, when fast forwarding, it is very slow and jumpy. It's hard to stop it right where you want. My Panasonic ES15 has a much more accurate and very smooth FF. I guess I'll just have to get used to it since my old Panny is analog only. Also, as others have mentioned, you must turn off the machine for it to do a timer record. My Panny could be left on.

Bottom line: I can live with most hassles but the slow and jumpy FF is going to take some getting used to. I do recommend this player as a basic,(do it's job) machine.

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Good product for the price

I bought this a few months ago and it has been fine. The picture quality is nice. It is also very quiet. My last DVD player was very loud so this was a nice change.

The only thing I do not like it the remote. I don't really like where they place the channel up and down arrows and the keys do not light up. My TV viewing room is rather dark so it is very hard so see the black lettering on the gray buttons.

Weak Over The Air Digital Tuner

This Recorder would have been 5 stars, Everything works great with the exception of the Digital Tuner. On set up you do a scan, which searches for Analog and Digital stations. You can add or delete Analog stations but only delete Digital ones! You can't add digital stations! I have an Indoor Antenna (Terk HDTVa) It works fine pulling in stations some with weak signals which may be a problem for this recorder. The weaker stations did not scan in during the auto search. I tried adjusting the antenna position over and over resulting in gaining some and losing others. Digital channels 2,4,5,11,20 would come and go.

I boxed up the unit to send back and purchased a Phillips DVR3506. When I took the Phillips out of the box, I noticed the back panel looked identical. It was the same as the Toshiba! So was the display, set up... (Same DVD Recorder, A rebranded Funai) Sure enough the Digital Tuner was just as weak if not, worse. So it was one last try with the Toshiba and it finally worked, pulling in all the local stations! Happy Dance! It would be nice if you could manually add digital stations. There is an antenna strength indicator on the menu to help you adjust the antenna for best reception but it does no good if it won't even scan in the channel to begin with. Now I know it's not the antenna that isn't up to the task, My Vizio TV digital tuner pulls them all in clearly, So does my RCA Digital Converter box which is hooked up to a VCR.

So only if you have a set of rabbit ears or a low gain outdoor antenna, you may run into this problem. If you have cable or any other pay service your signal strength will be more than enough.

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Pretty good, but far from perfect

My digital set-top has a hard disk as well (to use as a PVR). However, I still use a DVD recorder when I want to get stuff off the PVR hard disk (to keep for a long time on a DVD, or if I want to lend copies of movies and TV shows to friends & family on a DVD). When doing this, I noticed 2 frustrating things about this Toshiba DVD recorder.

1) The highest quality input is S-Video. This is a bummer. My PVR has S-Video out, but it also has the higher quality outputs. So, I can never record in a higher quality than S-Video provides....which feels like I am never using a DVD to its best potential.

2) I often want to record films & documentaries that are just over 2 hours long. With the Toshiba DVD recorder, you get 5 recording modes to choose from:

XP = 1hr (very good quality)
SP = 2hrs (good quality)
LP = 4hrs (fair quality)
EP = 6hrs (poor quality)
SLP = 8hrs (absolute garbage)

As you can see, in order to record something that exceeds 2hrs, even by 5 minutes (like most movies), you have to jump quite a bit from one quality mode to the next (or use a second DVD). They should have just made 4hrs the maximum, and spread out 5 or 6 modes between 1hr and 4hrs. This would have given a more realistic amount of flexibility. Or even better than that, have an option to have you tell the recorder how long your show(s) or movie is, and it uses the best quality possible for the exact length of your show(s) or movie.

I haven't tested all the other features enough to comment on them yet.

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reviews: page 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8

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