Toshiba - DVD RECORDER/VCR Review

Stand alone DVD recorder's have come down in price but so has much of the workmanship.  The Toshiba D-VR610 is still above the mark.  What is even more disturbing is that many DVD recorder manufacturer's are no longer installing fans to keep the unit cool.  This will surely cut down on the lifespan of your new investment., and if you or others leave the unit on (when inactive or not in use) the lifespan will be considerably shorter even more. 

The Toshiba line of Recorder's still have built in fans which cools the laser, the components and will perform for a much longer period.  

The Other nice features are that it accepts a good variety of blank discs, either +R , +RW,  -minus R  and -RW.  The unit however does not accept DL, (dual layer discs for recording) but will playback such.  

The dubbing also is EZ to setup, and user chooses which direction to record (either to VHS, or DVD) and visa versa.

Another KEY point is that the Toshiba line accepts S-Video rather than just your RCA inputs, outputs. Where other DVD recorder's only accept the lowest quality of signal to the unit. Therefore, you have marked improvement of picture quality and playback.  

I would clearly recommend this line of DVD recorder over most others. 

Now, the things Im not so crazy about :  

(1)  The LED screen /panel (that tells you time, date, function, pause and record) is smaller than other manufacturer's.  

(2) The final menu the disc creates is not impressive at all and will list more than the item you have recorded with no thumbnail (small picture periodically with choice of chapters) whereas, other competitors do have nicer start up screens. 

(3) When the unit is shut off,  there is no pass through of sound and picture.  Some competitors do offer what's called "pass through" technology to allow continuation of sound and picture regardless if the unit is still on, or off .