- DVD Recorder
- Progressive Scan
- 1080p Upconversion
- With Built-in Digital Tuner
- JPEG Photo Viewer
BACKGROUND:
I bought this unit to handle a few needs with one piece of hardware:
1. I wanted a high def tuner for my tuner-less Sharp Aquos 26" LCD TV (purchased in 2007 before the new rule requiring tuners in TVs!)
2. I wanted to be able to take old analog home movie footage and transfer it directly to DVD with no editing. My old VHS tapes were approaching their shelf life limit.
3. I wanted to upconvert standard 480 resolution DVDs to make them look better on the Sharp TV.
SETUP:
The setup of the device was simple. I hate the fact that manufacturers still don't include HDMI cables with hardware that costs this much. So I grumbled for a minute and then purchased an HDMI cable for it (don't get me started on how most electronics stores charge an obscene price for digital cables! I bought one at a large discount retailer). All I had to do was connect the HDMI-out from the Toshiba to the HDMI-in on my high def Sharp. That's it. No audio plugs needed. I like having just a one wire connection.
OVERALL IMPRESSIONS:
For the remote control I don't have many complaints. It does not appear to be capable of controlling my TV I didn't see anything in the guide about programming other devices. Someone please comment and correct me if I'm wrong on that. The keys are not lighted.
When I first started the player I went through the simple setup prompts. The instructions said I might need to hit the HDMI button on the remote to match up to the display of my TV, but it automatically selected 1080 for me. (there are lighted 480, 720, and 1080 indicators on the player itself, so you can tell what mode it is in) If you are not connected via HDMI then these lights don't function. I initially tried a component video connection and noticed that the resolution selection was not available.
When I first opened the DVD tray I thought I had activated a paper shredder! It is the loudest, oldest sounding motor noise I have ever heard from a DVD player. To me it sounds like it is straining just to open the tray. I hope that holds up long term.
I found the disk read and startup time to be a little long.
SPECIFIC IMPRESSIONS:
UPCONVERTING DVD PLAYER:
I put in a DVD "Star Wars Attack of the Clones" to test the upconverting video quality. I was immediately concerned with how loud the motor was in spinning up the DVD. But my worry went away once I hit "play". Once you start playing the movie the motor noise goes away and is very quiet.
To test the upconverting quality I played a scene from the movie on the DVD player, and then switched over and played the same scene on an Xbox 360 connected to the same TV via a component video connection. To my untrained eye the upconverted picture was brighter and had a slightly higher level of detail. So I was satisfied with it.
DVD RECORDER:
I have only used DVD-R recording media. Once I try a DVD+-RW disk I will update this review. But using the DVD-R was very user friendly. You pop in a blank DVD-R disk and the machine has it ready to go in a few seconds. No interaction needed.
I then hooked up a VCR using the RCA video and audio ports (the recorder included RCA and S video cables). There's one set of inputs on the back and one on the front. I used the back ones because it was just as convenient for me.
Before recording I went into the DVD recording options menu and selected it to do automatic 5 minute chapter breaks.
All I had to do what hit play on my VCR and hit record on the DVD recorder. A little red disk of light displays on the panel so that you know it's recording. Going from memory I believe the recording quality options were 1 hour, 2, 4, 6, and 8.
I was able to record successfully from both VHS and a HI-8 Camcorder feeds (both using the RCA jacks).
Once the tape finished I hit stop on the recorder, and it finished writing the recording very quickly (less than one minute for 2 hours of recording). I then had the option to edit the title that appears on the menu, which is not the most intuitive process using the remote control. I had also expected it to create a DVD menu with chapters for every 5 minute break, but it only had one menu selection. When playing back the disk it did skip 5 minutes every time I hit the Chapter+ button.
As a final step I "finalized" the DVD to make it able to play on other DVD players. I tested the disks on a circa 1997 Sony DVD player, and also a 2005 Toshiba. DVDs that I created from VHS played fine on both players, but the DVD I recorded from the Hi-8 tape source would not play correctly on the 1996 DVD player. It played fine on the 2005 player. I still need to test more Hi-8 recordings to see it that was an isolated problem or not.
UPDATE 05/30/08: I think it's just my 1997 Sony DVD player that just can't handle DVD-R media very well. After replaying VHS source and HI-8 source videos, they are both hit or miss as to whether they play correctly. I don't think this will be an issue for most people with newer DVD players.
I still need to test recording from a mini-DV digital source.
HIGH DEF TV TUNER:
I have a large UHF antenna mounted in my attic receiving local HD quality broadcasts (see my other reviews for that). I ran a coaxial cable from that antenna down to the DVD recorder and connected it to the antenna-in port. Then using the same HDMI-out feed to the TV I was able to tune in and watch local digital broadcast stations. I watched the season finale of American Idol on it (David vs David), and the picture quality was excellent. Changing channels does take about 2 seconds, as another reviewer said. That is a little slow, but I am willing to put up with slow channel changing for free high def!
Overall I would rate this DVD Recorder 4 of 5 stars. It certainly does serve the three needs I outlined at the start of this review.
Buy Toshiba DR560 1080p Upconverting DVD Recorder with Built-in Tuner Now
Got my Toshiba DR560 on Amazon, shipping was quick as usual, been using it for 2 weeks and is hooked up to my Samsung LN37A450 37-inch 720p LCD HDTV via HDMI cable. I'll focus on my user experience:Pros:
IT WORKS. Easy push-button to setup one-time recordings
GOOD WITH COMCAST CABLE. Picks up my Comcast channels both the regular Analog *and* the Digital TV (DTV) cable broadcast channels. I'm not sure why the other reviewer said it did not work with Comcast digital?? It works just fine and tunes to both the analog and digital signals from Comcast cable, DO NOTE that there is an "EXTENDED SCAN" mode to learn the digital cable channels maybe the reviewer missed that option and just did the regular analog cable Scan.. I have not tried tuning into the FREE OTA (Over the air) HDTV programming since I get weak air TV signals in my area.
DECENT UP-CONVERSION. I did find a better picture quality in the upconversion of regular DVDs compared to my regular DVD player, however my old DVD player was connected via cheap RC/A AV cables not composite not S-video so just by nature of HDMI there would be a difference already!! In any case I now get deeper blacks, less noise, and sharper details. Can't complain.
HDMI CONTROL. here's a pleasant surprise.. the Samsung "AnyNet" HDMI control actually recognizes the player and now I can use buttons on Samsung remote like the Play/ Pause / Stop/ FFW / REV to control basic functions on the DR560 which is great since the Toshiba remote totally SUCKS as mentioned earlier! Tip: you do have to activate the HDMI Control on the DR560 in one of the setup menu settings.
Cons:
POOR MENU. the system setup menu navigation is very poor and reminds me of the old DOS programs before there was a Windows operating system! You can't see the live TV picture when you enter system setup menu to program recordings, set the date/time, etc... However there is another shorter settings menu called "Display" which brings up a semi-transparent menu-bar on top of live picture and you can tweak most things like audio, black level, etc.. so it's OK for most things during playback you don't have to enter an archaic menu system.
TIME SLIP RECORDING. The "Time Slip" Tivo-like recording mode only works on DVR-RW (the minus "-" RW) media, so i'll need to buy new disks to try that feature. I addition the manual says you can't tune to other channels while recording.. bummer. However the regular recording mode (without time slip feature) works on both DVR-RW and DVR+RW so no big deal if you already had DVR-RW media in your home or if you don't miss the Time Slip functionality.
BOOT TIME. The thing takes forever to boot! Longer time if it has a disk inside the tray. Afterwards there is no noticeable lag it's response time is decent.
NO EPG. No EPG (Electronic Progamming Guide).. but you should already now that most manufacturers of DVD recorders after 2005 dropped this functionality since the whole thing was a fiasco.. the greedy Cable companies were blocking the free programming guides or charging subscription fees, and the existing EPGs feeds were coming from public stations like PBS that sometimes shut the feeds off by accident. For those of you that must have an EPG note there's only like one brand/model out there a Samsung DVR model with built-in Tuner that still includes EPG but apparently was discontinued this year and it's very hard to find one also reveiws are mixed saying EPG sometimes not work at all.. the model is Samsung DVD-AR650. Oh well.. it's time for Sunday paper TV GUIDE for everybody i guess.
POOR DTV TUNER PICTURE. Ok.. here is the final catch: The DR560 digital tuner works fine, BUT the picture quality is noticeably inferior compared to the native Samsung HDTV built-in digital tuner. I tuned to PBS 11-1 digital 1080i broadcast on both the DR560 tuner and the Samsung HDTV built-in tuner, switched back-forth, and no matter what the DR560 HDMI output set to 480p/ 720p / 1080i/ 1080p the native Samsung's HDTV digital tuner is waaaay superior in sharpness, detail, and color rendition. It almost felt like DR560 was downscaling the image to SD 480p and then trying to up-convert to 720p or similar.. there's quite a visual difference from both tuners. The DR560 lost many fine details and colors were not as punchy as in the native Samsung HDTV digital tuner no matter what the color tweaking I did on the TV.
------Bottom line: i'll keep it until something better comes along at this price point that improves the menu system at the minimum (I would have chosen the Panasonic-? brands but users complained of very sluggish controls..). For now, it will happily replace my archaic VHS tape recorder (VHS.. tape.. what's that?? LOL !!) which was second reason I bought it for. And the main reason the playback video i get from both DVDs and TV recordings is still decent quality so i'm happy with it. I really don't mind the digital tuner output since I use the TV one instead. BUY IT I Recommended it for the price of about $178.
Read Best Reviews of Toshiba DR560 1080p Upconverting DVD Recorder with Built-in Tuner Here
I waited for the release of this new model (end of March) and it was WELL WORTH IT! Setup was easy and the ATSC/NTSC/QAM digital/analog tuner produces a clean, crisp, 3D-like picture on my analog TV from over-the-air broadcasts. We were blown away by the HD-like quality! I use an outdoor antenna and bought this mainly for the digital conversion and recording of TV shows. Recording quality is awesome, even recording in LP (4hr) mode produces DVD quality video with perhaps a hint of fuzziness on the edges of numbers/letters. I will use this mode most of the time because of the quality and 4hr record time. SP (2hr) gives superb quality all around. It's hooked up to my 36" Toshiba TV with a component video cable for best pic quality and I am using optical cable for audio to my home theater amp. It does have HDMI for those with HD TVs. Power up takes a few seconds if there is a disc in the tray as it scans/loads it. Formatting is very quick. I use DVD -RW's but it can do DVD +RW as well. When changing digital channels there is a 1-2 second delay but I can live with that. Only con is with the remote. The lettering should be done in bright-white to make it easier to read in low to moderate lighting conditions. Because of this I would give the whole package a 4.5. Highly recommended this product and think it's one of the best on the market to date.Want Toshiba DR560 1080p Upconverting DVD Recorder with Built-in Tuner Discount?
Does as advertised. I primarly picked this up for its DTV tuner. I am getting away from cable and their year to 2 year contract agreements. This in combination with the DB2 antenna has changed how I watch local TV.Sure, I don't get HBO or comedy central, but with the DIVX playback on this DVDRec. all I need do is download my favorite shows and burn them to a dvd-rw/r. Please, don't download movies, it's illegal. But as far as I know, TV shows broadcast on tv are fine. :)
As the DTV tuner was my main reason of purchase, that is what I'll focus on. Reception with an decent antenna (DB2, I can't recommend it enough) quality is great. DTV channels take a few seconds to load, but that has been the case for most OTA DTV set top boxes. I can't compare times, but it is roughly 2-3 seconds for the channel to display. Nothing drastic. One touch recording works perfectly, so long as you pre-load a DVD-r/rw. Recording starts withing a half second of pressing record. And this model has a live pause feature called "time Slip" which lets you pause where you are watching and it will continue to record.
This combined with the "Play" while recording feature, is essentially a DVR. I've done this 2 times in the 30 days of ownership. It works as advertised. There is a one minute gap in what you can watch, as that is the buffer of recording.
Example: Program a show to record (yes, DTV broadcasts in HD can be recorded)for best results so that it will stop automatically. Now, press play and the recording will return to the beginning of the show, yet still continue to record in real time. Another option is the "Time Slip" function. The time slip will let you jump back to where you pressed Time slip and continue where you stopped.
Toshiba delivers again.
Only negative, like some have said, the DVD drive is loud on opening and closing, but I had an old RCA which sounded like a metal door opening under hydraulics... so this isn't too bad. The gears do sound shaky, so use the eject button at all times, even when closing. Pushing the drive in feels as though it will crumble.
DVD playback, is upconverting. 1080i over component and 1080p on HDMI. The front display will show you what resolution you are displaying if you have HDMI, but not with component (RGB). It makes my current DVD collection look amazing. Currently my Toshiba rear projection (5 years old and still looks great) does not have HDMI, but my Next HDTV will be a model with HDMI and it will be a Toshiba again. :)
Sorry for the long review.
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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