Price Paid:  $312.00 from Capital Sound & Visi

Summary:
Looks good and has user friendly menus but is very slow to edit unwanted video images and to load Toshiba DVD Ram discs. You would have thought that for over £300 you'd get technology with a decent brain, but that might mean you won't need to upgrade in the next few years, mmmmmm!

Strengths:
Menu system, ease of use, looks, quality.

Weaknesses:
Takes too long to edit recorded images, load DVD's and perform some functions.

Similar Products Used:
Phillips recordable DVD, cannot remember model but returned to Argos because the menus were horrible. It also had a 'slow brain'.

Price Paid:  $399.00 from good guys

Summary:
When I heard about the automatic picture thumbnails on the title and chapters,I just had to have this machine. Well it does create the thumbnails. It does record in dvd-r,dvd-rw and dvd-ram. Most of the editing features actually relies on the "dvd-ram" part of the recorder. Now comes caveat. I had to return the 1st new in the box unit because it did not record all the time! I was dumbfounded. On top of that the machine itself is extremely touchy when loading any disc. Sometimes when recording a program off the air, the vu meters are going(yes it does have led vu meters and level controls)the red recording light is on..but when it came to finalizing the machine told me "no source recorded." Oh well, I returned the unit to "The Good Guys" to exchange for another one. No luck for a new in the box. All of the Good Guys were out of stock for the holidays. One 'open box' was left..sure why not, let me have it. So far it records pretty well. The previous machine must have been damaged. The only problem I had so far was after I recorded two separate one hour TV shows on one DVD\RW. When the disc was finalized for playback, the toshiba d-r1 freaked out and would not recognize the disc it just finalized? Then it flashed "error 14"...Huh? The owners manual has a list of error codes stating what each error is. Except error 14. I called "toshiba service center" to find out what "Error 14" meant. They had no idea. "Uh. maybe you should exchange the unit for another one." No, I'll stick with this one just a little bit longer. Maybe it was nothing....I hope. I still have 20 days left on my return slip. One last thing I heard about the Toshiba D-R1, that it was originally a european machine, sold in Europe, then converted to sell to the U.S. Also it was set with the wrong "ire" setting. European "ire" (0). U.S "ire" 7.5 . The result would be recorded discs that looks washed out and grey instead of black. Apparently, the Toshiba compensates for this when playing it's own discs. So far I did not see this problem. Well, wish me luck other Toshiba D-R1 buyers. The unit looks and feels great. I just hope it's not a lemon.

Strengths:
Looks sturdy, great sharp picture. records dvd-r dvd-rw and dvd ram. Firewire input.

Weaknesses:
slow to react to any disc that's loaded it the tray. And has "error codes" that 'toshiba techs' can't even recognize!

Similar Products Used:
Panasonic dmr-e30 and dmr-e20. pioneer dv-563a. toshiba sd-5700