Toshiba D-R1 Progressive-Scan DVD Recorder/Player
Great DVD-Recorder, if you're patient.
This DVD-Recorder happens to work very well.  I know a few people have reviewed it and said that if they can get it to work, it works for a few minutes and then stops, but there is something they are not doing right...waiting.  <br />You simply can not use this DVD-Recorder just like you would a VCR, where you can turn it on, and then immediately start recording something.  I'll tell you how I figured that out.  One time I set it to record a show that started at 9:00pm, so I put in a DVD-R and turned the power off.  Well at exactly 8:50pm the unit turned on (at first I thought I did something wrong, but I didn't) and you could see the Zeros for the counter on the front of the unit (00:00.00).  Then at exactly 9:00pm they started to count up to indicate that it was recording.  Bottom line is that the Toshiba DR-1 needs about 10 minutes to warm up before it records something, otherwise...if you record right away...then you will get the problems that people have talked about.  Once I learned to be patient and turn the unit on in advance (like if I am going to copy a VHS tape to DVD) I never had a problem with it again.  <br />Oh and by the way, I have used VERY cheap DVD-R's like &quot;Princo&quot;, &quot;Ritek&quot;, &quot;Optodisc&quot;, &amp; &quot;Dup-EZ&quot; (mostly Princo) and they all work fine.  Only thing is you should really go with what the manufacturer recommends for DVD-Ram, that being: Panasonic LM-AB120U (for 4.7gb single sided), and Panasonic LM-AD240U (for 9.4gb double sided).<br />There is one thing I am not crazy about, but I think that it happens to be this way with any DVD-Recorder.  You can't do any editing (like cutting out commercials) if you use DVD-R, or DVD-RW (DVD-Ram only).  You also can't edit if you are dubbing, like if you are recording from a VHS tape that has commercials in it and you want to pause them out while you make the DVD.  It just doesn't work for some reason.  But if you are recording a show on TV through the DVD-Recorders tuner, then \\"pause\\" will work just fine.  I wish you could edit a little better, but I have learned to deal with it.<br />Lastly the \\"Timeslip\\" feature is just amazing (this too only works with DVD-Ram Discs).  Let's just put it this way, if you are recording a show that is on from 3:00pm to 4:00pm and you get home early at 3:30pm, you can watch the very DVD-Ram disc that is currently recording from its 3:00pm start time and it will still finish the recording until 4:00pm.  If that was a VCR you would either have to watch from 3:30 to 4:00, then at 4:00 rewind and watch the first half hour, or you would just have to wait and watch it all at 4:00.  With DVD-Ram technology, you can watch the same disc that is currently recording.  <br />That is amazing, and if you just leave a DVD-Ram disc in the unit while you are watching TV, you can pause live TV and rewind it and even fast forward it up to the point where you initially paused it.  Then you can finish watching the program whenever you want.<br />So just have a little patience and you will love this DVD-Recorder from Toshiba.  I think it's the greatest.