Toshiba D-R4 Multi-Drive DVD Recorder
Clear and simple.
This is not a simple DVD recorder to operate, and by no means does it have a manual easy to understand.  I think it could have been written much more effectively.    The recorder itself has menus that often require you to step through stages of the menu again after selecting a menu action.  It does not always return you to the most convenient point in the menu.  This can be frustrating. Each menu requires you to refer to sub menus. Again, it gets complicated.  Three or four different buttons on the remote take you to particular menus.  There is no consistent simplifed procedure. Sometimes you'll wonder what the heck is happening because the recorder does not always clearly tell you on screen. The only indicator you may get is an icon lighting up on the face of the unit.  And those icons are not very large.    So is it simple?  No.  Is it user friendly?   No, can't say that either.  It is more complicated than it needs to be.  However even with these negatives, I am going to keep mine because it records an excellent picture and has features that are quite nice once you figure them out.        *     Even on the six hour mode, my VHS tape copy to DVD was as good or better than my original.      *     There is a zoom feature.  This is not only just a two or three times magnification.  You can get very close zooming into a point on your picture.  You can then continue at any speed, including slow motion, and it will maintain that desired magnification. When you like, you can move your zoom point to a different part of the picture.  It will lose resolution as you get closer and closer, but it is quite nice to have the feature.      *     There is an instant replay feature.  You can set the number of seconds you would like it to back up.  I have mine at 5 seconds.  It backs up 5 seconds for every press of the button on the remote.  If I want to back up 15 seconds, I simply press the button three times.  Your one-press choice can be set for  5-10-30 seconds, or for 5 minutes.  Combining the zoom, slow motion and this replay, you can see the possibilities.      *     Editing is easy.  It can be done by using the pause button. Each time the pause is pressed, it creates a picture thumbnail of the image on the screen at the time the pause is  pressed.  All these points are then displayed for you showing each picture.  Simply select those you don't want and delete them, or pick those you want and hook them together.  You can even make a playlist of your favorite segments and create a DVD of only those segments. Obviously you can see how easy this also makes it to edit out commercials.  DVD RAM is the type of disc you must use for this.      *     You can pause a live TV broadcast and resume from wherever you left off.  The live picture can be frozen for 15 minutes.      *     You can select a desired segment of a disc and replay only that segment over and over.  You can set the starting point and ending point of the segment.       *     A feature I particularly like is the ability to hear sound on fast forward playback.  I use the recorder for daily recording of television programs.  This recorder can play the picture at a rapid speed but still have sound.  This is very handy for things I want to speed through.  The voices will sound like chipmunks but you can very clearly make out what is being said.  I really like this feature and use it a lot.     *     Lastly, this unit is very thin.  Can squeeze in anywhere. The air vents are on the back, none on the top.        NOTE:  Copy protected programming or tapes are very likely not to record on this machine.  I encountered it on tapes that I paid for and just wanted to transfer to disc.  We should not be prevented from making recordings for our own use, we should have every right to make a DVD.  There is a solution to this.  A video enhancer.  This eliminates the problem.  Sima is a popular brand.  Therefore since this problem can be circumvented, I haven't found it a reason to return this recorder.         As for the discs you should use....very simple.    (MAXELL)........          -RAM 2x .....required if you want to edit.   Sold at Wal-Mart.    (TAIYO YUDEN)   -R   4x ....  Sold online.  High quality and very inexpensive.        Many recorders now are priced at approximately what this one costs.  However many of them will not have the features I described above.  Toshiba is a top brand.  If you can get through the initial difficulty of learning the operation, you will find the quality and features a very good value.