Toshiba RD-XS34 DVD Recorder with 160-GB Hard Drive
Pretty good (not great) design, very poor execution
Basically, this is a really good idea with such serious design flaws as to make it unusable.  The final straw for me was that it  corrupted all my dozens of hours of recorded programming, making it useless.  A Google search on the error message (\\"Playback failed.  Previously recorded data might be corrupted.\\") shows that I am far from the only person to whom this has happened.  There is no excuse for such a poor level of reliability, nor is this by any means the only serious problem with the unit.  My recommendation is to stay far away from the RD-XS34 and by extension its sister unit, the RD-XS54.<br /><br />I mentioned the serious reliability issue, but there are deeper flaws at the design level.  The unit cannot intelligently handle the presence of a cable box AND a tuner.  Channels simply cannot be edited on an individual basis to switch them over from a line-input to the TV tuner.  And the tuning of the cable box is highly unreliable -- e.g., when trying to tune to \\"14\\" it actually tunes to \\"4\\".  This almost always happens  and I am convinced it's not simply a problem with the placement of the IR transmitter, it's just a flaw in the box.<br /><br />You can get around the above by telling it there is no cable box, which requires that you manually set up a line recording when you want to record off the cable box.  This alone wouldn't have been a huge deal for me, but for some it's a showstopper.<br /><br />Another problem:  good old Digital Rights Management enforcement.  For example, I recorded an LP from my turntable into the line 2 inputs with no video feed and it refused to copy the recording to DVD because it was marked \\"never copy.\\"  I would say that detecting a copy-protection signal where none could possibly exist is a real problem for a unit like this.<br /><br />There is another reliability problem:  the unit sometimes simply does not record programs marked for recording, particularly when they are marked for \\"regular\\" recording.  I've lost a few programs -- none I especially cared about, but that's not the point -- due to this issue.<br /><br />Attempts to contact Toshiba about the problem have failed.  So add poor customer service to the list of issues.<br /><br />Bottom line:  stay away from this unit until Toshiba works out the bugs a little better.w programs -- none I especially cared about, but that's not the point -- due to this issue. <br /> <br />Attempts to contact Toshiba about the problem have failed.  So add poor customer service to the list of issues. <br /> <br />Bottom line:  stay away from this unit until Toshiba works out the bugs a little better.