Toshiba DR-2 DVD Recorder/Player with Simultaneous Play and Record
Important Information
I must say that I never thought that buying a DVD Recorder would give me so much grief.  But at least I can now say that I know more than any sales person out there.   <br /> <br />There are 2 issues I had where the manual (missing information) and sales people couldn't help me.  I figured it out and now I want to pass it on to you. <br /> <br />In all my research of different brands and models I've noticed that all recorders didn't play the DVD+R's.  For me this was a big thing because the movies I've backed up were on DVD+R disks.  I needed to find a player that would play these disks, and I found one, it was the Sony RDR-GX300.   After talking to the sales person at Future Shop and confirming that no other recorders would play the DVD+R's, I bought the Sony.  After hooking it up at home and testing it out, I liked it except for one problem.   I have an RCA 40\\" projection widescreen t.v. and the DVD recorder was making all the people on t.v. short and fat.  I tried all the different settings and nothing worked, the recorder even stopped me from changing the aspect ratio on my t.v..  After hours of frustration and many calls to Sony, and Future Shop no one knew what the problem was or how to fix it.   <br /> <br />So, I decided to buy a different DVD Recorder all together to see if the same problem would occur.  I decided to buy the Toshiba D-R2 even though it said that it wouldn't play my DVD+R disks.  I brought it home and hooked it up and was able to change the aspect ratios so now my t.v. shows weren't stretched.  I was happy for about 10 mins, when I was no longer able to change the aspect ratio. After driving myself crazy for a bit, I figured out what was stopping me from changing my aspect ratio.  It was the Progressive Scan feature.  If you have Progressive Scan turned on you cannot change aspect ratios.  I turned mine off and everything was good.   <br /> <br />And one more thing, all my DVD+R's play in my Toshiba D-R2 recorder and they play on my parent'sPanasonic DVD player as well.   <br /> <br />I guess the thing that gets me is why the manufactures are not telling us that the DVD+R disks will play on these recorders.  And no where was I able to find anything about the Progressive Scan feature disabling the aspect ratios.  The manufactures need to update their manuals and the sales people need more training in simple problems like this.