Toshiba D-R4 Multi-Drive DVD Recorder
Reliable Recorder; D-R4 to the Rescue!!
I bought the Toshiba D-R4 to replace a year old Sony recorder (RDR-GX7) which was having serious issues recording (it would abruptly stop recordings; discs would have trouble finalizing; etc). I've had the D-R4 for a month now and it has been a dream machine for me after the nightmare that was the Sony RDR-GX7. I bought Maxell and Taiyo-Yuden DVD-R discs (as the manual recommends) and all the discs have recorded and finalized with absolutely no problems at all. I have only recorded broadcast TV shows from networks such as NBC, CBS, etc. and the recordings have gone through great. I hear it does not record movies from HBO, pay-per-view, etc., which is a shame, but it's not too much of a problem for me personally since I usually buy (or rent) my movies on DVD rather than record them.    The recorder can look a little complicated to some, but you just have to get the hang of how to record, set a timer, label a title, finalize, etc. Pretty much the \\"Easy Nav\\" and \\"Quick Menu\\" buttons are what you'll be using to get to your options to record, label titles, finalize, etc. The manuals are quite a task to read, but it must be done to get the most out of the recorder. Recording is easy once you get used to it. The remote could be better though. I like how you can see how much time is remaining on a title you're watching, as well as how much space you have left to record on the disc.    One rather annoying flaw I noticed about this model is that sometimes when you want to play a perfectly fine DVD (No scratches), the machine will claim that the disc is dirty and it needs cleaning (it won't play the DVD). I don't know why it does this, but you can easily remedy this by turning the machine off and back on again and try to play the disc again. It works every time for me, but this is definitely inconvenient. I noticed this happens most often when instead of turning the machine on and giving it a moment to start up, you press the \\"Open/Close\\" button for the tray (which turns the machine on) and put the disc in right away, \\"demanding\\" to start your DVD. It's as though you woke up the machine from its sleep and you didn't give it time to wake itself up and it was still too sleepy-eyed to concentrate on playing your DVD. Anyway, that's the only time I noticed this flaw with playing. If this is the case, then turn the recorder on, give it a moment to start up, and then open the tray and play a disc (i.e. don't rush it to wake up to go out and play).    The recording quality is very good (okay, not as great as the RDR-GX7, but at least THIS recorder is reliable!). I record most of my shows using the MP recording mode (3 hours). The SP recording mode (2 hours) is obviously a better quality, but the MP recordings look great too.    I also transferred some home movies from my VCR to the DVD recorder and the recordings came out great there too!    Overall, I'm VERY happy with this Toshiba recorder for my recording needs. That Sony recorder I used to have was nothing but trouble from the start, and the Toshiba rescued me from DVD recording Hell!! Definitely use the Maxell and Taiyo-Yuden discs to record on DVD-R; they have given me NO problems at all with recording and finalizing!!