Toshiba SD-V594 DVD/VCR Player with HDMI and USB Input
Excellent unit and features at bargain price
While I wanted a combo unit that included a good DVD player with HDMI (in anticipation of a LCD HDTV I plan to acquire eventually), I was even more interested in the performance and features of the VCR. I've been programming VCRs ever since they first came out, and have had two installed simultaneously on my TV for years now because there are often two different programs I want to record at the same time. After extensive research on a lot of combos, I picked this unit for features, quality of pictures, and price. I've had this for a couple months now and it's been flawless. Great picture even on long-play VCR recording (which is all I ever use in that mode).    Setup of the unit was easy. Time sets automatically (though you have to confirm that you want the unit to do this for you). Channel scan is VERY fast (not automatic). The only thing that took me a couple days to fully figure out was because of stupidity on my part: never having had a dual unit before, it didn't immediately register that you had to rigidly tell the unit just what mode you wanted to use. So, turn it on; press the \\"DVD/VCR\\" button so it knows you're going to control one of those, rather than your TV; then press the \\"DVD/VCR SELECT\\" button, which will arbitrarily default to DVD - if that's what you want, you're there, otherwise press the same button again and you're in VCR mode. That's it every time you turn this on; no big deal. The manual repeatedly tells you to do this, but I managed to overlook this for a while. My fault; this actually has a very good manual.    Reading other reviews, some are critcal of the remote (it took me exactly two days to get used to it, and it does what it's supposed to); someone said the commercial skip overshot badly (I've timed it and you can easily choose to skip from 30 to 180 seconds in 30-second multiples, the trick being to know or guess how long the commercial break is going to be - it varies); someone criticised the way you need to program the VCR (that criticism amazed me - it is VERY quick and easy, and better yet, the TV screen shows not just the one you're currently programming but ALL the ones you're programming so you can see all of these at one time without scrolling through successive screens to check on these - a great feature. In addition, there's a very nice little feature not even mentioned in the ads when you're programming: when you need to start or end recording at a minute long removed from the current minute time, you don't have to hold down the \\"forward\\" (or \\"reverse\\") button to advance (or reverse) 20-40 minutes in 1-minute intervals - it senses this and after 4 or 5 \\"minutes\\" starts changing in 10-minute intervals; very nice, and fast!). Also very nice for VCR use is a set of buttons on the remote (forward and reverse of what they call \\"VISS\\") to go either forward or reverse to the start of the next, present, or previously recorded program, and you don't have to do this just one step at a time - for instance, just press quickly three times to advance (or reverse) to the start of the third program after or before wherever you are, etc. The automatic time set is great: the night after installing this and programming it for the first time, we had a power outage which killed the programming on my other VCR but this had reset its own time and recorded everything perfectly. The tape advance and rewind are not only VERY fast, but exceptionally quiet. (In rewind mode, it goes so fast that it has to slow itself down considerably before it gets to the end of the tape; at that point, it's going slow enough that I can't imagine it'll ever tear or break a tape). It has a marker button on the remote so if there's any location of the tape you want to get back to at any time, just \\"mark\\" it and press the button any time before the tape is removed, and you're back. It also has \\"one touch recording\\" so you can start recording immediately any time you see something you want to get on tape - don't have to program theunit to start a few minutes later as I do with my other VCR.    The remote is a \\"universal\\" one that recognizes most major brands and can be programmed to control your TV. One strange oversight here is that while it will turn your set on and off, change channels, volume and such, it does not have a button or control to mute the TV. (Of course, you can just decrease the volume until the set is quiet, but. . .) Actually, that's the only criticism of the remote or unit's design that I have. One other VCR limitation, though not one that bothers me personally, is that (unlike all my other past and present VCRs) the unit's display reads only hours and minutes - no seconds here.    On the DVD end, I've played maybe 10 so far without a glitch (we really don't watch an awful lot of DVDs). I've done extensive checks of the slow motion, single frame advance, fast advance, chapter selection, search by marker (allows up to 3 arbitrarily located markers anywhere on the disc that you can return to any time prior to opening the tray), search by time (if you know the exact time you want to find, you can go right there even after ejecting and replacing the disc), zoom, subtitles - most of the stuff I'd routinely want or expect to use, all without a hitch. I've also played numerous CDs (which all happened to be music and uncompressed) with no problems. I have NOT tried some of the fancy tricks built into the unit, such as changing angles (if the DVD is so programmed to offer this), nor have I yet tried any MP3 or JPEG discs (be aware these will have to be CD-R or DVD-R discs - no RWs). While the unit also allows extensive customization of functional setup, I haven't set foot there either (and don't know if I ever will).    Just as the unit's display does not show seconds with VCR tapes, it omits the same with DVDs. However, seconds are readily available in both modes by pressing the (on-screen) DISPLAY button on the remote.     This unit is exceptionally full-featured; it offers an outstanding picture in all modes; everything works as advertised. This is certainly the best VCR I've ever had (4 before this), and the DVD player is at least the equal of the (more expensive) JVC standalone that my wife uses on her TV. I recommend this unit highly.