Toshiba D-R4 Multi-Drive DVD Recorder
Works when it wants too
I own two of these units and have had to replace one of them 4 different times before it actually worked properly.  These units don't finalize 16x media in them: it will record to them but not finallized them(meaning you cannot take them to your dvd-player and play them back); they work best with 8x media, you can record and finalized them meaning playback in your dvd-player.      DVD-RAM is flawless; but if you record over the disk many times make sure to do a low-level format: this is because the information will become fragmented like a harddrive will become over time.  The only way to do this is to do a low-level format: it takes about an hour and all information will be erased on the disk.  Read the manual for how to do this.      I have found the units like to give an unexpected disk error (err-14) if this happens to you then just remove the disk and close the drive.  Open the drive and then reinsert the disk and close the drive it should go away.  If this doesn't take care of the problem then unplug the unit for about an hour and then replug it back in and try again. This can be annoying sometimes but it is a version 2 recorder.  I would expect this kind of problem to go away with the DR-5 unit but I haven't tried the DR-5 yet. Also with the err-14 message on the front display you have to push the \\"Display\\" button on the remote to get ride of the error message if not it will not go away itself.    A Note: The remote control for this unit has a really good feature that I have yet to see with other brands of recorders: IR Setting.  This allows the user the ability to own and operate up to three different dr-4 with one remote control.  This is very useful for me because I own two of these units and I record on both units at the same time: sometimes.    Overall this is a good unit but it needs some improvements with the kinds of media it takes and the Err-14.    UPDATE:  Get a free firmware upgrade from Toshiba by calling their toll free number listed in the manual.  The firmware update takes about a minute to be applied but it fixes most of the problems with this unit and using the 16X media that are now common place.  I still do get the err-14 error but it is in a very rare situation.