Toshiba RD-XS52 DVD Player/Recorder with HDMI
Bought a couple days ago
Got mine a couple days ago.  I bought a Fuji 10 pack of DVD-R disks to test with.  The first one recorded.  The second one started to copy but never left 0 % and gave an error asking for another disk.  The next 7 disks I tried gave errors they weren't recognized or process can't be completed.  I went out and bought a spindle of 25 Memorex DVD-R disks.  Made 4 disks so far with no trouble at all.  I'm not sure what the difference is but the Memorex disks I bought cost almost twice what TDK do.  They just say DVD-R on the package (8x) same as the TDK.  I'm not sure why but it was still under $1 per disk so I shrugged it of - at least it works. <br />The only rerecordable media this can write to is DVD-RAM.  These disks seem to be about $5-6 dollars a piece.  This is about 5x the cost of a DVD-RW disk.  I went to a few local stores and found the selection almost non-existant.  I didn't find a single DVD-RAM disk for sale that was in cartridge format - only loose disks in a jewel case.  I'm not real keen on DVD recorder technology but this is starting to smell like VHS and Beta all over.  There were dozens of DVD-RW disks for sale. <br />The manual has some grammar problems and made it difficult to understand.  This is a very high end recorder with many fantastic features but has been time consuming to learn.  When I burned my first disk I was pleased to see they had 8 or so different menu/title screens you could choose from. They had their own color schemes and were easy to choose from since a preview was available before committing to the copy. <br />The remote is a pain.  The bottom half flips open to reveal about 20 more buttons.  It's awkward to hold while open I might add.  My biggest complaint is regarding the onscreen menu's.  They put a legend at the bottom of many screens telling you what button to push to do something however in many cases it would be a LOT easier if you could simply use the arrow keys to select an operation like delete, rather than flippingopen the remote and press the bottom right button - the most awkward button to press for us right handers..... <br />I realize most of my review is negative however I did give it 4 stars.  Although there is a significant learning curve - this unit has a ton of features.  Personally I am spooked by the limitation to DVD-RAM media and not DVD-RW which seems to have better availability (this isn't a disk cost issue, I simply didn't see hardly any space on store shelves for the few disks they had hanging).  I plan to return my RD-XS52 and purchase the Toshiba RD-XS32 which can write to DVD-R, DVD-RAM, AND DVD-RW disks.  As far as I can tell the only difference between them is the XS32 has an 80GB hard drive and this one has a 160GB.  I can live without the extra storage space if it means I won't find myself hard pressed to buy rerecordable disks it can use in a year.  I might be over reacting but then again I bought a Betamax back when you could still rent movies it would run.