Toshiba DR430 DVD Recorder

This does not have a channel selector so you would have to have a tuner in a vcr or tv set to record tv. It has S-video in,and out, rca jacks in and out and a set of rca, & 1394 firewire in on the front of the unit also, behind a drop down panel. What I love about it is the record modes. You can record in HQ 1 and 2 hour, in medium quality at 4 hour, and in 6 hour and 8 hour modes. I do a lot of copying of informational material I produce [...] on common-law and sovereignty and found in 1 and 2 hour mode the reproduction was flawless, studio grade. I produce a cable access show and see a lot of in house video production of high quality. In 4 hour mode I can very slightly tell the difference (especially with a lot of movement)but it's still very high quality. In 6 hour and 8 hour are about the same, but it is easily noticeable in the difference in quality between studio grade and these recordings. I like packing as much info on a disc as possible to allow the dissemination of information and package discs in 8 hour mode and they are very watchable [better than the MP4 compression I upload to my youtube channel in]. The [8hr] sound is identical in quality and the video is like HQ vcr used to be. I am very impressed with this Toshiba's abilities. The remote is easy to learn to program. I can edit a title for the different recordings and after all is done finalize the disc to play on other machines. Once done the menu shows a list vertically of about 8 titles per page. Of course it won't copy rented movies. The DVD burner reader is great quality as it reads discs my Sony home DVD system wont'. Of course the Sony is 3 years old and the lens do get to the point of needing cleaning. But I have used a que tip and alcohol to clean the lens and regular lens cleaning discs (with little brushes on it) to clean the laser lens and it still has a hard time. I can record from the Sony [DVD], from my Handycam [miniDV tapes], and from a vcr. I can pause the recording to change inputs and add to a recording to 'edit' on the fly, and until I finalize the disc, I can add more recordings later. Great price, good burner, I recomend it.

The Toshiba DR 430 works well. I hooked it up to a Trivax STB-T8 Digital Tuner I got free a while back from the government, when over the air switched over to all digital. I haven't used it up til now but that seems to work just fine also. I have that hooked up via the composite cables to the DR 430. Antenna (over the air) 'in' to the tuner, 'out' to the TV. Easy as pie. On the DR 430 I have the HDMI out to my A/V Receiver and the Component cables out to the TV. I can use it either way. They can block recording certain programs via the HDMI hookup. I wouldn't have bought it without the Component hookup. Everything worked the first try once the tuner scanned for available channels. This particular tuner is nice, it not only has channel info. But also a Program Guide per channel for several hours in advance. Plus, A choice of aspect ratio's, Which BTW are all recordable to DVD. The Recorder works well, but it won't recognize Dual Layer Blanks and it won't play MP4's (video's). Where my Panasonic Recorder would. It does play MP3 CD's I have one filled with 640 tracks, and MP3 DVD's I filled one with 1,989 Tracks 138 Folders that's @ 3.51 GB. They all play very well, Hit the Menu button and you get a list of Folders with Tracks inside. When you select a track and hit enter, it starts to play but for some reason exits the list, however, you can just hit the menu button to return again and cue the next song ( from any Folder) or let it play sequentially. Since its all hooked to my Receiver they all sound great. This is the only way to play music IMO, all listed by name and all in one place. No more looking for individual CDs, Tapes or records to fumble with. All you need is a remote and an easy chair. I use TaiyoYuden printable Blanks a quality Disc (if made in Japan), and they work with this unit. Don't know about the longevity only had it an hour or so, but so far so good.

My original review is below, and I downgraded this to 1 star... however I will make this simple. This machine has no TUNER so you cannot record anything into it that is off a coaxial cable. You can ONLY record using RCA cables and I believe S-Video, THAT IS IT.... What this leaves you with is a reproduction of what you are recording in the quality of a VHS tape. If you have a old VCR and a bunch of VHS tapes then go for it, this will do what you want no problem.. however remember RCA input is the lowest quality they make, there is nothing worse as far as inputs, except rabbit ear antenna which nobody makes anymore. This is like having a 10MP camera and taking pics in less then 1MP quality. My machine has since made it to the garage. MY Cable box does not have RCA outputs so I had to have a VCR connected between my tv and this dvd recorder. Why would anyone make such a machine with no tuner and no inputs of higher quality like component, is beyond me.. Its like buying a Corvette with a 4 cylinder engine. Don't waste your money unless you have old antiquated machines to copy from because you can have the highest quality machine to play your original, but you are forced to input this machine with RCA cables leaving you with a vhs quality reproduction... Give me a break. I would STRONGLY recommend getting a machine that has a TV TUNER, it would give you more options... I will make this brief, if you are buying the dvd recorder to record shows off cable, maybe pay per-view, movies you order from cable that you might want to keep then there is a HUGE downfall to owning this machine. This dvd recorder ONLY accepts basic RCA input and S-Video Thats it..NOT EVEN A COAXIAL INPUT . IT has HDMI, Component, S-Video and RCA OUTPUT but no Component video? Basically this downgrades the input video to basically VHS quality, regardless if the signal is HD. So if recording and saving is important to you then I would look elsewhere. Also if you have COMCAST you are in trouble, you can only use the S-video as at least my Cable Box does not have RCA outputs only component that is going to my tv. No HDMI output on my cable box, there is a DVI-1 output and S-Video so I can hook up my Toshiba using S-Video or RCA ONLY. Since I currently don't have a S-Video cable I am forced to keep my old vhs/dvd player on top of my tv. I can only get signal input to my Toshiba is connecting a Coaxial input from cable to the vhs player and then use RCA cable out from the VHS player to the Toshiba... Yes this has HDMI output so dvd's you rent will have the highest quality short of blue ray, but any recording you do will be recorded under the lowest input setting... I wont even bother discussing the rest of the options because so many others have. My problem is the lack of input signals... You can have a HD signal and record it but you will record it on RCA cables... ARE you JOKING? We just purchased a new LCD tv for my sons bedroom and it DOESN"T even have RCA inputs, ONLY hdmi and component... RCA is outdated... If recording higher quality video is your concern look elsewhere... If you are using this as strictly as a basic recorder to record missed shows only to delete them later with a -R/W disc you will be just fine...

This DVD recorder is a great buy for what it can do. Other reviewers have reviewed the Toshiba DVD recorder in great detail. I will try to summarize and maybe add some information 1. It can play back standard movie DVD's that you purchase or rent and it can "upconvert" them to near Blu-ray quality. It **CANNOT** play Blu-ray discs. 2. It can record from video sources **two** ways: composite video (three RCA cables, one video and two audio), and S-Video (one video cable and two RCA audio cable). It **CANNOT** record via HDMI input. 3. It can play back **four** ways: composite video or RGB (three RCA cables - one video and two audio), component video (five RCA cables - three video and two audio cables), S-Video (one video cable and two RCA audio cables) and for the highest quality, an HDMI cable. (It also has a digital audio output jack for digital audio systems.) Note its limitations. Since it has no tuner, it **CANNOT** record RF (over-the-air) signals. It is ideally suited for recording AV signals from Cable or Satellite. It cannot record the highest-quality HDMI output from Cable/Satellite systems since the Toshiba has no HDMI input. Understandably, unlike a DVR, it cannot record two programs at the same time. More importantly, while it can program a number of different date/time events, it **CANNOT** program channel changes. This is where a DVD recorder really falls short of a DVR system. My provider, Cablevision, used to allow users to program their boxes to change channels at preset times. That added versatility to the Toshiba DVD recorder. They have since removed that capability. (I guess they want you to rent their DVR's.) But, if you wish to record a number of programs from a single channel, at different dates and times while you're away, you can do that. If you wish to record over-the-air programs, you will need an external TV tuner and a good antenna. The tuner must has composite video or S-Video outputs. You can transfer your own AV material from camcorder (via a composite input) or from a thumb drive (via a USB input) on the front panel. If you have home movies on a VHS tape system, you can copy them to a DVD using the VHS recorder. If you use the required recording mode, you can even edit the material you have recorded. Also, consider using re-writable discs - either DVD-RW or DVD+RW. They are very cost effective. After you fill the disc, either delete one or more programs or just reformat it with the Toshiba. Then re-record with the DVD disc. On playback, you can go forward or backwards at different frame rates or freeze the frame. The manual is very detailed. Read it carefully to get the most out of the unit. All in all this is a great value for the dollar.

I purchased this a few months ago to replace an old DVD/VCR recorder that was wearing out, and so far I am happy with it. It has a few little glitches or things I would have liked to be different, but overall it seems like a good reliable product. Pros: 1. The recording and playback quality is great (have it connected w HDMI output and RYW input from satellite receiver), even on the lowest-quality recording settings. 2. After a little initial confusion with the menu setup and location of the remote buttons it's simple to use. 3. If you hit the record button once it will start recording, but pressing it multiple times sets the unit to automatically stop recording after 30, 60, 90, ... minutes, which is really convenient for recording a TV show or other standard-length event. 4. The user's manual is very detailed (~100 pages) but was straightforward enough that I (with very limited experience with this sort of thing) had the unit set up, figured out and running/recording in less than 15 minutes. 5. While the finalized DVD menus are basic, they have much more space for longer titles than my old Panasonic did, and show the complete title without truncating it. 6. It also lets you change the placement of chapter marks, but only with DVD+/-RW and DVD+R disks. I haven't used this feature because I record on DVD-R, but it seems like a great option. 7. And it's a heck of a lot cheaper than most of the other comparable models out there. Cons: 1. It takes FOREVER to read a disk when first inserted, finish writing a recording to the disk, and finalize the disk. My old recorder would take a few seconds to do the first two and maybe 30-60 seconds to finalize, but this one seems to take much longer. Thankfully it hasn't happened to me yet, but if you ever decide to record something on short notice and don't have a disk in already you will probably miss the first minute or two of your program. 2. The finalized DVD menu is very basic, with just the text titles in rows. 3. It doesn't have a built-in tuner, so you will need to hook it up to an antenna, satellite, cable, or other video feed. 4. The DVD tray is fairly loud when it opens/closes and I'm not sure how good the quality of its motor is. 5. Last and probably least, the unit doesn't show the clock when it's turned on, just the input source (or at least I can't figure out how to make it show the clock instead). To summarize, this might not be the newest or greatest DVD recorder, but if you're looking for a good recorder at a decent price with some neat features, look no further.

Here's my story. Maybe you'll recognize yourself. When VCRs came along it seemed to good to be true. You could record a whole library of stuff for about 10 bucks a show and watch it whenever. I guess I made or bought hundreds of VCR tapes over the years. Then VCR became obsolete and DVD came in. About 10 or 15 years ago I thought, "I'll just get a DVD recorder and pick up where I left off with the new technology." Cost me a couple of hundred bucks investment. What a disappointment! The machine was unreliable. I couldn't tell whether it would work or not until I "finalized" a disk. If it didn't work, that was another disk ruined. This was when each disk cost a couple of dollars each. I don't know how many I broke up in frustration. Now the new thing is DVR, which you can get (for a fee) from your cable company. Sounds like a good idea, but it only allows you to record stuff from the cable, not to build a permanent library or convert your existing tape library. I wondered what was new in DVD recorders. It was with trepidation that I made a flying leap and bought this unit. A major factor was price, less than 100 dollars. And DVDs are down to about 50 cents each or less. I was very pleasantly surprised. I don't use the HDMI hookup, just component video/audio, the red, white and yellow RCA connectors. I'm not really a video snob and the quality is better that what I expect. It has an option to record in four modes, the best quality of which puts one hour of video on a DVD and the longest of which lets me record 7 hours on a disk. It was a chinch to hook up to my system. The menus are intuitive and work like they should. I'm thinking now that one day, I will convert some of those ancient tapes with big sentimental value to DVD. The timer gives me the flexibility to record multiple shows as if it were a DVR, but I don't have the monthly fee. Of course, it is a little less convenient than a cable DVR, because I have to flip over to a separate input on my TV to program it and there is no recurrent program to record a given show every week. Each episode of a program is a separate event, as far as this unit is concerned. Still and all, I'm delighted with this purchase so far. It has many features to recommend it, first among them is: it works!

Positives: 1. Very inexpensive for an upconverting DVD player/recorder. 2. Handsome look. It is black. 3. Good picture quality as you would expect from an upconverting unit. Negatives: 1. You cannot get any help from Toshiba. If there is a way to contact them for assistance, I could not discover it by phone or internet. I wanted to ask how to program what some DVD recorder manufactures call "Flexible Recording." If someone at Toshiba reads reviews on their products, shame, shame on you. You get a big fat "F" for customer service. Heaven help me if I had a real problem. 2. This unit does not have "Flexible Recording." FR is very convenient when recording movies from a DVR for example. Movies vary greatly in hours and minutes and FR allows you to program the recorder to use the available disk space on the DVD fully. This gives a better quality picture. It also allows you to start and stop the recording at the beginning and end of the movie without unwanted material at the end. On automatic program, the Toshiba DR430 lets you program to record 1, 2, 4, 6 or 8 hours which means that a 1 hour, 47 minute (for example) movie will record 13 minutes of the DVR putting itself on hold, asking if you want to delete the recording on the DVR and then defaulting to whatever channel it is set to. This assumes you set the Toshiba to the 2 hour record mode. My last DVD recorder was a Panasonic ES25 and it allowed FR. They do not make the ES25 any more and I miss it. 3. As far as I can tell, the Toshiba DR430 only allows you to name the individual tracks. The Panasonic allowed you to have an overall DVD title as well as individual track titles. If you record only one movie on the DVD, the track title is the DVD title but if you are recording a series you probably want to name the series overall title and also the individual episode titles. The Panasonic allowed this but the Toshiba does not. 4. On the subject of inserting titles, Toshiba's method is cumbersome, at best. It is set up like a phone dial pad on the remote. Numeral "2" also has the letters "ABC" on the same button; "3" has "DEF", etc. You need to look at the remote to remind you which series of letters are on which button and then scroll through 3 or 4 letters. To switch from cap letters to lower case letters; to numbers; to punctuation/characters you must switch to that format, return to insert mode and then scroll through however many letters are assigned to the pertinent button. To give you an idea, to program the word "The" you need to switch to cap letter mode, return to insert mode hit the "8" button once for "T", switch to the mode menu, switch to lower case mode, return to insert mode, hit the "4" button twice for "h" and then hit the "3" button twice for "e." To minimize the hassle, I program titles in all cap letters. The punctuation/characters group is particularly difficult. These are all assigned to one button and you must scroll through them to get to the one you want. There are 29 of them. If you scroll past the one you want, you must scroll through the remainder and start over. I cringe when there is a comma or period in a movie's title. Also, I always include the movie's release date in parentheses in the title. The Panasonic's method puts all the letters, numbers and punctuation/characters on one image on the TV screen and you use the remote to choose what you want. You never need to look at the remote to see where your thumb needs to go and it is much faster. With hindsight, I should have "bit the bullet" and spent another $100 or so for a Panasonic with similar features to their ES25. I will give the Toshiba more time to see if my thumb develops a memory and rhythm of its own to help with the titles. However, I foresee another Panasonic purchase in my future for primary use and perhaps I will put the Toshiba back in the box as a backup when the Panasonic eventually fails.

I purchased the Toshiba DR430 to replace a Panasonic DMP-BD65 DVD recorder that died after a power outage. The Toshiba has a timer so you can program it to record broadcast/cable shows when you're away from home, but it is "tunerless." That means it must be connected to a cable TV box, digital TV converter box, satellite tuner box, or a VCR with a built-in TV/Cable tuner and RCA audio/video output jacks for this unit to receive and record shows. If you only have a coax cable (wire) running from an antenna or cable TV connection on the wall, this unit will not work for you. Many of the negative reviews on this page appear to be from people who simply can't understand this basic limitation. As for the performance of the unit itself, it does what it promises. Picture quality in SP (2 hour) mode is excellent. The LP (4 hour) and EP (6 hour) modes are pretty bad, much like the EP (6 hour) mode on a VCR. This is basically the case for all DVD recorders that I've used. ***UPDATE (12/2012): I switched cable TV providers from Comcast to Verizon Fios and my signal quality improved dramatically. I can now record in the LP (4 hour) mode and get a respectable picture. The owner's manual is a little complex but operating the Toshiba is much easier than the Panasonic unit I previously owned. Most people will just be recording a program, naming the disc, and finalizing it for playback. Those three steps are fairly straightforward. Note: If you want to record in the widescreen 16x9 format, you'll need to use DVD-R and DVD-RW blank discs. Toshiba recommends Maxell DVD-R 8x/16x, Verbatium DVD-R 8x and DVD-RW 2x, and JVC DVD-RW 4x discs, but I've used Fuji DVD-R discs without any problems. To use some of the advanced editing features, you'll have to record on DVD-RW discs in the VR mode which is not compatible with many other DVD players. ***UPDATE (12/2012): A small number of TV shows are broadcast with a copy-protection signal that will not allow you to record them on this unit. Some shows are broadcast with a copy-once signal that allows you to make a single copy that can't be further duplicated on special CPRM (content protection for recordable media) blank DVD-RW discs in the VR mode. These discs are much more expensive and not widely available in the US - I had to order them from the JVC online store. Also, the unit only has a 90-day warranty in the US (parts & labor) which is pathetic for a major company like Toshiba. Finally, consumer feedback on the web suggests that DVD recorders appear to be more vulnerable to power surges than other video components. Plug the unit into a decent surge protector just in case.