Toshiba SD-V296 DVD Player/VCR Combo, Progressive Scan Dolby Digital Remote Control, Black

I've been giving this unit a shakedown before I wrote this review. My 5 stars are for what this unit is capable of, what it is not as advertised, and the cost.Toshiba is one of very few manufactures out there still making DVD/VCR Combo's and I'm glad for this. The manufacture date on the back of my unit was August 2012 so it was assembled quite recently as I write this. I have a large number of VHS titles that were never released on DVD or Blu-Ray so this type of product is still important to me.Hook-up is very straight forward. I'm not sure how typical my hook up scenerio is compared to others, but I had this unit hooked up to a quality 7.1 Home Theatre System that includes one powerhouse Pioneer Elite AV Receiver. I connected the three component Video out cables directly to my HDTV (for DVD), the Digital Audio Coaxial cable connected to my AV Receiver (for DVD), composite RCA cables audio/video out to my AV Receiver (for VHS), and connnected my COX cable box to the audio and video composite in jacks on the back of this unit for VHS recording.DVD video quality is excellent with 480p progressive scan. This unit is capable for bitstreaming both Dolby Digital 5.1 and DTS 5.1, another reason I give high marks. I watched an Enya music video compilation DVD with DTS and it was absolutely stunning, both video and the DTS 5.1 surround sound.As for VHS, the picture quality is certainly not going to be DVD quality but is watchable. For those who have an AV Receiver capable of Video analog upscaling, the improvement works. VHS HI FI audio is an almost forgotten technology in this digital age but the quality is still outstanding with analog Dolby Pro Logic II surround sound. I'll sometimes swear it sounds better than it's Dolby Digital counterpart from some video sources.Recording to VHS tape is something I didn't intend to use this unit for, but the quality is about as can be expected. Since I've gotten used to watching true HD blu ray and SD DVD, VHS viewing is not half bad as long as the recording speed is kept to SP mode and not the slow EP. VHS playback simply will not look as good on an HDTV as it does on a analog TV. If you have the equipment for video processing (upscale to 720P, etc) that really improves the picture. Any recording in the EP mode will look like crap on any HD set.Negatives, I would say the remote could be layed out a little better but is still very functional. The VCR while playing tapes does have an audible noise up close, but if this unit is in a cabinet or reasonably far away I don't think it would be that noticable.I haven't experienced any breakdowns like other reviewers have reported on. As such, for what Toshiba offers with this product and the low price point to own, this unit is worth 5 stars to me. Others have dinged this machine for their own missunderstanding of what this unit will or will not do, like "no tuner" or ignorance of hookups (the manual is very clear about cable hook up "how to"). These are unfair.

Works like a champ.

We bought this to replace an old Panasonic VCR which we mainly use to watch TV shows we record. Nothing in the description or reviews we read indicated that this product would not work with an analog TV. Most of the reviews were about it being tunerless, which was no problem because it would be hooked up through a cable box.We hooked it up per the instructions and immediately found that we could not set the clock, because no blank screen appeared on our TV. We then, hooked it up to the TV with the idea that we would be satisfied with just watching tapes recorded on another VCR. Same problem. Finally, we just tried playing a tape. Nothing appeared on our TV. We called Toshiba and they immediately declared it defective, so we returned it. By the way, Toshiba's tech service is non-existent for these VCR/DVD combos. If you can't solve your problem online and resort to calling them, they refer you to their return center, acclaim.toshiba.com to submit a return claim because they don't have any live tech support for these devices. We skipped that and returned our purchase directly to Amazon which was painless.Bottom line--any VCR, DVD player or combo that touts progressive scan will not playback to analog TV if progressive scan is on. You need to be able to turn it off. I did not see how to do this in the Toshiba manual, but I did in the manual for its Magnavox competition. I could not help but notice that the manuals for these two competing units were nearly identical, including the figures and typeface. So, I am going to make some suggestions which may or may not work based on my Magnavox experience.1. Look though your Toshiba manual for how to turn off progressive scanning. If you find nothing, see if there is a small light labelled P-Scan on the front of the unit. If the light is on, then progressive scan is active and must be deactivated. Try holding down the play button on the DVD side of the unit for a few seconds. This will hopefully deactivate progressive scanning and the light will go out.2. Next step is resetting your TV's video mode. For this, I strongly recommend going to Google and typing the competition"s name and model in the search box to bring up the Magnavox manual. That would. be: magnavox dv225mg9.3. Click on the Magnavox manual and download it. On the bottom of p. 6, you will find a table of various TV models and the possible ways of switching the video input. If you don't still have your TV's original manual, this is your best bet. See what works.4. Once you have successfully switched your TV's video input, you should be good. Test it by trying to play a VHS tape.5. For my GE set, the key was switching to channel 91 which could be done with the TV's original remote or using the channel up buttons on the front of the set. Your cable box will work fine whether your TV is set to channel 4 or the appropriate video input, in my case channel 91,There is no TV/VCR button on the remote. So, judging from my Magnavox experience, I offer the following guidance:1. Assuming you have successfully played back a VHS tape, press the Setup button. This should bring up the familiar blue screen. Follow the manual instructions. Set the date and time if you plan on using the timer record function.2. To play a tape, just press Play and you will see your tape assuming your TV's input has been reset to video, be that channel 91 or something else.3. Finally, something funky about both these VCR's, you must do two additional things that you may not be accustomed to doing to successfully timer record a TV program:a. During the programming process, you will be prompted for the input source. Choose L1, and be SURE that the RCA leads from your cable box or other external tuner are connected to the VCR's input jacks.b. You MUST press the Timer Start or Timer Rec button on the remote when you have finished entering your program info. This will bring up a confirming display and also restrict your use of the player to DVD viewing only. If you fail to do this confirming step, the VCR will not record your program. For anyone accustomed to an older device without DVD function, this seems bizarre and it took me a few tries before I understood why my programmed shows had not recorded.Good luck,Pam