There was a time when you could get DVD recorders cheap like the Toshiba RD-XS52. It had a 160Gb HDD and recorded DVD-RAM and
DVD-R disks. The HDD allowed you to record up to 135 hours. This DVD recorder
came with an excellent NTSC tuner and allowed high-speed dubbing from DVD-R to
the HDD. This was a high end DVD recorder but sadly the machine is discontinued.
To get similar Toshiba DVD recorders cheap today you would have to go with the Toshiba RD-XS32.
This DVD recorder can recognize DV, Digital8 VCRs or camcorders and actually
calls them by name.
When you use the highest recording level: (9.2mbps/4.7Gb per
hour) the re-recording on either DVD-RAM or hard drive produced excellent
results. The disk playback looked great and there were are no motion artifacts.
Although the mid-level audio setting gave excellent sound quality you cannot use
the highest audio setting level with the highest video setting.
The Toshiba RD-XS52 comes with an HDMI cord (a costly item), for connecting to
an HDTV (you need HDTV to enjoy this feature). This DVD recorder has many manual
adjustments for video and audio, in both recording and playback modes. The DVD recorder has video DNR for recording as well as brightness, contrast / color levels and
tint balance with 14-point adjustments. There's a 3-level edge-enhancement and a
3-point gamma adjustment. Also, there's normal and enhanced black-level
settings.
Like I said the Toshiba RD-XS32 digital video recorder is a
high end machine.
There's dozens of adjustments and selections that you'll probably never need.
The Toshiba RD-XS32 remote control is extensive too. If you want to know
everything about this DVD recorder there will be a learning curve.
The S-Video or composite output deliver a crisp picture but the component
outputs give a better picture. This Toshiba has a FireWire port on the
front, beneath a flap. The bit-rate can be manually changed. You have 5 bit-rate
combinations you can pre-set, along with the 3 audio levels. One of these can be
chosen when you set each recording.
The Toshiba RD-XS32 DVD recorder is a quiet DVR with many nice little features.
For example, it allows you to zoom in or zoom out on JPEGS so that you control
the focal point of the zoom (i.e.. by pressing the "up /down/ right/left"
navigational buttons)? This is a nice feature when viewing pictures. The Toshiba RD-XS32 offers one of the best values out there.
If you want to get Toshiba DVD recorders cheap you’re best to stick with the RD-XS32. Here’s a small side note. The Toshiba DVD recorders have a black level error. This means that some really picky viewers will not see true blacks in their recordings. Of course, depending on the equipment and connections you use during playback, most people will not see this error. But the fact remains that the error has been recorded
on to the disk.
