 |
Toshiba RD XV45-S-TE
by MegaDan
I have had this Toshiba HDD/DVD/VCR recorder for a few years now and it has served me very well, it has so many advantages, yet so many disadvantages, i both love it and hate it at the same time, it can perform tasks such as converting my old Camcorder footage to DVD, Converting my old VHS Cassetes to DVD, Recording Freeview in High ... Quality (Not HD) and also has features like Series Link which i find extremely useful, i recently watched Frasier from Start to finish, all 11 seasons, i recorded the episodes, 2 per day using the series link and it did not let me down once, so it is a very reliable machine.
It comes with a Huge Hard Drive, it varies by Model, mine has a 320GB Hard Drive, which allows me to record 60 Hours of Television in Standard Mode, and 30 Hours in High Quality, i generally use the Standard Mode as the difference isn't that big, and i like to have more hours available for recording, so a simple way to work out how many hours recording you will get is to remember, it is 20 Hours in Standard mode, and 10 hours in High Quality mode for every 100 GB of Hard drive space, this is the same scale used across all Toshiba Models.
It has an excellent remote control which is well catered for beginners and more advanced users, and a feature which i really like is the ability to play Video/Photo/MP3 via USB, this is a huge plus point.
However, it does have quite a few Bad points:
The Electronic programme guide is clunky, laggy, slow, and to put it simply... Ugly, the first thing i noticed when i turned it on was the ugliness of EPG, if you are the type of person who likes things to look good, then this probably isn't for you, Similarly, the actual design of the Machine is quite ugly, it resembles a Video Cassette Recorder so can look like a dated machine , but if you can look past the aesthetics of the machine, it won't let you down in terms of recording, Picture Quality or reliability,it just suffers from a poor design and even poorer UI, which really lets it down.
Finally, i will add, that this machine does not allow you to record one channel while watching another, if you wish to do that you will either need built in freeview, a Freeview box or any kind of Alternate picture, such as Sky or Virgin Media, this is my main problem with the machine, and the main reason, along with the others listed above, that i am awarding it a 7/10 rating, for the price of around 250 pounds, i would expect two freeview tuners.
If you are purchasing this Machine to convert your old VHS and Camcorder videos to DVD, then i couldn't recommend it highly enough, it is faultless, if you are looking for a machine which will record Television programmes for you with no fuss, then this Box is ideal, but, if you just want a simple HDD/DVD Recorder with Twin Freeview tuners, there are much better and cheaper options available.
Thank you for reading my review.
Read the complete review |
 |
Toshiba RD XV48DTKTB
by headsore
We have owned our Toshiba XV48DT recorder now for approximately 9 months and we love it. In fact we would not be without it in our family. It cost £234 from Amazon and was delivered super quickly. It is easy and simple to use and the picture quality and sound are excellent in my opinion. It is a bit larger than we would have liked and ... looks bulkier than the one I have downstairs in the basement but this is a hard to beat model in my opinion as it has everything I need and want.
It has a 160GB hard disk drive which allows us to record for up to an impressive 284 hours. We like the idea of having a hard disk drive and in my opinion this is far better than having to look about the house for spare discs. I personally use it a lot for transferring tapes to DVD.
It is easy and simple to connect to the existing in my opinion and this can be done either via the rf cable or the cart socket. I was impressed to find it was already pre-tuned to appropriate TV stations so there was no need for me to have to fiddle about with that. The menu system is also straightforward in my opinion and I love the fact that it can receive both analogue as well as digital channels and access to Freeview - all of this is also available through my existing aerial - brilliant!
As a family and also personally speaking, we all love the fact that we can watch a DVD and record a channel both at the same time, without any problem at all. I was very impressed with this feature when I first started to use the Toshiba XV48DT recorder but now I think I have probably become accustomed to this little luxury of the 21st century. This is a fantastic feature for me personally as it means that if we hire a DVD out over a weekend and watch it as a family or as a couple, we are still able to record our favourite programme at the same time. In our case, it would probably be Downton Abbey or the like!
The Toshiba XV48DT recorder also has the amazing added advantage of having 'chase play' and 'pause live TV' - again another brilliant feature in my opinion and this comes in so handy. This recorder also has the added advantage of allowing us to connect to our camcorder to make a permanent viewing of various footage and we used this feature most recently at a friend's baby's christening. It can play MP3 files and I also love this feature.
Although we have had several video recorders over the years this has to be one of the very best ones we have owned, in my opinion. I know technology is getting better and better and one day I may look back on this and wonder what on earth I ever saw in it but at the moment, for me personally, nothing can surpass it in terms of technical ability. The remote control is also easy and simple to use and causes us no headaches and the useful instruction manual has also been very easy to follow.
The picture quality is in my opinion, spot on and the sound is sharp and the picture is bright . It is very simple to set up and just as easy to navigate your way around, so simple in fact that even my other half can manage it without her having to call me up at work to ask for help, and that can only be a good thing.
In my opinion a brilliant little recorder. Not overly expensive, but it has the features I could ever want. Spot on and highly recommended.
review also poasted on Ciao as sorehead
Read the complete review |
