I have had a Toshiba RD XV 45 DVD HDD VHS recorder. Which no longer dubs to DVD. It throws up an error message 03-56.

I have contacted Toshiba helpline and their assistants not only did not recognize the error code 03-56 but did not seem to know where to look.

This recorder is less than a eighteen months old, and has been replaced three times and repaired once. The repair took three weeks at Toshiba and was in an even worse state within six weeks of return.

This scenario I have just described gives a totally new slant to nostalgia, I haven't seen this sort of reliability since the sixties.

To be fair, when it was working it was extremely good, but not for long. Additionally, the Toshiba brand name is no longer even considered when looking for equipment.

Incidentally copies of all correspondence are available including three e-mails "Deleted unread"

Jeff Ward

jeffward@talktalk.net