Home > Consumer Reviews > Toshiba DVR18 - DVD Recorder & VHS Combi With Freeview

This item has everything you need DVD player, Video and Freewiew all in one machine and one remote. All this for a fantastic price too. You do need to supply your own scart lead (a small additional cost).

Normally my television reception in my area is rubbish, so I don't get many channels. But the Freeview built in was fantastic and picked up most (if not all) the freeview channels.

I was very worried that this would be complicated to tune in, but it could not have been easier. Just remember to switch the machine to VCR mode to watch Freeview.

The D-VR18 works very well when dubbing from videotape to DVD. If this is what you want it for, you will be pleased. Dubbing is started with a single button, and when STOP is pressed, it stops both the videotape and the DVD, so it's easy to dub one long videotape into chapters on a DVD. It also reads all my old tapes. Minor drawbacks are the time it takes for a DVD to load. I have timed ten to 20 seconds, depending on the DVD. I also find the software overly complex, requiring more steps than my old Panasonic DVD recorder. I have a DVR for easy TV recording and only use this DVD recorder for dubbing old tapes and archiving stuff I want to keep, dubbing them from the DVR to DVD. I am pleased with the unit for these purposes but if it was my only recorder, the start-up time would bother me.

Toshiba DVR18 - DVD Recorder & VHS Combi With Freeview

The recorder produces decent results, but it takes hours to read and re-read the instructions to get an idea how to operate it.

After using the machine for three weeks it suddenly started to play back video tapes in black and white - old recordings, new recordings, and prerecorded tapes. It continued to work fine on the DVD player, so the problem wasn't with a dodgy connection. I tried resetting the factory settings - still B&W.

Finally out of desperation I unplugged the machine for an hour and then set it up again - problem gone!

So was periodically dropping down into B&W a "feature" of this model, or have I received a dodgy unit? I won't know until it happens again (or doesn't)

When our previous (5 months old) VCR packed up (reviewed elsewhere, here) I did a LOT of research to find what I really wanted.

This one is it and I am very pleased.

Installation took about half an hour, and a further hour to familiarise myself with all the new options like Freeview.

The book is well-written which is more than one can say for some user guides, and all my video tapes perform splendidly on this device: no sudden blank screen, and music plays as it should when there is music on the soundtrack of an old, taped, movie. (That was the hardest test, and the one I submitted it to, first.)

Since it has a DVD drive built-in, our other DVD player is now redundant, but that's fine. This one seems better somehow.

I have not tried copying tapes to DVD yet so cannot comment on that.

All in all I've given it 5 stars and would definitely recommend this product.

So far it has worked well. I have bought 4 video/dvd combos in the last 2 years and they have all gone wrong so hopefully the Toshiba will last longer. In case not I also bought a 3 year warranty.