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Toshiba RD88DT Freeview+ 160GB Hard Drive DVD Recorder 1080P Upscaling
See it at Amazon.co.uk for £199.95Average Customer Rating
(4.0 out of 5)
Amazon Customer Reviews
Most Helpful First | Newest First | + Share27 of 32 people found the following review helpful:
Poorly designed
(1 out of 5) by K J Noakes on Nov 9, 2008Great picture quality, great features, but let down really badly by poor interface design. So... you can review channels from the program guide, but you can't then slect the channel you want to view from the program guide, you have to exit the program guide and type in the channel number!
there are lots of other badly designed features but this one to me was a show stopper and had me taking the recorder back....if you are recording a channel you CANNOT watch another channel whilst it's recording.
there are lots of other badly designed features but this one to me was a show stopper and had me taking the recorder back....if you are recording a channel you CANNOT watch another channel whilst it's recording.
16 of 20 people found the following review helpful:
Perhaps mine was faulty
(1 out of 5) by apen name on Oct 8, 2008 (Suffolk, UK)I bought one of these from Tesco a couple of days ago, but it went straight back. The picture quality from the DVB tuner was atrocious - I thought the image from my TV's tuner was bad (in comparison to my Sony STB), but this was on another level.
DVD playback was almost acceptable, on a par with £20 DVD players, but don't expect the upscaler to actually do anything for picture quality.
The biggest problem for me was the startup time. Over a minute to turn it on and get the drawer to open to accept a disk. Then, it made a horrible noise from the drive while playing movies. Like I say, perhaps it was faulty because my experience doesn't match the majority of reviews I read.
DVD playback was almost acceptable, on a par with £20 DVD players, but don't expect the upscaler to actually do anything for picture quality.
The biggest problem for me was the startup time. Over a minute to turn it on and get the drawer to open to accept a disk. Then, it made a horrible noise from the drive while playing movies. Like I say, perhaps it was faulty because my experience doesn't match the majority of reviews I read.
3 of 3 people found the following review helpful:
Poor reception on some channels, sluggish and too noisy.
(2 out of 5) by mosaic on Mar 26, 2009 (UK)I don't know if our unit is faulty but it seems to be stuck in standby-mode CONTINUOUSLY when there are any programmes set to be recorded. This means the machine is whirring in the background ALL THE TIME. It only goes quiet if there are no programmes queued for recording, so we can't really set any recordings in advance. What a let-down!
Also, it struggles with some of the channels that our digital TV has no problem with. This sometimes means that a recording is practically unwatchable with constant glitches and break-ups. It only happens with some of the channels, like Channel 4+1. At the same time, our TV set receives the same channel just fine, so I know the problem is the recorder's tuner and not our signal. Not good, wouldn't recommend.
Also, it struggles with some of the channels that our digital TV has no problem with. This sometimes means that a recording is practically unwatchable with constant glitches and break-ups. It only happens with some of the channels, like Channel 4+1. At the same time, our TV set receives the same channel just fine, so I know the problem is the recorder's tuner and not our signal. Not good, wouldn't recommend.
2 of 2 people found the following review helpful:
Quiet Enjoyment
(5 out of 5) by Ric W on Mar 3, 2009 (UK)This was ordered from Amazon last week and arrived Saturday. The criticism
of many HDD/DVD sets that concerned me most was noise in operation, so I
was helped by customers reviews to make the Toshiba my choice, and I am not disappointed. Setting it up proved to be fairly straightforward and once running it performed superbly, combining silent operation with great picture quality.
My only 'grumble' has nothing to with the machine - it is the annoying
copy-protect feature which I assume is common to all dvd recorders. A small number of commercial tapes in my library are not available on dvd
yet I am prevented from copying them. I realise the industry needs to deter large-scale piracy but this seems unreasonable, given the probable demise of the VCR.
of many HDD/DVD sets that concerned me most was noise in operation, so I
was helped by customers reviews to make the Toshiba my choice, and I am not disappointed. Setting it up proved to be fairly straightforward and once running it performed superbly, combining silent operation with great picture quality.
My only 'grumble' has nothing to with the machine - it is the annoying
copy-protect feature which I assume is common to all dvd recorders. A small number of commercial tapes in my library are not available on dvd
yet I am prevented from copying them. I realise the industry needs to deter large-scale piracy but this seems unreasonable, given the probable demise of the VCR.
3 of 4 people found the following review helpful:
Not recommended
(2 out of 5) by Alpha Mike on Mar 7, 2009 (UK)Bought this after much review surfing because the comparable Sony recorder was not available.
After after few days use I can say the following:
1 Unit is fairly noisy and audible over quiet TV. Quietens down once the DVD goes off seek.
2 Freeview tuner does not work tremendously well in a poor signal quality area- I have 50 to 60% signal strength & 85% signal quality and commonly get picture dropouts. My LG LCD Freeview TV works fine.
3 Picture quality is good.
4 Manual is comprehensive.
5 Setup is easy.
6 You cannot select a programme to watch immediately from the electronic programme guide. It can only be used for setting something to record. There is a channel quick select function but it's not nearly as convenient as an EPG because it does not tell you what's on. The annoying thing is that the Tv switches to the channel you are reviewing via the EPG and then goes back to the original channel when you quit out of the EPG. Spoke with Toshiba about this and they say the unit is not intended for use as set top box. Since they do not routinely expect you to use it to what TV you have got to question the utility of the HDD timeslip function, which is what I really wanted.
7 The upscaling is good & a light on the front panel lets you know what resolution you are at.
Overall, I regret buying this product and would not recommend it.
After after few days use I can say the following:
1 Unit is fairly noisy and audible over quiet TV. Quietens down once the DVD goes off seek.
2 Freeview tuner does not work tremendously well in a poor signal quality area- I have 50 to 60% signal strength & 85% signal quality and commonly get picture dropouts. My LG LCD Freeview TV works fine.
3 Picture quality is good.
4 Manual is comprehensive.
5 Setup is easy.
6 You cannot select a programme to watch immediately from the electronic programme guide. It can only be used for setting something to record. There is a channel quick select function but it's not nearly as convenient as an EPG because it does not tell you what's on. The annoying thing is that the Tv switches to the channel you are reviewing via the EPG and then goes back to the original channel when you quit out of the EPG. Spoke with Toshiba about this and they say the unit is not intended for use as set top box. Since they do not routinely expect you to use it to what TV you have got to question the utility of the HDD timeslip function, which is what I really wanted.
7 The upscaling is good & a light on the front panel lets you know what resolution you are at.
Overall, I regret buying this product and would not recommend it.