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Toshiba RDXV48 - 160Gb Hard Drive DVD Recorder & VHS Combi With Freeview
See it at Amazon.co.uk for £219.95Average Customer Rating
(4.5 out of 5)
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Most Helpful First | Newest First | + Sharewonderful machine :-)
(5 out of 5) by Daz on Jun 12, 2009 (Wales)Probably the best single purchase Ive ever made, records to hard drive, dvd, or video tape. I'd ignore the LP recording on hdd or dvd as the quality is terrible. stick with SP and you'll be very happy. You can edit all recordings on the hdd removing ad breaks and the like prior to putting onto dvd. Same with video, once recorded to the hdd you can edit to your hearts content before putting onto dvd. 1080p upscaling is brilliant (must have hdmi cable obviously)
minor faults being, no stereo output from vcr (only via scart leads) the tv guide is a bit fiddly and slow, and the fan stays on constantly when in timer record mode. Not very enviromentally friendly Id have said.
Also when you use the tv guide you cannot choose the program you want to watch as it assumes you wish to record it and takes you to the timer page! there is a quick guide using the enter/ok button and the up/down buttons but it only gives you the channel not the tv guide.
However that set aside, Im still very pleased with the item
minor faults being, no stereo output from vcr (only via scart leads) the tv guide is a bit fiddly and slow, and the fan stays on constantly when in timer record mode. Not very enviromentally friendly Id have said.
Also when you use the tv guide you cannot choose the program you want to watch as it assumes you wish to record it and takes you to the timer page! there is a quick guide using the enter/ok button and the up/down buttons but it only gives you the channel not the tv guide.
However that set aside, Im still very pleased with the item
product of the century
(5 out of 5) by Mo Aziz on May 25, 2009Wow, since i bought it and im learning so much about it, and soooo many cool features
Excellent but how do I?
(4 out of 5) by P. C. Trethewey on May 20, 2009 (London)This is an excellent product but I cannot discover how to view any live television when I'm recording
quite nice BUT..........
(3 out of 5) by cuyocksol on Nov 12, 2008This review is in 2 parts:
1st I wrote when I'd just got the machine, last year.
PLEASE read the end bit...! I considerably revised my positive opinion over time!
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I know nothing of Sky + or whatever, so can't compare its recording function for ease-of-use. I've found it all easy to use so far. It's very quick and simple to set it to record to HDD a program by just choosing it from the daily listings on the Freeview menu.
However, as I think someone has pointed out on a forum here, I'm very surprised there's no way to record (to any format, VHS, HDD or DVD) one channel and watch a different channel at the same time. Yes, while recording TV you can watch an already-recorded medium (on VHS, HDD or DVD), but nothing live. This is especially odd as this machine boasts two TV tuners, one digital, one analogue. So what's the point if you can't use both simultaneously? (Of course while the machine's recording from a TV channel you can primitively switch your TV onto it's own (non-video) channel, but in the case of our old TV that's not good quality... And why should I have to find this poor solution with such a nice new video machine?)
My 2nd slight disappointment is I'm sure not unique to this brand or model, but I guess it's a similar story with any modern DVD recorders. One reason we wanted a VCR player and DVD recorder combi was to transfer a few of our much-loved well-played old video tapes onto DVD. Is this "pirating"?? Perhaps, but so be it; purely for our own personal use, before the (irreplaceable) video tapes finally snap. But even trying to dub from some VHS tapes the machine pipes up "copyright material - though shalt not copy". I dunno, these new-fangled machines are too smart for their own good sometimes...
These gripes aside, this is a super video recorder for a great price, and no qualms at all about choosing it.
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Since writing the above I have become increasingly dissatisfied with the way this machine records programmes from a Freeview digital system. It's very easy to select a programme from any channel's guide, one click and it'll record. However if the programme is due to run from, eg. 0900 to 1030, then the machine will only record from EXACTLY these times, with not even ONE minute's leeway on either side! I find it mind-boggling, and there is NO way to alter this default. I've lost count of the number of times I've missed a couple of minutes of the start or end of a good film......... It is really frustrating. There is no way to alter the timings of a programme once it's set. You can manually programme it from scratch without using the programme guide, but then you have to input the times, the channel, etc and it's a needless waste of time on a machine that should be a bit more intelligent.
And I've just found yet another problem. Late last night I set the video to record a film which was scheduled to start at 1.45am. I used the Freeview's EPG to set the timer, not entering the times manually. BST ended at 2am, and I guess the time change freaked out the video recorder, cos it only recorded the programme for 15 mins then stopped. How ridiculous that this machine isn't aware of twice-yearly time changes and can't deal with them!
By the way, I emailed a couple of different Toshiba departments (in the UK, and their head offices in Japan) last year about these matters, but never got a response.
1st I wrote when I'd just got the machine, last year.
PLEASE read the end bit...! I considerably revised my positive opinion over time!
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
I know nothing of Sky + or whatever, so can't compare its recording function for ease-of-use. I've found it all easy to use so far. It's very quick and simple to set it to record to HDD a program by just choosing it from the daily listings on the Freeview menu.
However, as I think someone has pointed out on a forum here, I'm very surprised there's no way to record (to any format, VHS, HDD or DVD) one channel and watch a different channel at the same time. Yes, while recording TV you can watch an already-recorded medium (on VHS, HDD or DVD), but nothing live. This is especially odd as this machine boasts two TV tuners, one digital, one analogue. So what's the point if you can't use both simultaneously? (Of course while the machine's recording from a TV channel you can primitively switch your TV onto it's own (non-video) channel, but in the case of our old TV that's not good quality... And why should I have to find this poor solution with such a nice new video machine?)
My 2nd slight disappointment is I'm sure not unique to this brand or model, but I guess it's a similar story with any modern DVD recorders. One reason we wanted a VCR player and DVD recorder combi was to transfer a few of our much-loved well-played old video tapes onto DVD. Is this "pirating"?? Perhaps, but so be it; purely for our own personal use, before the (irreplaceable) video tapes finally snap. But even trying to dub from some VHS tapes the machine pipes up "copyright material - though shalt not copy". I dunno, these new-fangled machines are too smart for their own good sometimes...
These gripes aside, this is a super video recorder for a great price, and no qualms at all about choosing it.
-----------------------------------------------------------------------------
Since writing the above I have become increasingly dissatisfied with the way this machine records programmes from a Freeview digital system. It's very easy to select a programme from any channel's guide, one click and it'll record. However if the programme is due to run from, eg. 0900 to 1030, then the machine will only record from EXACTLY these times, with not even ONE minute's leeway on either side! I find it mind-boggling, and there is NO way to alter this default. I've lost count of the number of times I've missed a couple of minutes of the start or end of a good film......... It is really frustrating. There is no way to alter the timings of a programme once it's set. You can manually programme it from scratch without using the programme guide, but then you have to input the times, the channel, etc and it's a needless waste of time on a machine that should be a bit more intelligent.
And I've just found yet another problem. Late last night I set the video to record a film which was scheduled to start at 1.45am. I used the Freeview's EPG to set the timer, not entering the times manually. BST ended at 2am, and I guess the time change freaked out the video recorder, cos it only recorded the programme for 15 mins then stopped. How ridiculous that this machine isn't aware of twice-yearly time changes and can't deal with them!
By the way, I emailed a couple of different Toshiba departments (in the UK, and their head offices in Japan) last year about these matters, but never got a response.