I am looking at this DVD Recorder for 2 purposes. One to burn my large selection of old 'baby boomer' concert vhs tapes that will not be produced onto dvd.
And second to burn my Panasonic pv-gs300 mini dv tapes onto DVD and then likely burn them to my HDD and do some editing. I don't know if that makes sense. The software that I have been reading about is Dexster Sound Editor or Power Director.
I am new to all of this and am thinking that I would burn to a DVD via a Recorder and then burn it to my HDD where I would then use one of these apps to simply add text....and then I wondered if I could connect say a 20 min mini dv to the final part of 10 min to close it off?
Sorry for the mundane questions, however I am not sure if I am thinking right or not?
I have been looking at the Toshiba DR7 to do this. But the fella at the store said I would have to read the manual over and over and suggested the Panasonic...48 I have to find my notes. It is $350 but said it was more user friendly than the Toshiba???

He had a cheaper model of Panasonic, however I can't burn in DVD-R as my external burners simply refuse to burn from a create DVD R- source disc to a DVD +R and to confirm this I phoned the Support for both my BenQ and Sony burners who are the same burners which means that I have to use a source disc that is R+ in order to make additional copies. I know this as I have tried to burn from an R- DVD qne it iwill not work . So since I want to send my family the DVD burned from my mini dv camcorder I need to have a source disc that is DVD Quality R+. I have learned this over several years.
I would really appreciate comments from experienced users. I was told that with the Toshiba that I have to hook up a vcr player with it and burn that way. Are all recorders like this as i wa hoping to be able to insert the VHS tape in the unit and burn it to DVD and then hook up the camcorder via the cables supplied. (not sure if the 'dv' from the camcorder with the other end being USB which would hook up to my 2.0 on my computer makes sense. One fella in the store said that I would have to get a 'dv' with firewire at the other end of the cable?
I was wanting to have a VHS slot to put my tape into and then of course realize that I have to hook up my camcorder to either the RCA jacks or the "S" video.
If this makes sense, what recorder should I buy. (I am sorry for all of the questions however I don't want to buy the wrong unit and the sales staff don't seem to understand what I am talking about and they seem to condemn Toshiba Recorders.
The connection BTW is 'dv' to the camcorder and then it has a small barrel in the cable that ultimately hooks up to the notebook via a USB at the other end of the cable and there is no issue with myHDD as it is 90% empty.
I really would appreciate some advice, as I feel blind in what I am trying to do.
Thank you for your interest and time.

I believe Toshibas are prone to false CP(copy protection). Do a search on them at AVS but I believe I've read reports that recordings seem to stop and start at random times during recording and I think?? the person was using DV connection.
As far as say a Panasonic EZ-48 combo, while it may make fine recordings, if any of your "concert" videos are CP'd it would complicate things a little. You'd need to get a filter to put between the VHS output and the DVD input. This is doable but many people find it easier to go the separates route. That is a separate DVDR and VHS player. In this case if you wanted to stick to Panasonic you could look at the EA-18(tunerless) or EZ-28 with a digital tuner. I believe the EA goes for ~$180 while the EZ is ~$230. A good filter would be a little north of $100.
Panasonics will do both + and - formats, but it's native format would be more - discs. For a good native + machine I'd suggest the Philips 3575 or 3576 model. It has a HDD which would make your editing much easier if you choose to do it on the machine vs. your computer. The Philips machine like the EA-18/EZ-28 is DVD only and you'd need to purchase a separate VCR. Check the various VCR threads going on now. Seem to be more than normal lately.

Again if any of your tapes are CP'd(most commercial ones are) you'd really be better with separates but if you insisted on a combo I think the Panny would be the only one that would allow the filter to be inserted between the VHS and DVD sections.

The sales staff in the big chain stores are not the best sources of information: most have no idea what they're talking about and are just there to take orders and push merchandise. A combo unit is never the best bet if the tapes you need to transfer are commercial studio tapes. Older (2006) Panasonic combos were decent, the newer ones have bugs: avoid them. Ditto Toshibas: for what they cost there are more versatile and reliable options available.

For your purposes jjeff gave the best advice: get a $250 Phillips 3576 or its twin Magnavox 2160, these are decent DVD recorders optimized for DVD+R and they have built-in hard drives which will allow you to perform most of your edits before you even burn the first DVD. They also have ATSC tuner/timers which will carry you into the digital TV transition next February. Again per jjeff, you will need a separate VCR for the tapes and a CP filter. Good vcrs can only be found second-hand now, look on Craigs List or eBay for Panasonic, Quasar or Sharp: these are often for sale at $25 or less in good working order. Another excellent bargain VCR is the Mitsubishi 448, often available for $30-50. Since you are primarily interested in transferring your old concert tapes to DVD, you do NOT need one of the newer overpriced CP filters that unscramble everything from commercial DVD to satellite protection. All you need is one of the throwaway cheapie black boxes from the pre-DVD days. These are the size and shape of a cigarette pack, and are easily available everywhere on the net for $19.95 or less.

Do a search on them at AVS but I believe I've read reports that recordings seem to stop and start at random times during recording and I think?? the person was using DV connection.I know that was a common problem with the last tunerless, Toshiba model - the 400, I think. It was the one the 410 replaced.

It would just randomly keep stopping when people tried recording their home tapes over DV, just like you said.

I'm not sure if any other Toshiba models have it, or if the newer 410 even does. I haven't really scoured the online reviews so much for those like I did the 400 at one time.

I just read the instruction manual of Toshiba DR7 and they actually talk about that anoying copy-protection :

"You cannot record copy-protected program using this unit. Copy-protected video signal is included in DVDvideos, some satellite broadcasts, some pay-per-view stations and some “premium” stations. If copy-protected material is detected, recording will pause or stop automatically and an error message appears on the screen."

Then, not so usefull.......