Hi...we have a four year old Toshiba HDD/DVD RD-XS32 video recorder with an NTSC tuner only in it. Can this unit be used with cable or satellite TV to record TV programs on the hard drive once the digital change over goes thru in Feb. or whenever.
Thanks!

Sure, as long as you're using their tuner. You'd just hook it up through a line input on the recorder, and set manual timers on both the recorder and the external tuner.

The analog cutoff mandate only applies to over-the-air signals, just so you know. If you want to still use your recorder with those, I'd get either the CM-7000 CECB ATSC tuner (if the recorder has an IR blaster), or the Zinwell ZAT-950A (which has it's own built-in timers to change the channels for recording).

Thanks for your response. We've already purchased a Philips dvdr3575h for ourselves...we don't have cable or satellite and we decided not to bother with converter boxes with built in timers. We were hoping that someone with cable,etc. would be able to use the Toshiba as we did by just programming it to start without having to set timers...don't think too many people would be receptive to that.
Thanks again for your quick response!::)

Thanks for your response. We've already purchased a Philips dvdr3575h for ourselves...we don't have cable or satellite and we decided not to bother with converter boxes with built in timers. We were hoping that someone with cable,etc. would be able to use the Toshiba as we did by just programming it to start without having to set timers...don't think too many people would be receptive to that.
Thanks again for your quick response!::)
Don't give up on your analog Toshiba... you can connect it to the 3575 via Composite or S-Video cables (output from 3575 to input of Tosh) and record even WS digital channels tuned by the 3575. This would tie up the 3575 tuner for that task, but you'd get a copy on the Tosh that you could use to make fancier edits, thumbnailed Chapters, and fancier titles inherent in the Tosh.

Here's a report on my tests of this using my 3575 connected to a Pio 640... same method for any analog DVDR. (http://www.avsforum.com/avs-vb/showpost.php?p=13572664&postcount=1)

Also AFAIK the Toshiba will make DVDs with the wide screen bit set so if you wanted to borrow them to friends with a 4:3 TV they'll be OK.

You can choose widescreen or 4:3 when making a DVD.