just picked up a Toshiba RD-XS35 - Page 3

Nothing in what you were asking about can be done with High Definition, with a DVD Recorder. There are HD DVR's, that will store HD material for playback from HDD, but they don't burn DVD's.

Repeating: current DVD Recorders do not deal with HD in any way. Not burning to DVDs, not recording to the HDD. You must send them 480i (NTSC). Not even 480p works (the lowest ATSC resolution, so-called Enhanced Definition).

I received my XS35 last Thursday and overall am very pleased with with the features and am convinced that this (my 3rd) DVD recorder actually does almost everything I want it to do, with one exception. I can't figure out how to do a simple timed recording from an external source. I want to record for a a set amount of time from an external source (DVR) for, say, 1 hour and then end the recording. Most VCR's and DVD recorders let you push record multiple times and each time you press it adds 30 minutes to the recording time. Not this one. I'd love to be able to start a transfer and walk away without having to worry about stopping the recording later. Any advice is much appreciated.

Overall I pretty pleased with the unit. It is overly complicated and the remote is terrible but it does have an impressive feature set.

FAN NOISE - I can now hear the fan noise on this unit, from more than 5 feet away. I don't know if it started getting loud after a while, or if my ears hadn't been "tuned" to hear it until now (probably the latter). But I can see how this "whooshing" would bother some people. It's much better than the "grinding" that the Pioneer 533 had, but it's not as silent as I think it should be. I'm keeping the unit (unless there's something worse about it, before my month is up), but I'm willing to say that the fan noise keeps this from being the perfect DVD recorder.

I tired editing and it seems extremely time consuming. Instructions say there's like a 3 second delay after splitting, seems more like 10-15 seconds.

I'm going to look at the Panny's directions online and see if I might like it better. May just wait until the newer models come out. Hopefully they'll at least be able to pause live TV and rewind without having to tell it ahead of time.

Delay in what? Delay playing a title on a DVD-R? It's nowhere near even 3 seconds.

Editing is very simple. Just make chapter stops in the original while playing (you do NOT need to use "editing mode"), and either manually delete chapters, or use a playlist to select the chapters from the original recording.

I've decided that the tuner isn't quite as good as I would have hoped. The pictures are pretty good, but people look a little "flat" compared with the tv's internal tuner. It records the tuner's picture (or external input) very well, but a better tuner would yield a somewhat better picture. Also, the sound quality of the tuner could be better. Again I like the sound from the tv better (it's louder, better separation of the channels, and the highs are cleaner) than on the tuner. It's a very subtle difference, but it's still there if you listen closely with headphones.

So for me this records what it's given very well, but the tuner could be better. Also the fan could be quieter. And of course it's very complex. Also I get some minor "ghosting" when playing back some DVDs made by other people (could be from the progressive scan output, but I see no way to shut this off). So this unit is good in a lot of ways, but it's not quite "there" as the ultimate DVD recorder/player.

Making chapters is extremely easy on this, as Mattack points out. Just play back the material and hit the "chapter divide" button (lower half of remote, under the clamshell) to divide it. Much easier to create chapters that way than the more laborious way on the Pioneer. This is one of the few areas that the Toshiba is easier to use than the Pioneer.

I was using the editing mode and it seems to have the delay. I'll check out the chapter divide. Thanks for the tips!

I don't have the XS35 but on my XS52, after hitting the record button click Quick Menu then End Time and set it as you wish. Hope this helps.

I am waiting to populate the TVG.....the DVR is off.

I bought this DVR mainly (only) to record the world cup games without having to deal with Tapes, so ill deal with the noise for now... and if the TVG works for me, Ill really be happy with my World Cup viewing.

The fan is Loud as hell... I do have it "out" on top of a table, till I tweak it, so maybe in a console stand/cabinet it will be quieter, but right now it does seem like a tower pc when the HDD is operating ... this has been the only drawback so far.

Yes the remote is crowded an not so easy to navigate, the manuals are all over the place.. but Im optimistic... these irritations will fade.

One button Recoding to the HDD was easy enough, the playback was good enough,
I did alot of researching before I settled on this one... and this fits all my requirements...

will let you know how the TVG works out...

You think the Toshibas manual is confusing? Try to decypher a Panasonic manual and you'll just love the Toshiba manual. The toshiba just has so much usable features (much more than Pioneer or Panny's) that it takes a thick manual to explain it all.

I'm considering replacing my Pioneer DVR-320 with the Toshiba XS35. The XS35 looks prestigious (really nice). My XS52 has much more editing power/flexibility than my Pioneer 302 and the toshibas tuner has a better looking picture than the Pioneer. The only downside I see of the XS35 is no HDMI (this should be standard in all >$150/$200 DVR's by now) but since my Pioneer has no HDMI the XS35 is still a step up from the Pioneer.

BTW: The Pioneer has the best layed out manual I recall ever using in A/V gear.

TVG only have Today and tomorrow (tuesday)
so sofar TVG gets a C-
Plus the view guide screen doesnt use up my whole TV and so the full view is only ofr 2 hours worth???
Though to be fair I have not had the thing off for a full 24 hours. I keep tweeaking and trying new stuff, and Its is helping me learn to know it....(like a first or second date---let the wooing begin)

The World cup games are at specific time so if TVG fails I could just do time record for all the games.

The remote now gets a C- too becuase it has no back lighting.. so in the dark its not very useful... plus its not as intuitive as it could be, especially when naviating through channels and the TVG screen , Ive yet to find a favorites channel button, or "jump" back channel feature... guess i have to hit the manual again...

BUT over all I still really like this thing... And if it lets me watch all my world cup games --ill be even more inclined ot love it..

The manual has a high learning curve, but after reading it a few times I think Im getting what I need out of it... so Ive now upgraded it to a B

Recording quality (by my standards) in defauly normal quality is absoultely fine so I have to give it an A

I recorded a test 45 minutes of "lord of the rings" from standard cable (no box) straight to DVD-R,,,and the quality was great to a standard TV... (though when I tried it on my in-laws Bravia Sony HDTV, the dvd quality looks awful but then unless its HD most else looks bad on this TV. ) Ill have to play with quality settings next.

The simplicity alone of being able to watch something and just hitting record , or time lapse makes this a great buy... The TVG is being tested tomorrow, Ive set 3 shows to record....

The noisy fan still churning alongm but ive grown to ignore itm especially when the Tv is on... so B-

I know my commnets/(review) are not methodical at all but im trying to use and react as the avergae consumer might... though honestly this is not there yet in terms of intuitive for the average consumer .

Im going to try to show my mother in-law how to operate the TVG tomorrow .. basic trianing only

stalyn

Just record the games manually and forget about the TVGOS.

Why do you say that? He's just had the unit for one day and the TVGOS has already successfully found its host channel and loaded day one, day two, and day seven data exactly as it should. (It takes about five days to fully load the TV Guide schedule.) It sounds as if it is working perfectly (as has mine).

I have not had TVGOS miss a single scheduled recording... ever, and I've done hundreds of them. I have had a situation were I schedule a recording and the BROADCASTER has pre-empted the material so as to cause me to record something other than desired. In such a case, that is not the TVGOS' fault.

For live games, if you are using the TVGOs I am assuming you are going to be adding buffer time at the end for overtime, extra time, delays and post-game interviews?

While the recorded sound quality in any of the sound modes is adequate for tv playback, I find LPCM (or anything below) is not adequate for recording high quality music. This is disappointing as I mainly got this to record concert videos to DVD. The "time slip" feature makes it possible to listen to the original source and then hear the recording a few seconds afterward, and to switch back and forth easily between these. Listening through headphones, I found the the recording was comparatively "harsh" sounding, as well as missing some very subtle sounds (such as the "pick on string" sound of a guitar or "bow on string" of a violin). The lack of the subtlest detail could simply be a factor of the digital (48khz, 16 bit) reduction, but the harsh "tinnyness" could have been avoided with a better encoder.

I wanted to reasonably preserve my analog recordings via DVD, but I find that the sound quality on this unit isn't acceptable for that role. I'll have to hang on to my analog tapes until I find something better. I do find commercially made DVD concerts to be adequate, so it's not like high quality music digitization can't be done; but apparently the coding chipset here isn't the optimum for LPCM audio recording. The same is likely true on other stand-alones doing LPCM (such as Pioneer), in fact they might use the same encoding chip. I might try PC based coding such as Canopus, but that might not be any better. Or I'll have to wait for "Blu Ray/HD DVD" recording (with 96 kHz/24 bit sound?) to adequately preserve the analog sound to perfectionist standards.

I just listened to a DVD I made, via headphones on a different system. I think I was too hard on the sound quality of the Toshiba in my post above. It's still not as good as on the original analog, and lacks some of the finest detail, but on these headphones it isn't as "tinny" as I thought - it's ok, not great. Certainly adequate for anything except highly critical listening. Maybe I'm just an analog sound fan at heart (the "digital distortion" of CDs is well known by now; they tend to lack the warmth and body of analog). At any rate, I still hoped the LPCM sound would have been better, but it's not as bad as I may have implied above - and it's quite detailed compared with DD1 (192kHz) or DD2 (284kHz) sound recording.

Whoops, DD2 audio is 384 kb/second (and DD1 is 192 kb/sec); thought I'd better catch that before someone else did. In case any is curious, LPCM uses 1536 kb/second for audio.

The TVGOS is quirky and not entirely reliable. I use it myself, but if I wanted to be absolutely sure that something was recorded, I'd set it to record manually, and not use the TVGOS...that's all.

Sigh. I was excited for a solution, but alas, it didn't work. While recording there is not End Time option on the Quick Menu. I'm still looking for a way to set an end time for a manual recording...

Well that sux. There must be a way. Unfortunately the XS35 manual isn't available for download yet. I forgot you got TVGOS and I don't. Maybe the option is in TVGOS's schedule section somewhere even if not scheduling a recording using the guide.

My s35 has now offically been off for over 24 hours and tomorrow Ill chekc if i have a week's of programming. (1am now here)

As for manual time recording... I have yet to try that, Im hoping TVG fulfills its promise though I wonder what if I set both TVG and timed recording for same program...HMMMMM

I did a test on recording the uSA soccer match and some other TV shows last night nad they all were perfect. I was unsure if I could watch one of the tv programs of the HDD while still recording the soccer game (also to HDD) . The manual says I can ... but when I got the balls to try it, the game/recording had eneded... but I think that very very cool... ill definitely put that to the test too...

Yes....Im adding minutes in fornt and at the end of the games.. especially the must win games that may require overtime or the dread penalties..

So far overall Im satisfied, but damn that fan is still loud, It seems like Im just wasting electiric energy... not to mention wear and tear on the fan itself...

well as long as it makes it through July 9th with out missing my games Ill be happy....

stalyn

Regardless of whether the TVGOS is downloaded properly or not, I'd still recommend setting the program timer manually to insure that the program gets recorded. All you have to do is scan this forum to see all the problems people have had with the TVGOS going on again and off again. I use it myself, but if there is a program that I absolutely MUST have, I set the timer manually.

You cannot set both the TVGOS and a manual timer for the same program, as they will conflict and you will get a warning.

Good luck.

So I had the machine off for about 36 hours ( saw live Soccer at Giant stadium)and I still did not have a weeks listings.
I did use the TVG search function (Sports/soccer...) and it listed everything it had on soccer... ad then it was too easy to just set up the resukts to eb recorded.
The search seemed to pull more days then when I just used the TVG in its normal view. Anyway once I did that, I was very pleased with ease of the search.

So then today the good news is that after only another night of "no use"... I have a full weeks schedule...
So now im not sure to hope it works or hope that it doesnt (and tweak) becuase many of you here and in other boards have had mixed results with TVG.

I tested TVG recording a repeat program, (soap opera) and it has been recodring every episode since I set-it up. Im assuming that though I did not have a full weeks progamming in the TVG, when it did populate, the recorder reominded itself that it has this repeat program-and by then the new programming had downloaded... I dont actualy watch the soaps, but I can see thta every day there is another recording of guiding light and the date... again using the TVG interface to record, review and replay.

Im uncertian if having the extra way to acess the HDD is partly confusing or a plus (easy NAV button) this gives you acesss to your recordings again. But you can't hear the TV's audio anymore in this mode until you select a viewing option. I guess when I do say a DV/external recording this proably wont show up in the TVG screen "recordings" ...guess thats why the options- will test it out.

I have watched a few times, pre recorded HDD shows at the same time as Im recording on HDD, this might sound basic to most AV techies, but I was not sure it could do this, but it does and well. (Rememebr when you are in timeslip-there are other functios disabled) So it works very mcuh like a PC hard drive in this respect.

once it starts recording a TVG program its hard to stop (i think) but I just go to the menus (Easy Nav) and I can see all my recorded shows, my recording in progress, and I simply choose to see any other programming.

If I want to watch what is presently being recorded, it will remind you to exit menu & simply hit Timelip, and you can rewind to the begining and start watching the recording in progress and you can also "chase" till the point of recording.


WHile watching HDD recorded soccer game an alert came up that it was scheduled to record another show,and I could stop that recording or say Ok,
It was not intrsuive - it went along and did its thing without bothering me...


In fact its recording right now, proably some MSG soccer show...adn thought it was off.

The remote and options I still find overall clumsy and not well layed ot...
The humming, i have adjusted to..

With practice getting the hang of the machine is easier, and for the average consumer it may be rough at first, but when you cna get the basics set-up and recording as easy as I did, then thtas very rewarding...


Hope this helps someone.

Stalyn

Hey guys! Having only until 6/1/06 I surrendered my XS35 to Best Buy for a refund.

Overall I'd say this machine is a challenge even for those who are somewhat tech savy and hands on. Sometimes it's just nice to be able to press a button and it do what you expect to without having to figure out what do before that button will work.

Ahh, the "Big Red Button" syndrome. That's what my software enginneering group refers to as the ultimate software solution. The user starts the software and need only press the big red button and the software does exactly what you want. That works well when you only want to do one thing. The real world is somewhat more complex.

While I have the 34 and not the 35, I must say that the more I use this thing, the more impressed I am with it. I've had mine for six months and needed to do something a little different yesterday, sure enough, I ran through the menus and there was my solution. I like the flexibility. Recording is simple and the quality is excellent. Editing after the fact is flexible... works well for me!

hey guys...I've had this thing for about 2 weeks now and everything was fine until I got an error 7061. The manual does not mention anything about this particular error. The closest error code mentioned is error 7000 - error in hard drive. I hope they are not related because I would hate to have to ship this back to the store.

Anyways, does anybody know or have seen error 7061 before (on this model or on older Toshiba models)? Thanks.

Some additonal info might be helpful: Other than displaying the error code, is it obviously malfunctioning in any way? If so, is the malfunction repeatable? If it's a one time thing, sometimes you can safely ignore it. Also, have you tried Toshiba tech support?

After first discovering that something was wrong, the unit was unable to shut down. Unplugging, then replugging the unit led to a dead box - no A/V available and the error code on the front panel. The only thing that allowed me to get out of that state was to perform a compulsory power off (by holding down the power button for a few seconds).

The problem occurred last Friday after business hours so I haven't gotten ahold of Toshiba support.

I can't burn a recorded sports event to a DVD-R. IT says copyrighted program or something. Can I burn this at all and how can I get aroudn this?