AVS › AVS Forum › Video Components › DVD Recorders (Standard Def) › Does Toshiba D-RW2 recorder have good PQ and loose copy protection?
New Posts  All Forums:Forum Nav:

Does Toshiba D-RW2 recorder have good PQ and loose copy protection?

post #1 of 13
11/24/06 at 3:15pm
Thread Starter 
I see that they have the Toshiba D-RW2 recorder on sale this week. I was wondering if it has good picture quality, good black levels and does a good job cleaning up bad analog video? I have a machine that pushes out bad analog video quality for some reason. I S-Video the signal into my Lite on and the picture looks real good. All of the snow and grain is gone. It has a smooth picture. I don't like my Lite on contrast level though. It looks too high when I take the disk to other TVs. Yet, the chipset or something makes bad video in look like good video out.

I don't know anything about Toshiba quality and its ablity to filter or clean up bad video. I read that Pioneer does that weakly and I agree. It is great for clean digital picture but not good if the video is bad. It sees the bad video signal and records it all -- bad or good. Same for Panasonic. Great for clean signal but doesn't filter out a messed up signal going to it. I also don't exactly dig my black level from my 330 Pioneer. The black is too black. When you take the disk to other players/TVs anything that is black jumps out more then anything else. I'm afraid if I get a Toshiba that I might have a black level problem of some sort.

Also, my Lite on can record anything right now. Yet, I'm hearing stories of Toshiba owners that can't even record HBO or HBO on demand because of the tight copy protection built into the Toshiba that I don't seem to read about with Panny, Pioneer, JVC, or Lite on. Does anyone know if this model has tight copy protection?

I'm going to keep my Pioneer and Panny still hooked up but if the Toshiba has better video quality, better black balance and does a better job cleaning up a dirty signal or video than the LSI chip Lite on does then I think I might get a Toshiba.

Anyone have this recorder? Anyone have a Toshiba and LSI Panny, Lite on, or JVC who knows what I'm talking about and tell me which one is better?

Basically, I would use it for both digital cable recording as well as transfering analog signal recordings off of my Tivo. I would actually take out my Lite on and put in the new Toshiba to do what my flaky Lite on is doing right now.
Reply
Reply

AVS Top Picks

post #2 of 13
11/25/06 at 9:02am
surely someone here must have picked one up on BF,I'm also curious about the performance of this recorder.
Reply
Reply
post #3 of 13
11/25/06 at 10:47am
Thread Starter 
Yeah, I'm still thinking about what to do and the sale ends tonight. I don't know if I should get this one or just let it go. Earlier this year I saw a Sony on sale just setting in boxes. I looked and looked at it. I never had a Sony. I decided to go to the net and look it up. That Sony had a lot of reviews on the net from a number of places --- and it didn't get good ones at all. Tons and tons of people said that they couldn't tape HBO or even some regular cable stations. There was a new one that didn't have that problem and that was much better so I knew from all the info on the net to skip that Sony machine.

Yet, with this Toshiba I'm not reading very many people that have it or reviewed it at all. I don't know if the copy protection is tight? I don't know anything about this thing and I only have a few more hours to decide if I want to get it or not. The problem is that I'm not the type that tries things and takes them back. 99% of the time I keep it. I just use it and don't like the results. I hate taking things back if they are not broken and passable. I'm just wondering if I get this and take out my LSI chip Lite on will I get a better or worse picture? If it's worse I'll let this sale go by because I know that I would have the better quality picture machine.
Reply
Reply
post #4 of 13
11/26/06 at 8:58am
Some have said it is junk
Reply
Reply
post #5 of 13
11/30/06 at 12:13pm
I got one. It HAS good PQ, but I did not try anything on copy protection.
It was the No.1 pick on CR last month. I play with it well and still think it is a bargain so far.
Reply
Reply
post #6 of 13
11/30/06 at 12:46pm
This Toshiba DVD recorder is very similar and identical to the Sylvania, Magnavox , and SV2000 ones. It is made by Funai.
Reply
Reply
post #7 of 13
1/3/07 at 8:01pm
Considering hardware, they probably are made by Funai. Rear panels are almost, if not identical. All except the Magnavox MWR10D6 have nearly identical front panels. The Toshiba D-RW2's picture quality (not bad) and "copy protection" are probably typical of recently introduced models. Has anyone tried feeding their source's output into an RF modulator, then feeding the modulator's Ch3/4 output into their recorder's RF input to try and get a recordable picture ?

But I wouldn't say these units are identical to each other. The Toshiba D-RW2 and Sylvania DVR90DF are -RW format machines. The PYE PY90DG and Walmart's WV10D6 are +VR format machines. There are machines that do both (ie, Sony's RDR-GX330 and LG's DR1F9H), but they usually cost more. Then there are in-between units like Pana's DMR-ES25, basically a +VR machine which can do one of the two -RW formats but not the other.

As for the matter of selecting between between a -RW machine and a +VR machine, I'll leave that for someone else to cite other threads or start a new one. The manuals for the Mag, Walmart, Sylvania (only 2Mb size) and Pye models that I mentioned are available at the Funai Corp website.
Reply
Reply
post #8 of 13
1/3/07 at 8:25pm
Quote:
Originally Posted by JoeM View Post

Considering hardware, they probably are made by Funai. Rear panels are almost, if not identical. All except the Magnavox MWR10D6 have nearly identical front panels. The Toshiba D-RW2's picture quality (not bad) and "copy protection" are probably typical of recently introduced models. Has anyone tried feeding their source's output into an RF modulator, then feeding the modulator's Ch3/4 output into their recorder's RF input to try and get a recordable picture ?

But I wouldn't say these units are identical to each other. The Toshiba D-RW2 and Sylvania DVR90DF are -RW format machines. The PYE PY90DG and Walmart's WV10D6 are +VR format machines. There are machines that do both (ie, Sony's RDR-GX330 and LG's DR1F9H), but they usually cost more. Then there are in-between units like Pana's DMR-ES25, basically a +VR machine which can do one of the two -RW formats but not the other.

As for the matter of selecting between between a -RW machine and a +VR machine, I'll leave that for someone else to cite other threads or start a new one. The manuals for the Mag, Walmart, Sylvania (only 2Mb size) and Pye models that I mentioned are available at the Funai Corp website.

I don't think you'll find the +VR format on a Panasonic. It was developed by Philips. There are three formats, Video Mode, VR, and +VR. For a nice primer on recording formats see this link:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/DVD_formats

Look for the section "Application Formats".

The Toshiba D-RW2 is definitely a Chinese product which is a departure from the earlier Toshibas. It is an entry level machine that bears little resemblance to the rest of the Toshiba line. I have never used one but I did look through the manual. Very different from the 2004 DR2.
Reply
Reply
post #9 of 13
1/3/07 at 8:42pm
since Pannys can do +r,doesn't that mean it has to use +VR to be able to record on them,or can VR and Video mode be used on +r,(I don't know).
Reply
Reply
post #10 of 13
1/3/07 at 8:56pm
Quote:
Originally Posted by Roger Lococco View Post

since Pannys can do +r,doesn't that mean it has to use +VR to be able to record on them,or can VR and Video mode be used on +r,(I don't know).

That's a good question. I could be wrong. I've always thought the machines were split along the lines of those that are +VR (on all media they burn) and those that burn both Video Mode and VR mode. I haven't burned a +R on my Panasonic. I should check. Or somebody more familiar with Panasonic should jump in.

edit -

The Panasonic manual says -R +R and -RW are DVD-V after finaliztion which I'm assuming is Video Mode. So much for compliant DVD standards.
Reply
Reply
post #11 of 13
1/3/07 at 9:44pm
Quote:
Originally Posted by Roger Lococco View Post

since Pannys can do +r,doesn't that mean it has to use +VR to be able to record on them,or can VR and Video mode be used on +r,(I don't know).

If I am correctly interpreting November's Consumer Reports on DVD Recorders (they also tested the Toshiba), the Pana DMR-ES25 can't do a DVD-RW (VR) format. No matter what disc you feed it.
Reply
Reply
post #12 of 13
1/4/07 at 5:17am
On the Panasonic recorders, VR format is restricted to DVD-RAM discs, and to the HDD for those models with one.
Reply
Reply
post #13 of 13
1/4/07 at 11:10am
Quote:
Originally Posted by rgazzara View Post

On the Panasonic recorders, VR format is restricted to DVD-RAM discs, and to the HDD for those s with one.

Thanks for the correction. Of course, you should know about the tread discussing DVD-RAM playback on say, a playback only machine in another room.

When you playback your +VR format discs on other plyers, can you see the chapters that you edited on your recorder ?
Reply
Reply
New Posts  All Forums:Forum Nav:
  Return Home
  Back to Forum: DVD Recorders (Standard Def)

AVS Top Picks

AVS › AVS Forum › Video Components › DVD Recorders (Standard Def) › Does Toshiba D-RW2 recorder have good PQ and loose copy protection?