ToshibaRD-XS35 DVD Player/Recorder with 160 GB Hard Drive

I own a Panasonic DVR which I really like. I wanted a second one for my bedroom, and this one was less expensive. Big Mistake. It does what it says it will, but everything takes two or three more steps. There is a couple second delay for many of the functions. You can't watch a DVD while recording a program. Nothing works smoothly with this unit. I really wish I had bought another Panasonic. Also the fan is loud and on 24/7. It just isn't a good design.I gave it 3 stars because it does work.

My wife and I purchased this unit as a co-anniversary present to each other. We wanted to replace a VCR that was used to occasionally tape TV shows, the news, etc., so we decided on a DVD recorder that had a hard drive for DVR recording. I read reviews on various models, and decided on this one. I haven't been disappointed.While some reviewers mention the fan noise as a problem, I haven't seen it as such. The fan (apparently) is temp-controlled, because it seems to get louder when using the unit, and stays louder for a few minutes after the unit is shut off. It's not incredibly loud, but it is noticeable.The one negative I have to agree with other reviewers on is the manual and on-screen guide. They are not user intuitive at all. I am a highly technical person, and spent quite a while the first night trying to figure out how to play a DVD, even after thumbing through the manual.Now that I've figured out how to use the DVD player, I've watched a dozen or so DVDs, and have absolutely no complaints. The video and sound playback are excellent.I've used the DVR a half dozen times, and love it. I don't know how I survived without it. You simply go to a show on the TV guide on-screen, and press the record button. That is, after you've set up the basic recorder settings when you first unpack the unit. Once the unit records, you go to the 'content menu' which shows the shows you've recorded, the title, channel, etc, and even shows a screenshot! To play it back, you navigate to the one you want to watch and press 'play'. The coolest thing about it, and the DVD player, is that when you stop a show or disk, turn the unit off, and come back later, the unit knows exactly where you were when you stopped, and resumes from there. Sweet!I'm set up to record a show using the DVR, that I will burn to a DVD. I will update my review once that is done, so that I can give my impression of that part of the unit, which is the only thing I've yet to do with it.12-4-06 - UpdateNow that I've had the unit for a couple of months, I wanted to update my review, especially having had time to play with the DVD authoring aspect of the unit, which for me was a secondary item. I wanted the unit mostly for the ability to DVR without having to pay TiVo a monthly fee. The DVR works flawlessly, and I couldn't be happier with it.I've burned a handful of DVD disks using the unit and found it not particularly easy to do, although not overtly so. The manual, as previously noted, is not a lot of help. Of the 5 disks that I've burned, three of them were 'fully authored', meaning that I went in and manually added chapter breaks, created thumbnails for each chapter and for the main menu for each episode. This is VERY time consuming, so I didn't do it on the last two disks. The fourth disk causes any DVD player I put it in to lockup after five minutes or so. I don't know if this is because the unit automatically puts in chapter breaks at 5 minute intervals or what. I'm going to edit the content of that fourth disk, and burn it again to see if that makes the difference.As a side note, I found that the unit will not recognize DVD+R disks, so you have to make sure you use DVD-R or DVD-RW formatted ones.

I did a lot of research before I bought this. I prepared myself to read the instruction booklet first before I even took it out of the box. I did. It didn't take long and I had this up & running. I did misplace the cables but I saw my mistake & it was quickly fixed.I must say that the TV Guide screen DOES NOT WORK!!!! This doesn't trouble me because I was prepared that it wouldn't. Thankfully, I can use this recorder manually which I do. You can watch a program through the tuner & simply hit record to hit what you want to record. You can also set the channel on your cable box & set the recorder to come on at a specific time. I haven't encounter any problems with the copyright feature. Update: I have encountered the copyright protection feature and I don't like it. I must say I was leery of that feature but I haven't found anything yet that I can't dub-update-Oh, yes I have. I've even dubbed from my VCR to the hard drive & it works like a dream!!!!Since I set the machine with the intention of using the TV Guide screen the set up for that is not quick to say the least. I went through that process maybe four times and it was never completed. I hoped I'd go away like other people have & find that the information had downloaded but no such luck.This recorder says that you should position the IR Blaster in front of your cable box. I live in a small space I have no room to do that. I tried taping the device directly in front of the cable box but no luck. 03-22-07 A year after I have this machine I find that the TV Guide screen now comes on??? But there's no info loaded??? I haven't tried to record using it.I LOVE the bookmark feature. I find that my recorder is set 2 minutes late so in order to record an entire program I have to record early. No problem with having unwanted information. I just bookmark the section I want to delete & delete it. I also LOVE how the machine remembers at what point you stopped watching a recording. You come back to it later & it picks up where you left off. That's really nice!WARNING this machine does NOT play my DVD+ DVD's. I don't have a problem with that because they do play on another machine. I'd just think that this machine would be able to play thise considering it costs so much!There are tons of bells & whistles that I don't bother with and have no intention of bothering with like alternating the speed that I record with. Why would I take up more space on the hard drive than I have to? I like the fact that you can see how much room you have left on the hard drive & on a DVD. There's also the time slip feature which I have absolutely no intention of using.As long as you can read you should have no problem operating this machine. The chapters are divided by tabs so you can quickly go to the section on "recording" and find what you want to find. There's no need for an index!I love the high speed dubbing feature. I love that I can have my info on the hard drive & move it to DVD. This machine's fan DOES in fact run all the time. If you're like me a TV sleeper it won't be a factor. I fall asleep with the television on at full blast every night. I find the fan as sort of a calming ambient noise.All in all I've recorded a TON of stuff and I'm pleased. I have the security of knowing that I can back up my VCR tapes and I can record most of my favorite programs to watch later. If or should I say when my machine dies I'd gladly purchase another just like it or I may even swing for a machine without that nasty copyright protection.June 28, 2007 updateMy DVD Recorder is having problems. Last week I put in a blank disk and got the message "disk not in machine" or some such phrase. I called the techs & they told me I can FIND someone around here to fix it or I can send it to MA. I'm now frantically trying to find an identical machine so I can FINALIZE those 100 DVD's I have that I did not finalize. Just last week I was thinking "I really need to finalize" it only took seconds so I thought I'll put it off. I hope to GOD I can finalize those DVD's. My advice is to finalize, finalize, finalize, finalize. This machine worked great......until now. I am able to still record on the hard drive so I'm thinking if I get another machine I'll be able to take the shows off the hard drive & put on another machine & burn to cd??? But what about all of those disks I didn't finalize? I'm praying that when I get a new machine it will finalize. I don't want to send my machine in UNTIL I at least try to get what's on there on to another machine.I'll let you know if they can fix it. I see the message about the converter box. I have a converter box so I guess this doesn't apply? Guess I'll have to wait until 2009 to find out.Bottom line ALL machines will eventually break down. Finalize your DVD's brothers and sisters. I have a problem with recording too much I know it but I don't plan on stopping until television advances so you can basically get what you want & replay it over & over. If certain shows were available on DVD I'd gladly buy them "So You Think You Can Dance" producers listen up I'm talking to you!!!!

I use this RD-XS35 primarily to record news programs every evening so I can watch them whenever I eat dinner. In the past I used a video cassette recorder for this purpose. However, I decided the try the Toshiba unit because the price has come down close to $300 for a DVR, and I could not be more pleased. I do find the built in program menu tedious to use (slow to get to programs even a few hours away), and the manual programming also requires quite a few actions, but the functionality is very helpful. I can record several days of programs without worrying about running out of space. I can watch the local news (recorded previously) while the network news is recording, or even timeslip to watch the network news as it is still recording. I have not used the DVD writing functions, but they offer some pretty powerful editing tools. I did find a minor bug in the software that caused a problem when I was watching one recording in timeslip mode when it came time for that recording to end and start recording another channel, but it did preserve both recordings for me. In short, there is a lot of functionality for the price. I never knew what I was missing in not having this kind of DVR functionality. If you are a bit patient with the programming, this unit will provide the functionality one had to pay well over $500 for not so long ago.