Rank Toshiba D-RW2 DVD Player/Recorder

Amazon.com Product Description
Enjoy your favorite DVD movies as well as the ability to record programming and home video footage directly to disc with the Toshiba D-RW2 progressive scan DVD player/recorder. It allows you to record TV programming while your out of the house with a timer function, but it also offers easy one-touch recording. It records onto DVD-R/RW discs, and it's also compatible with playing CD-R/RW and VCD discs as well MP3 and WMA digital audio files burned to disc. With the JPEG Viewer, you can easily display your favorite digital photos and create custom slideshows with a few simple clicks of the player's remote control. The interactive Digital Picture Zoom feature allows you to select an area of the video from a DVD and magnify it.

You get six compression modes for recording from 1 hour to 10 hours of video onto one disc. Other recording features include automatic title/chapter/thumbnail creation, time base correction, and auto finalization. Playback features include fast forward with audio (1.5x speed), fast scan, and slow motion.

The D-RW2 performs 3:2 pulldown detection and reversal, too--a handy feature for watching progressive-scan movie programs in their native 24-frame format. To adapt 24 frames-per-second movies to 30 fps video, frames in the original movie must be duplicated; 3:2 pulldown digitally corrects this duplication by removing the redundant information to display a frame-accurate picture.

You get vivid, realistic sound, thanks to Toshiba's 24-bit/192 kHz pulse code modulation (PCM) audio processor. PCM audio translates digital signals from your DVDs and CDs into warmer, natural sound. The DVD player offers Dolby Digital and DTS decoding, and you can connect to a multi-channel home theater surround sound system via the coaxial digital audio output. It also produces 3D virtual surround sound from two speakers. It features the following video and audio connections:

Composite A/V: 2 in (1 front), 1 out
S-Video: 2 in (1 front), 1 out
Component Video: 1 out
RF: 1 in
Digital audio: 1 coaxial

Tech Talk
Component video (also called Y/Pb/Pr) features a three-jack video input, which provides separate connections for luminance (Y), blue color difference (PB) and red color difference (PR). This results in increased bandwidth for color information, resulting in a more accurate picture with clearer color reproduction and less bleeding than you would get with S-Video or composite (RCA yellow video plug) connections. You will need a separate RCA left/right audio cable for sound.

What's in the Box
DVD player/recorder, remote control (with batteries), printed operating instructions

Customer Reviews

Easy to use basic recorder (uses DVD -R)
As previous reviewers indicated, good basic DVD recorder. I suggest a starter recorder to replace VHS; you could buy a combo VHS/DVD recorder to archive your VHS library, but (1) dubbing is real time (if a tape is 2 hours, it takes 2 hours to dub to DVD), and (2) most commercial VHS tapes are coded to prevent dubbing.

Thus, as a basic DVD recorder:
(1) Easy user interface menu system (not many options available).
(2) East to use menu to insert Titles to recorded material; be sure to allocate a separate time program for each show to have a separate title (don't string several off-the-programs together as 1 recording).
(3) Timer programing lacks options for MON-FRI and SAT-SUN; this means you must individually program each repeating show (for example, recording the Tonight Show w/ J Leno requires 5 individual slots -- very tedious and takes up 5 of 8 program slots). My JVC DVD recorder has repeat functions (but user interface is very complicated).
(4) Using it as a 2nd recorder is OK if primary recorder is also DVD -R (I believe Panasonic uses +R, so not a good match).
(5) Box has drawing of input connections -- very nice. Does NOT have HDMI or DVI output (for those who insist on digital Video input to their Large Screeens. Primary output is Component. Samsung is pushing HDMI digital output; their "upconverting" is a waste of money - - you can't improve on source material).
(6) For those with DV Video (digital tape), must dubb using S-Video (probably no degration of source DV tape) - - no DV input (4 pin "mini" digital input -- my JVC has this).
(7) Relatively compact size (much shorter than a VHS); depth is reasonably shallow, but width is still wide bacause stylists want to give a substantial look). Also very quiet while recording (has cooling fan).

Time to get rid of those VHS tapes
I picked this machine up a few weeks ago, and am most impressed with the ease of operation. Keep in mind it's a BASIC dvd recorder, single layer, dvd-r and dvd-rw, which is compatible with most players out there. I purchased this for the sole purpose of transferring old VHS material onto dvd, and this machine does a great job of that. And the low price of this machine makes it easy for anyone to make the move from VHS to dvd. Finally, I'll be able to get rid of those boxes of tapes. A real bargain.

Not bad for starters.
This is a very basic DVD Recorder. It doesn't have a ton of bells and wistles which is what makes it perfect for beginners. The lack of DVD-ram is upsetting, considering the DR-W4 is only thirty more for many more features, but sometimes less features are nice, the simplicity makes it easy for my entire family to use. You cannot access menu items when discs are finalizing/formatting/or even when shows are recording, which is unfortunate. Otherwise, it is a great starter by a company that makes reliable products.