A Really Great Product - I am more then pleased!

I think this product has gotten a bit of a bum rap from other reviewers. For the price I think it is an excellent example of its type.

A few notes to clarify some of the discontents the other reviewers have had.
1. DVD direct recording will ALWAYS be slow by nature of the write speed of the media.
2. With no hard drive there is no buffering or caching of jobs leading to slower times.

My take is as follows:
Good - Great features, intuitive to use, multiple inputs in back (RCA), plays divx (WOW!), shows pictures and plays MP3's. Also uses just about all types of DVD formats. I found DVD-RW gave the most flexibility in editing and adding features.
Bad- I hate typing in titles with the numeric keypad on the remote. Not sure what the alternative is but I really, really hate that.

Otherwise this is a great device. I have moved lots of things form tape to DVD with this device. No coasters. I have had a few lockups with bad media but a simple power off has resolved these issues.

For  more

DO NOT BUY

i bought this unit for myself for xmas with the intent of dubbing my family vcr tapes and hi8mm tapes onto dvd. as reported by others, it dub's for about 1 1/2 mins, then a quick box comes on the screen... video imput has changed, the dvd counter goes back to zero and dubbings stops... i have already ruined 2 dozen dvd's.

sent the unit back to toshiba, got it back 10days later, and it was repacked into the box within 30mins to go rite back to them...

tech tells me the unit might be sensing a glitch in the 8mm tape (hogwash, it is a pan of the grand canyon), or it senses a copyright infrigment/etc/etc.

i told tech if issue is unresolved, i want a refund (fat chance).. the unit SUCKS>.. DO NOT BUY

Hard to Understand Instructions...

The instructions Toshiba provides are hard to understand. I have some technical experience, so if "I" had a hard time, I can just imagine the difficulties the novice would have. Instructions also don't provide directions for older RF televisions. I had to figure that out on my own. Also the Menus don't show up clearly on my TV. I don't know if this is a compatibility issue or a defect. The remote doesn't respond well either. There is sometimes a delay when pressing functions on the remote. The instructions don't teach that, so, again, this was something I had to figure out on my own. Not sure I'd recommend an internet purchase to a novice, yet the overall the product itself is satisfactory for the cost.