Toshiba RS-TX20 DVD Recorder with 120 GB TiVo Series2 Digital Video Recorder

Toshiba RS-TX20 DVD Recorder with 120 GB TiVo Series2 Digital Video Recorder | A TiVo I can (affordably) live with...

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Toshiba RS-TX20 DV...

	Toshiba RS-TX20 DVD Recorder with 120 GB TiVo Series2 Digital Video Recorder Toshiba Toshiba average customer review:based on 21 reviews view larger image
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MUCH better than a VCR

After having 4 different companies, including Amazon.com, cancel my order for this machine I finally have it and love it!

The setup is as easy as can be. It walks you through every step. I'm impressed that it comes with all the cables and connectors you need for the various scenarios a user might have (i.e. by-pass cable, telephone split line gadget, etc).

I do have a normal TV so I don't have the problems that the other reviewer has. No more not recording an episode because I didn't turn the VCR off. In fact, I can still use my VCR for watching a movie or recording something while TiVo runs in the background recording something else.

I haven't tried it out yet, but am looking forward to using it to convert my VHS camcorder home movies to DVD.

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A TiVo I can (affordably) live with...

This is a pretty nice unit. 120GB hard drive, which means 32 to 141 hours of recording capacity depending on video quality. MPEG encoding artifacts become pretty apparent in motion scenes at medium quality (94 hrs) so I'm sticking with High for most recordings, which means 46 hrs storage on the hard drive. Of course the great positive here is that you can archive to DVD the stuff you want to keep. There's no editing of the material before you burn, but if you have a PC at home, you can always rip the DVD and probably edit more easily there. This unit, as well as the Pioneers, has a major advantage in that it comes with TiVo basic (3-day program guide, no "season pass", "wish lists" or home media features) so you don't have to pay TiVo the $13/mo subscription unless you really want that stuff.

A few nits:
* menus can seem pretty slow at times, as does the program guide
* does not display amount used/free on hard drive
* even "live tv" is displayed with "best" compression (i.e. not the native line-in signal)
* DVD burns are only at the same quality you originally recorded the show
* remote is too symmetrical; i've pointed it the wrong way 3 times already!
* $100 rebate requires perhaps 10-12 weeks of premium TiVo subscription

As for the HD complainers, come on. How many people are even receiving HD content, let alone recording it? Since the dawn of analog videotape, home recording options have always been inferior in quality to broadcast/prerecorded-content. I agree that if you have satellite HD, it's much more compelling to go with an integrated DVR/converter box that can save the programming in its native format. But most of us don't live in that world. We just want to time-shift our shows. I had been using a VCR up till now and this is much better. I don't doubt there will be better recorders in the future, but this is a nice combo IMHO.

BTW, I suggest doing a websearch/price-compare as you may not find your best deal here (hint hint).

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A Nifty Machine

PROS:
1) The unbeatable feature is the ability to record to DVD. The recording is fast and the quality is always solid. A lot of cable companies' DVRs make archiving to DVD impossible. It is also very easy to do the recording, since the machine tells you how much of the blank dvd you will use up.

2) The other huge pro is the fact that this can be added to your home network, meaning you can port over songs and photos to the Toshiba.

3) Though somewhat lengthy, set up is very easy -- even the remote.

4) TiVo interface much more useful than anything put out by my cable company. I much prefer to use it over the cable DVR.

CONS:
1) No HDTV through this, but I just rented an extra cable box for $9/month for recording shows in HD. I use that for shows that I know will be in HD (and there aren't that many). The fact is, no DVD player plays in HD yet (soon to arrive at a high price). However, you can't have the two cable boxes in the same room easily, due to remote confusion (the cable remote will change the TiVo box and mess up recordings, so use separate rooms if you want the 2 box solution).

2) A small con. If you do want to hook this into the network you do need a wireless adapter that is now discontinued. These are plentiful on eBay (and cheaper than the new generation adapters), but you can't just walk into your local electronics shop and pick up the adapter you need. TiVo does list the adapters that work. Networking it was no problem whatsoever.

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Great product...couldn't watch tv without it!!

The only reason I did not give 5 stars is that the IR blaster failed only 1 day after using the unit. Toshiba CS sent me a new one (a more robust design) and it has been working fine with my cable box ever since. I have had the unit about 3 weeks and it works great. The dvd burner is wonderful and I have been converting Hi8mm home movies to dvd with it. The interface is easy to use and understand. If you have not watched tv with tivo, you don't know what you are missing. We couldn't live without it!! Great move Toshiba....I love my "Toshivo"

Works for me

I've had this puppy about 3 months now, and i'm very satisfied.

It's simple to set up, and works fine. The TIVO portion works great, and the DVD player works great too.

I agree with some folks below about recording HDTV. You can't do it. That's the only bummer. I'll deduct one star in my rating for that. But I didn't want to wait a few years for an affordable HDTV/Tivo/Dvd Burner.

This is so easy to use, even my kids figured it out in no time.

The burner is very cool in my opinion. I've transferred some TV recordings for friends super easily. If they miss an episode of Smallville, I'll burn it for them.

I've moved a lot of old Camcorder Tapes very easily to DVD with this unit as well.

Niceness

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reviews: 1, 2, 3, page 4, 5

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