Hi,
I purchased the Toshiba D-R4 as my recorder to transfer all my VHS tapes to DVD because it allows me to do flexible recording (AT mode recording) and chapter thumnails are possible per the owner's manual I downloaded. Panasonic do not have thumbnail and Samsung do not have manual flexible recording. However, I cannot get that setting to show up in the Toshiba. I want to record 90-minite movies onto a single DVD. This is between XP and SP mode, in the Panasonic, it was very easy to set that up. I have not been able to get to that setting in the D-R4. Any help to activate this would be greatly appreciated.
Thanks!!!!!!
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Samijubal,
Thanks for the answer. That is what I was afraid of. I dislike the Panasonic (because it does not do the thumbnail views for chapters) and the Samsung (becaise the flexible recording mode is on timer recording). I am not recording from tv but transferring episodic tv so i want manual flexible recording. It looks like I will be paying Sears 15% to return the toshiba and get the Panasonic instead.T
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SP on the Toshiba will look far better than 1 1/2 flex on a Panasonic. I wouldn't worry about AT recording. There's an easy way to use AT for normal recording, I do it all the time. Go into timer record and set a timer for the length of whatever you want to record, then set the start time for the time it is now or a minute before if you want just to be sure, start the source and press enter on the remote, the timer recording will start immediately and end at the set time.
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Samijubal,
Thanks for the tip!!!!
Since you are a user of this machine, did you have any problems finalizing the discs? The unit would not finalize the Memorex -R 16X discs I used, error message says 'disc error'. I have no problems finalizing these Memorex -R 16X discs on an RCA, Samsung or Panasonic. Is it this picky with the blank media? I really like what I saw from this Toshiba so far, however, I really don't want to gamble with the finalizing process after each recording. I have 400 tapes to transfer......
Thanks for your advice and suggestions! -
I haven't had any problems finalizing discs, but I don't use 16x discs. Some standalones don't like 16x discs and you never know what you're getting with Memorex since they don't make their own discs. I only use Taiyo Yuden 4x or 8x discs in mine. Unfortunately you probably can't find TY discs in local stores, you have to get them online. You can get them at Supermediastore, Rima, Meritline, Shop4Tech. The last one has 10% off sales every holiday and sometimes in between holidays, just go to the website and sign up for their mailings. I've seen complaints at Amazon people saying it would fail to finalize discs, I don't know if it was a media problem or if some of the recorders have disc finalizing problems.
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Samijubal,
Thank you for your response. I called the Toshiba custmomer support and the guy does not know what the problem is. He said he uses a Memorex 16X DVD-R too. He said, however, the disc needs some space to do the finalizating meaning I cannot record to the end of the disc. I replied shouldn't the machine stop itself at that point since I don't know how much space it needs. He has no answer. The problem is he cannot tell me how much space to leave.
Do you have that problem?
This is very frustrating -- I already have 5 coasters because of this and the disc range from Verbatim 8X DVD-R, Memorex 16X DVD-R to TDK 4X DVD- RW. I want to use this recorder very much, at this rate, I have to take it back and get a Samsung or Panasonic.
I cannot sit there and waster time. 5 coasters is more that than 10 hours wasted.
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You don't have to leave any space on the disc. The guy is clueless. You must have got a defective recorder. If you look at Amazon, there's a few people that had the same problem.
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Thanks for your feedback.
The sad part about all this is that I really like this recorder. It does more than the Samsung because I can view the chpater thumbnail before finalizing. Also the black level setting is the best thing - I want to use standard not darker or ligher which is what the Samsung/Panasonic dictates.
I hope Toshiba can fix this unit. Based on another thread (5 month review of D-R4) it seems like D-R4 can deal with poor source a little better which is very attractive for me. This is just so sad. I was so happy when the Verbatim -R worked until the unit refused to finalize one.
Do you know anything abou their D-RW2 model?
Thanks again for all the input! -
Don't know anything about the D-RW2. Was that the last D-R4 Sears had or something? You should be able to send it to Toshiba, they'd probably just replace the burner.
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D-RW2 model was what I found in Best Buy when I went to look for D-R4. It is a cheaper model and Toshiba site has no manual to download so I cannot tell what it does and does not do.
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My sister bought one of those. I think they've taken out RAM recording on them, I'm not sure on that, but somewhere I was looking at specs and RAM wasn't listed. I don't know if that's the only difference or not. My sister said she likes hers.
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You should look into a Toshiba D-KR2.
I got one on eBay for a little over $100.
I just checked and there is one there now
for $65 plus $17 shipping (buy it now price).
It can set the bitrate from 9200
to 2000 kbits/sec in steps of 200
kbits/sec, and also 1400 kbits/sec,
(six hours plus mode).
I can set it to 91, 94, 96 minutes
total, for example, with the higher
of two Dolby audio bitrates. There
is also 1536 kbits/sec LPCM audio,
which will shorten your record time
considerably.
There is always a little more room than it says.
I can let it record until it stops for lack of room, and
it still finalizes OK.
Used many brands of media with no problems.
Sometimes if a -RW has data on it, you may need
to erase it on PC for the Toshiba to then format it.
Has great featues. You can zoom up and down in small
steps and move the center around. In paused play mode
you can step one frame at a time forward or back. That
works better than a TiVo or Dish DVR - go figure.
You can program skip forward and skip back buttons
to 5, 10, 15 seconds or 5 minutes, independently.
Aug-15-06 19:23:06 PDT is the end time of that auction.
There is another for $151 plus $25 shipping.
$101 and up on Froogle.
Nuff said for now.There is more to life than meets the microscope. -
samijubal wrote:
SP on the Toshiba will look far better than 1 1/2 flex on a Panasonic. I wouldn't worry about AT recording. There's an easy way to use AT for normal recording, I do it all the time. Go into timer record and set a timer for the length of whatever you want to record, then set the start time for the time it is now or a minute before if you want just to be sure, start the source and press enter on the remote, the timer recording will start immediately and end at the set time.
I would really be able to use this feature, however I cannot seem to find out how to set timer length on the D-R4. When I go into timer recording (in the EASY NAVI) it only gives me options of start and end times, and not actual length. What am I missing? Or could it be a firmware thing? If it's older firmware, can it be flashed? Note: software version (gotten from setup menu) is YH11, DVD drive software is 42.
Samijubal? Anyone? -
The reason for my interest in this is because I am transferring VHS to DVD for family and in some cases I am transferring 3 or 4 tapes to one DVD (total length less than 2 hours). I have asked them to set the VHS tape at where they want me to start recording and then provide a length.
Currently, to do this, I need to babysit the recording process a little more than I'd like. With the timer length, I should be able to get around this. -
I checked the manual for the D-R4 and it has the "end time" feature like my D-KR2.
First set the clock to agree with the clock you are using to start and time the recording.
Note: in the following, end time and stop time are the same thing.
Write down or memorize a start time at say two minutes from now and appropriate stop time.
Pause or stop the VCR.
At the start time on your clock press record, then play on VCR.
Press the "quick menu" button and select "end time".
Put in the stop time using numbers or up and down arrows, the press select.
I also have done this with timer set to start two minutes in future, but then you wait for it to start recording then press play on VCR. So you have to calculate the end time knowing it's soon going to start. The "end time" method gives you all the time you need to calculate the stop time.
With the end time method you can have an exact record length. It does not have to be whole minutes. I have made recordings that stop a few seconds after the credits fade to black.There is more to life than meets the microscope. -
Thank you very much.
The end time feature works great and if, like you suggested, I synchronize an external clock with the time on the D-R4, I can get it to stop at the exact second I want it to, with only a little bit of calculation.
Works great.
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