Bests & Worsts Reviews from Amazon

Unfortunately, I have decided to return my Toshiba RD-XS32, but not without a lot of thought and experimentation. First, the good news.... The XS32 is a great DVD Recorder by itself. It has numerous features that many other units do not have. The picture quality of the recordings I made on both HDD and DVD discs was excellent when you play them back on the Toshiba even though I only used the default SP setting which gives you about 2 hours of recording on a DVD-R, DVD-RW or DVD-RAM disc. You can adjust the bit rates up and down if you want more space or better quality. The XS32 has so many adjustments and settings that some people may find the unit intimidating. However, I personally liked the extra features and amount of control that you have with this recorder. I came close to buying the Sony RDRGX-7, but I was told by more than a few people that I should get a recorder with a Hard Drive. They were correct, and having the 80GB HDD on the Toshiba convinced me that I will not own a DVD Recorder in the future without the HDD. Setting the timer to record your favorite shows is easy, and having the HDD means that you never worry about finding a blank disc. It is also fairly easy to then transfer your recordings from the HDD to a DVD disc. However, when you play those discs on a DVD player other than the XS32 the pictures don't look so good, and that's the bad news.... The black level bug that has been discussed in several other reviews, here and on other forums, is very real. DVD disc recordings that I made looked great on the Toshiba, but they would not play at all on one of the other DVD players we own nor would they play on the kid's PlayStation. The discs did play on the DVD player I use most of the time in our family room, on my computer and on a few of the other players I tried, but the images in all but one of these players were very bright and "washed out". I tried both DVD-R and DVD-RW discs. I tried using different brands of media and I tried most of the other settings and suggestions I read in the technical forums. Nothing significantly changed the image black level problem. If your only recorder and player is the Toshiba RD-XS32 then I think you will be very satisfied with the performance of this unit. If Toshiba could fix the black level issue the XS32 would be awesome. But, my reason for wanting a DVD recorder was to make discs that could be portable and played in other players without problems or hassles, like VHS tapes use to be. In this respect the Toshiba has failed and that is why I am returning the unit.