[docendo]

I am interested in getting a Toshiba RS-TX20. I wonder if it is possible to burn a dvd fron a vhs tape on a vcr connected to any of the inputs?? This is something I would like to be able to do. ALso, the Pioneer unit (810??) seems to be about the same mechanics and priced much higher than the Toshiba. I wonder how they actually do compare.
Finally, has anyone heard of an outfit called Wholesale Connection? I found they have listed an RS-TX20 for $459 which is very good. I would have to send them a money order to their warehouse in Tennessee. The physical plant is located right near me, but they said they have no merchandise there and I would have to deal with the warehouse.( I was hoping to just go over and pay cash and pick up)
I really do not want to use a credit card for this, but am leery about sending a money order to an unknown entity altho the guy on the phone was very nice.
Sorry for the ramble, any input/advice appreciated. Thanks!

 

[ellinj]

Yes you can burn a dvd from a vcr tape. It can't do it directly though. You must copy the video to the hard drive on the tivo first, but it can be done.

spend the extra money and get the unit as buy.com for $499. What you describe seems a little bit shady.

 

[abadan]

A lot of online places sell this for around $450

http://www.pricegrabber.com/search_getprod.php?masterid=4632755&search=rs-tx20

 

[ellinj]

Buy.com was $499 delivered. Most of these places I haven't heard of, and the ones that I have bring the price almost up to the same level once you include shipping.

Also if you check fat wallet or xpbargains there usually are some coupons you can use over at buy.com

 

[beckmill]

I just got my Toshiba RS-TX20. I bought it at Best Buy for $599, less a $100 mail-in rebate. In my experiences with electronics, Best Buy's employees are consistently knowledgeable, helpful, and responsive.

The Toshiba hardware is excellent. Yes, you can move from videotape to DVD by going through the HD on the RS-TX20, as another post indicated.

One thing to look out for, though, is the Toshiba support. It is very uneven. I've called them twice. The first guy was an encyclopedia of great information, and the second guy was, well, mentally challenged, to put it mildly; if you get a guy named Jack, hang up and start over! I finally got the DVR going w/the help of a whizbang tech guy @ TiVo itself. His name was Alejandro, and he was just unbelievably helpful.

I recommend the RS-TX20. Notwithstanding Jack, the machine itself is top-notch in every way. And I think that Best Buy is the place to get it.

Hope this is helpful.

 

[cvillacci]

I heard that the time to burn a disk is real time, unlike the Pioneer 810 which can burn 4X. I was going to exchange my pioneer for the RS-TX20 untill I heard this. I will stick with the faster burning speed.

 

[jasonz]

Hi,

It is false that the Toshiba RS-TX20 and TX60 takes real time to burn a DVD.

The time taken for a completely filled 4.7GB DVD is 1 hour. As for the number of hours of video that is, it depends on the recording quality. A typical 2 hour movie that fills the entire DVD would thus take 1 hour. On medium quality, it's about 4 hours of video to fill the DVD, and also takes 1 hour.

 

[ErictheHank]

The Pioneer can burn at 4x so it will burn a full disc in around 15 minutes. So while the Toshiba isn't burning in realtime (1 minute to burn 1 minute of video) it is burning at around 1x which is much below the capabilities of the Pioneer and what I think most people expected out of the Toshiba.

 

[mec1991]

Originally posted by beckmill
In my experiences with electronics, Best Buy's employees are consistently knowledgeable, helpful, and responsive.

This is a joke, right?

 

[cvillacci]

Thanks for the clarification on the time it takes to burn a DVD on both machines. I burn a full disk on the Pioneer and the maximun for 6 hours of recording time has been one hour. When I use medium quality and burn 4 hours of programing to fill a disk, it runs about 20-30 minutes. This is a huge time savings for me.

I do not understand why a new model would run at slower speeds. This was not made clear in the info given on the unit and I only found out about it from these boards.

 

[docendo]

Thanks for all the replies! I went and ordered one from Best Buy for $499, and I can get the $100 rebate when I sign up with Tivo. Ill let y'all know how it works out. AGain thanks for the help and to all happy holidays!

 

[LiveBlues]

There was just a service download for the Toshibas and Humax that upgraded the DVD firmware. I haven't tried burning a disc yet since the upgrade, so I don't know how much of an improvement there was. There is another thread floating around about it. Here is a link to it.

Overall, I am very pleased with the Toshiba. I've had it for a week now. I ordered it online from www.buydig.com for $455 shipped.

 

[STEELERSRULE]

I am interested in this Toshiba DVR/DVD recorder unit as well, but I am a little afraid to purchase it afetr my BAD experience with the last Toshiba DVD player/TIVO DVR. It was the HD-400, and it had a SEVERE FLICKER ISSUE that others mentioned who owned it.

My set-up will be this:

Analog cable, channels 2-99(RG6 to thr RF input on the unit) to the Toshiba DVD recorder/TIVO-->Component out from the Toshiba to my Zenith C27V36 HDTV for both TIVO playback and DVD playback(at the progressive level).

Does this unit SUFFER from that HORRIBLE flickering problem that Toshiba's last model did? I will ask about this in the HUMAX forum as well.

Also is the DVD playback(at progressive) any good?

Basically what I want is too have one unit for two functions. I want the TIVO basic(which is fine to me) and the DVD recorder/playback all in one unit, so I can replace my VCR and current DVD player.

I was SEVERELY dissapointed with the Toshiba's HD-400 Playback(it absolutely suc*#$) as compared to my Panasonic RP-62 w/FAROUDJA DCDi de-interlacer. I have yet to find a progressive player o match this unit(which I got for $50 a year ago as an unused open box at Sears. Actually got 2 of them at 2 different Sears for the same price, but I sold one which was not being used on e-bay for $105. A NICE tidy little profit on the ONE unit), even when I set it to regular 480i playback and let my TV do the upscaling(My Zenith C27V36 has the FAROUDJA DCDi chip for it's progressive mode on analog and 480i content).

Any response will be greatly appreciated.

 

[STEELERSRULE]

bump

 

[STEELERSRULE]

bump

 

[jpennock]

I just recieved the Toshiba dvd recorder with tivo and the picture quality with cable was absolutely terrible. I called toshiba and they want me to pay for shipping and send the unit to tennessee and they will replace it. Has anybody else had terrible picture problems?

 

[bsaunder]

I don't have the recorder, but I hope they are better than the players - I’ll be on my third SD-400H soon -, so I’m not 100% convinced of Toshiba’s product quality.

The first time it was DOA out of the box with a crashed hard drive. Called tech support and they covered it fully since it was a gift - very nice since and had been sitting in our house for over 3 mo. and the full warranty had expired. Received it back in less than two weeks and had a couple issues with it - the cover was bent and dented; on power up it now worked, but no front panel activity or response, so I took the cover off and the ribbon cable for the front cover was disconnected (ribbon cable goes into a friction slot and the cable has a ferrite block on it right next to the connector - bad design from a shipping shock and vibe perspective). After reconnecting the front panel I was able to get the unit through the setup and thought it was working, until I started getting an error 51 and noticed it wouldn’t record anything (pause and rewind worked, but no record). After wiping out all the setup info and retrying it – it still is showing error 51 and won’t record, so Toshiba is sending out a call tag to get this one and repair it.

While I did have it I noticed that the picture from the component video was horrible (I have cable currently as my source and my tv is a 48” big screen, not HD), the S-video was ok, and the coax was the best. On a DVD playback the component video looked good, but not as good as my stand alone Toshiba DVD player that is about 4 years old. The audio through the digital coax connection was less than preferable too; I didn’t try the optical yet.

The only saving grace is tech support has been great so far.

 

[LiveBlues]

I've had my RS-TX2 for a couple of weeks now. I haven't had any flickering and I find the picture quality just as good as my old series 1 and another series 2 that I have.

I think that it is more likely that the others were unlucky, rather than me getting lucky.

 

[EllJay]

I'm on my second RS-TX20 within 2 months. The first one started to have problems burning, and now the second has just started flickering. I am still within the 30-day return period, but am undecided whether to try a 3rd unit, or just give up and buy something else.

 

[jallen1767]

I've had my RS-TX20 for 45 days and the audio will cut out after an hour of use. The only way to resolve the problem so far is to unplug the unit for 15 seconds and replug it in.. where the same problem occurs again after another hour. All cables/connections are good and the internal temp of the unit is normal. Anyone else have this problem? If there's a simple fix, let me know before I send it off for a warranty repair.