Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #27668 in Consumer Electronics
• Brand: Toshiba
• Model: DVR18DT
• Released on: 2008-01-21

Customer Reviews

FANTASTIC
This item has everything you need DVD player, Video and Freewiew all in one machine and one remote. All this for a fantastic price too. You do need to supply your own scart lead (a small additional cost).

Normally my television reception in my area is rubbish, so I don't get many channels. But the Freeview built in was fantastic and picked up most (if not all) the freeview channels.

I was very worried that this would be complicated to tune in, but it could not have been easier. Just remember to switch the machine to VCR mode to watch Freeview.

Good for dubbing but some minor drawbacks
The D-VR18 works very well when dubbing from videotape to DVD. If this is what you want it for, you will be pleased. Dubbing is started with a single button, and when STOP is pressed, it stops both the videotape and the DVD, so it's easy to dub one long videotape into chapters on a DVD. It also reads all my old tapes. Minor drawbacks are the time it takes for a DVD to load. I have timed ten to 20 seconds, depending on the DVD. I also find the software overly complex, requiring more steps than my old Panasonic DVD recorder. I have a DVR for easy TV recording and only use this DVD recorder for dubbing old tapes and archiving stuff I want to keep, dubbing them from the DVR to DVD. I am pleased with the unit for these purposes but if it was my only recorder, the start-up time would bother me.

A feature or a fault?
Toshiba DVR18 - DVD Recorder & VHS Combi With Freeview

The recorder produces decent results, but it takes hours to read and re-read the instructions to get an idea how to operate it.

After using the machine for three weeks it suddenly started to play back video tapes in black and white - old recordings, new recordings, and prerecorded tapes. It continued to work fine on the DVD player, so the problem wasn't with a dodgy connection. I tried resetting the factory settings - still B&W.

Finally out of desperation I unplugged the machine for an hour and then set it up again - problem gone!

So was periodically dropping down into B&W a "feature" of this model, or have I received a dodgy unit? I won't know until it happens again (or doesn't)