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I bought this over a year ago and it has proved to be one of the best purchases ever.
As I understand you can call Toshiba and complain about the lockup and they will mail you disk with a firmware upgrade that MIGHT fix the problem. The TV guide on the Toshiba is usless to me because I can't get the data from the digital box. Anything you buy now is left over stock.I have had mine for a year. 1-800-319-6684 I called and got mine sent yesterday. Once in a while it locks up.
You have to unplug it and plug it back in to get it back to working again. I am connected to Comcast cable. First - Toshiba has stopped making this model. They do not pass the TV Guide data thru their digital Motorola box. If you go to the setup menu and select the last option on the top right of the menu (has an icon of keys) look down at the bottom of this list and there is a software revision number.
I like it but am not happy. If its 1100 or above the firmware upgrade is of no use to you.
Has been back and forth to the factory authorized service center three times now and still doesn't do what it's supposed to.Being a bit of a techno-geek, I thought I could figure it out with no problem. The hard drive has "corrupted" itself on an almost weekly basis. Called Customer Service, who walked me through exactly what I had already done the previous two times. 24 hours later, same exact "setup" as before. Right. I just moved it into a spare bedroom and hooked it up to a TV to function as a very, very, very expensive DVD player.
Same results. Tried again. More phone calls. Sent to service center.
They couldn't find anything wrong with it and sent it back. And so forth and so on. I hate this machine with a deep and abiding passion. Same result.
Set everything up using the instructions and then turned it off and let it set for 24 Hours so the TV Guide system could program itself. 24 hours later, it had identified about 20 channels, most of which I do not get, missed three local channels and loaded about 4 hours worth of schedule. If the damn things weren't so expensive, I would start buying them and giving them as gifts to people I really, really don't like.
my girlfriend and I have countless hours of camcorder footage that we wanted to edit onto a DVD. Plus. The onscreen editing feature allows you to record the segments you want to the hard drive and then transfer easily to the DVD. The fan is noticable, but the benefits of this machine far outway the slight noise you'll hear in the still quiet. Free TV Guide downloaded within hours and I don't have to pay for TIVO monthly service. It's everything I ever wanted in a DVR. 250 GB hard drive lets you record regularly on several programs and not have to worry about deleting right away. I highly recommend it.
The Pioneers currently do NOT, which is rather remarkable. It's not the easiest one to use, for sure, but it's not that difficult with a little time investment. AWESOME for power users. The power of this little unit is amazing - you can even broadcast your video to PCs around your home network. I don't mind it or would get a case with glass doors.(4) This is by far the most feature rich DVR to come out. They are a different DVR. The manual is over 120 pages for good reason. Dumping video, editing, burning, you name it.
EDIT - FIVE STAR REVIEWIt has its quirks but now that hard disk DVD recorders are out of production, we can all cry about perfection. It's one of a kind and you're lucky to find one if you can. Has more features to record regular TV shows than any other unit and also does a fantastic job with recording and burning 16x9 properly. Not for the beginners or those who only understand TIVO.
It works and I've done a lot with mine. SAME ON ALL DVRS.(2) This is a very feature heavy machine. It does a slew of incredible things. This unit is far and away the most versatile recorder of all. Record a show by sending an email. Does that too. The Pioneer editing is OK but finished product to present to friends is not impressive, even though they are good quality recording machines. Want to watch while you work but on your monitor in another room - it does it.
I'll try to get as much in as short a space as possible"(1) All these DVRs use the same Gemstar TV Guide On Screen (TVGOS) system. This one has the ability to watch a program and put cue markers in. Selecting a program is easy but setting it up is a very poor process with no backup capability. It's a geeks paradise.(5) If you are buying a DVR, make sure you do the research. Get a crappy Sony that does little except record with the same quality and functions like an old VCR.(3) Unless you have an extremely quiet room, you'll never hear the fan when the TV is on or if there is even a small amount of background noise, where there usually is. Never put ANY DVR in your bedroom that uses the TVGOS or else you'll hear the hard drive spinning as it updates itself at night. Easily worth the original retail price and then some.
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