Toshiba DR560 1080p Upconverting DVD Recorder with Built in Tuner

Toshiba DR560 1080p Upconverting DVD Recorder with Built in Tuner

Record your favorite home movies directly to DVD with the D-R560. 1080p upconversion via HDMI will get the most out of your DVD collection, and the built-in tuner completes this convenient home theater addition. The built-in ATSC/NTSC/QAM digital/analog tuner allows you to tune analog or digital channels from over the air, or cable, including “cable-in-the-clear” digital channels. It can also be used to dub recordings from other components onto various DVD recordable disc formats. An HDMI output enables the D-R560 to play DVDs to your widescreen HDTV delivering sharp imagery on screens optimized for 1080 resolutions, in an upconversion mode. Video Upconversion to 720p/1080i/1080p DivX Home Theater Certified Digital Photo Viewer (JPEG) One Touch Recording makes recording your favorite show simple. Just connect your DVD recorder to your cable or satellite box and you are set to record with the push of one button Auto Finalize with Undo simplifies the recording process by automatically finalizing your recording for playback on standard DVD players 24bit Audio DAC with 192kHz Processing Plays MP3 and WMA formats (2-Ch) Dolby Digital Recording L-PCM Recording (XP mode only) 3D (Virtual Surround Sound) Features – Instant Skip, Zoom, Editing (Playlist/Rename Title/Chapter Creation), Commercial Skip Connections – Component Out, HDMI Out with REGZA LINK, Front S-Video Input, Rear S-Video Input/Output, Rear RCA-Video Input/Output, Front Audio Input, Rear Analog Audio Input/Output, Coax Output, Front DV Input Approximate Unit Dimensions – 16.54 (W) x 2.32 (H) x 9.72 (D)

User Ratings and Reviews

3 Stars Digital tuner didn’t work
I bought this based on reviews as a digital tuner. I have cox cable and this unit did not see any of the local HD channels through coax as suggested. I was able to find another unit made by panasonic which did work. Once I found I couldn’t use as a digital tuner I returned therefore I can’t speak for the DVD player/recorders performance.

4 Stars Toshiba DR560
Toshiba DR560 1080p Upconverting DVD Recorder with Built-in TunerProduct performs beautifully and has features that are excellent,unfinalizing and erasure of DVD-RW or DVD+RW. Excellent on screen (TV) timer programming.

5 Stars Toshiba DVD Recorder
I first purchased an USB device to connect my 8mm camcorder to my computer in order to convert the tapes to DVD (safe storage, added effects, etc.). As may be viewed on my other review, it did not work as advertised.

The Toshiba DR560 did what the USB device failed to do, in a ridiculously short amount of time. I was able to convert over 60 hours of 8mm video to DVD in about 2+ weeks. The method was simple.

1) connect cables from device (camera) to DR560

2) insert DVD (multiple formats compatible)

3) push play on device, push record on DR560

4) when finished press stop on both

5) select “finalize” – DVD burn for ~2 hours of 8mm completed in 5 minutes.

There are other options, like when to add “chapters” (stopping the recording in the middle creates new sections that may be selected as new headings from your other DVD devices), or to add section breaks (future fast forward areas). For example, one of my tapes had Tgiving, Xmas and Easter. I was able to break these into three chapters (must be done while recording), and then go back at the end and break up each chapter into subsections (can be done anytime before finalizing).

You may also label each chapter with about 30 characters before finalizing. It takes a bit of effort, as the numeric keypad is used to create the letters and symbols, which toggle in a similar way to texting with your cell phone.

I have not used this to upconvert current DVD’s, so have no opinion on this product claim.

As far as recordings, it sets up like old VHS recordings. Select when you want it to record (options for a single recording, daily, M-Sat or M-F), the channel and time range. There are several time options, up to 8 hours per disk. My favorite feature is that you can record, pause and then watch at your leisure. This only works with DVD-RW format.

I highly recommend this product for converting video files to DVD. It also works well to record shows and play DVD movies. The added feature is that it has an internal digital tuner, so after February 20, 2009, you can continue to use this product without a special digital converter.

4 Stars Review The Reviewers
I don’t often write reviews on products, but I usually always consult Amazon’s reviews when making purchases, especially electronic equipment. Over the years I’ve seen a trend in how people make reviews of products. Those giving 5 stars usually bring out only the pros or good points. Those giving 1 or 2 stars either actually got a “lemon” or have little idea how to operate the product. Those giving 3 or 4 stars explain both good and bad points and are pretty honest in their reviews.

My review concerns the Toshiba DR560 DVD recorder. After recently purchasing it, I tried it out EXTENSIVELY and ended up agreeing with VERY FEW of the major problems that the “1, 2, & 3 star people” brought up. These I have listed below. They are the complaints that I heard most about ………..

1. “Poorer tuner picture quality than their TV” — Maybe so with an antenna TV, but mine is connect to a cable system, and the picture looks GREAT !!

2. “Hard to Scan or Preset Stations” — Again, no problem. You select “Extended Scan”(wait a while) and everything comes in fine. If there is a problem, and some channels are missed, re-scanning does solve it.

3. “Noisy, whining drive motor sounds” — Sorry! I never heard it.

4. “Loud disc tray mechanism noise” — Some noise, but REALLY no more than any of the other four DVD recorders I’ve had. Definitely not as bad as some have described.

5. “Poor picture quality on 8 hour recording” — Yes, it’s not the greatest, but it is viewable and acceptable for some things. Again, not as bad as some claim.

6. “Fast forward is slow and jumpy” — Well then “kick it up” to the next faster speed. It’s only there to view scan what you recorded. Didn’t see anything “jumpy” either. ???

7. ” Setup, connecting, and owners manual – hard to follow and do” —

Flat-out – No!- Everything is diagrammed, described, and explained quite clearly. The manual has 117 pages, so everything is covered.

— And finally —

8. “Remote button descriptions are hard to see” — YES ! I’ll give them this one. It IS hard to read which buttons do what, but with a lamp and glasses on (or good vision) you CAN get used to it and be successful.

The unit’s LED display screen could be a little bigger and the recorder doesn’t produce “thumbnail” images of what you recorded, but all in all, it”s a very good DVD recorder. Let me tell you, there aren’t many of them “out there”. And I’ve checked many of them out. Ya, there are “lemons” out there, and some people have trouble getting things to work, but with a little patience, time, and reading of the manual, anyone can do it! I think the DR560 is a really good recorder. It does what it’s supposed to do and so far, has worked flawlessly. Worth the money.

4 Stars Overall good unit
We have owned this DVD unit for a couple weeks now. We bought it for the Digital tuner and the DVR capability. We have a lot of tapes and wanted to cut down on the space they are taking. The DVD portion works well as does the digital tuner. As some have mentioned, the menus are a bit arcane and the remote is hard to read in poor lighting. I have found it to be unable to record certain VHS tapes due to copyright protection. This is annoying. Other than that, we’re happy with it and ready for the digital switchover.

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