Review on 📼 Toshiba DVR670/DVR670KU DVD/VHS Recorder with Built-in Tuner Black (2009 Model) - All-in-One Media Solution for TV Entertainment by Joe Calabro

I would give this unit five stars except for a few oddities in the UI. Even then I would probably give it five stars alone, but the weird thing is that it works better and smoother in other *Toshiba* products. Why, in this case, they decided to make them any different is beyond me. I have had this car since February 2011. Electrically and mechanically it was faultless. I record an hour every weekday and a few other shows on DVDRW once a week. I watch VHS shows a few hours a week. Sometimes (maybe once a month) I write a VHS tape to DVD-R. So far I haven't had any problems using it. I bought this car because my last VCR had a bad head. I still watch VHS tapes recorded elsewhere and needed something to record the performances at home. This unit is a very good solution as it provides a way to play VHS tapes but allows me to transfer my home recording to DVD and if desired, dub the VHS tape to DVD. If you don't need/want to watch VHS tapes, there is no reason to buy this device. Instead, buy a DVR with a built-in hard drive. If you need removable media, get one with a DVD-RW drive. The built in tuner is a great feature as others have mentioned. After switching to digital broadcasting (I don't have cable, I only watch over-the-air, OTA) I used one of the "free" tuners. It was awful for the recording because the VCR had to be tuned in, but also remember to set the digital tuner to the correct channel and there was no way to change channel during recording or between takes without being present be to do this manually. Apparently the built in tuner solves this problem and the tuner seems to be of good quality. After switching to digital broadcasting, we have many problems with multipath interference. "Free" tuners are terrible for multipath interference. Channels that would be lost due to the digital tuner in strong winds continue to work normally with this recorder's tuner. The video quality on the VHS side is okay, but not great. IIRC, he only has two heads. As a result, freeze frames tend to flicker and aren't as clear as when using a quality quad-head deck. The quality is about the same as the old two head VCR I had fifteen years before the four head deck. So I would assume two heads would be normal quality. Four heads would have been better, but probably also more expensive. The device seems a bit slow when starting VHS playback to set up the tracking. Fast forward and rewind is also slower than I'm used to. Prepare to watch something on a DVD player (or have a book ready) by fast-forwarding or rewinding the tapes. I make all my DVD-RW recordings in a mode that offers 4 hours per disc. Here, too, the quality is right. This is slightly better than VHS quality, but again not fantastic. It would probably be better to use the 2 hour per disc or 1 hour per disc setting, but I don't want to reformat or swap drives that often. That is absolutely sufficient. Although DVD+/-RW media is several times more expensive than DVD+/-R media, it can be reformatted many times and used like a tape. If you use this device to record shows, it's worth taking some RW media with you. You will definitely want to read the manual for this machine. If you are unable to read instructions, then take something easier. There are several oddities in using this machine that necessitate a manual. The machine is very multifunctional and all these features need a lot of explanation. Luckily, the manual is clearly written, with clearly delineated steps and features. The zoom function is annoying. On this device, when you press the "Zoom" button, a zoom drop-down menu will appear and you will need to select Zoom. But before it does the scaling, the viewport needs to be selected, still at 1x zoom. If you want to choose a different viewport after making your selection, you must go back to the menu again and change the magnification twice to return to the desired magnification with selectable viewport. Also, the menu bar always stays at the top of the screen unless you use a different key sequence to dismiss it. On my other Toshiba devices, which are basic DVD players, any press on the zoom function instantly increases the zoom. Click it enough times and it will revert to normal size. When an image is zoomed in, simply use the arrow keys to move the viewport on the fly. Do not move the field and then permanently select it. If you close the viewport motion window with the players, pressing the zoom button once will bring it back up. This is a simple and elegant way to control scaling that Toshiba already knows. With this device, why switch to something so inconvenient and inefficient? The second unpleasant thing is setting daily, weekly, etc. timer entries. There is no menu item for this on the timer recording setup screen. To access these options, you must try to select a capture date earlier than the current date. This leads to these options. This is clearly explained in the user guide, but it's quite annoying when you think it's a function you have to figure out from the OSD. The third inconvenient thing is the inclusion of timer recording. As you might expect, the device must be powered off to enable a timer recording. However, the device has two "off" buttons. Turning it off in either way will turn on any timer recordings you set. If you deactivate it in any other way, the timer recording will not be activated and your program will not be recorded. This is also explained in the manual, but it takes a bit of getting used to using the same button to "off" that you used to "on" earlier. I missed a few entries because I "turned off" the machine the wrong way round. I think this two button "off" confusion might be a logical necessity for the multifunctional nature of this thing. For example, you can record timed programs on a DVD-RW while watching other programs on the VHS deck. Probably the other way around, although I haven't tried it in that direction. Being able to play and watch from one device while recording something else on another is a very nice feature. and a front Firewire (IEEE 1394) input, which is very useful for some camcorders. USB would be nice, but that's missing in my opinion. I believe it was developed when firewire was still known in camcorders. Auxiliary inputs also come in handy if you don't have enough TV inputs. You can connect this device to your TV, route other devices through the inputs of this device and easily set the input for this device to any port that has an additional device connected to it if required. For the DVD side there is a 30 second skip button which is great. Most commercial breaks occur in 30-second increments. You can press this button repeatedly to accumulate a jump period of up to three minutes. It's sort of super fast forward through the missed time, so you can see enough to know if you missed the pizza commercial you really wanted to see. There is also a feature that allows you to play the program at an increased tempo, with the sound tuned to the correct pitch. Haven't tried it, but it might be useful for boring instructional videos or safe driving shows. I can't remember if it works on VHS, DVD or both. Either way, it's a pretty cool car. Seems to do what it promises to do reliably. Not the best image quality, but not the most expensive either, although I liked it better for less than $200; seems to be getting more expensive. Some things could be better, especially since Toshiba has done them better in the past. However, a lot of imagination has gone into making the machine very versatile and versatile. This is a particularly good device if you want to conveniently dump an old VHS or Firewire camcorder tape to DVD. Update 10/10/2011: My device still works great. My friend's unit, bought a few years ago, had VCR problems last week. He ate tapes while using FF or Rew. It also didn't eject properly and ultimately didn't play the tape after loading. things) there is a clear/white plastic strip that goes around the wheel on the bottom front of the mechanism. I think the tape provides proper wheel tension. A small strip is hooked on both ends. The strap on the back of the device came loose and was no longer properly attached. This likely resulted in the wheel in question being incorrectly tensioned, causing the belts to be transported incorrectly. After I hooked the strip back in, the device worked again. However, when both units were open, I noticed that in FF and Rew, the VCR mechanism doesn't turn off the head. Most VCRs turn off the head during FF and Rew. That's probably why these units are so slow during FF and Rew. And no, I wasn't confused and had no device in play when I pressed FF or Rew. It was FF or Rew. stop. This will likely result in more head and tape wear when using FF or Rew. I wonder if this is a firmware issue?