Toshiba D-R4 Multi-Drive DVD Recorder | 
 enlarge | Brand: Toshiba
Category: CE
List Price: $219.99
Buy Refurbished: $119.00
You Save: $100.99 (46%)
Refurbished (2) from $119.00
Rating:  58 reviews
Sales Rank: 26126
Media: Electronics
Autographed: No
Memorabilia: No
Batteries: 2
Batteries Included: Yes
Shipping Weight (lbs): 12
Dimensions (in): 20.6 x 17.7 x 6.2
MPN: D-R4
Model: D-R4
UPC: 022265411674
EAN: 0022265411674
ASIN: B0007UVYOY
Availability: Usually ships in 1-2 business days
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| Features:
| • | DVD-RAM, DVD-R, and DVD-RW recording with Time Slip feature so you can view a show from the start while it's still recording | | • | ColorStream Pro progressive scanning for flicker-free images on high-definition and HD-ready screens | | • | Auto title/chapter/thumbnail creation, time-base correction, digital noise reduction | | • | EASY NAVI menu portal provides quick and easy access to key features; front-panel AV input for camcorder, VCR, or other device | | • | Measures 17 x 2.3 x 11.8 inches (W x H x D) |
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| Editorial Reviews:
Product Description
Toshiba's Multi Drive D-R4 DVD Recorder offers recording and playback of DVD-RAM, DVD-RW or DVD-R media. The unit features the EASY NAVI portal, ColorStream Pro Component Video outputs and five different recording modes.Multi Drive D-R4 DVD recorder features Digital Cinema Progressive Scan output, Multimedia playback for JPEGs and MP3 titles, and a Zoom mode.
Amazon.com Product Description
A happy meeting of high quality and high value, Toshiba's Multi-Write D-R4 is not just a full-featured progressive-scan DVD player that handles your DVDs, CDs, MP3/WMA music discs, and JPEG-filled recordable discs. It's also a DVD recorder capable of storing up to 6 hours of audio/video on a single-sided 4.7 GB recordable DVD--whether broadcast programming or copies of your home movies to share with loved ones. The D-R4 offers the flexibility of recording on both DVD-RAM--perfect for instant chapter access and for multiple re-recordings--as well as DVD-R, the most widely compatible of the many DVD formats (great for sharing camcorder footage with loved ones). DVD-RW compatibility lets you erase and rewrite, though relatively few players and computer drives will play back DVD-RWs. DVD-RAM discs can be read, written, and erased more than 100,000 times. When recording, the D-R4 captures the first video frame and displays it as the chapter mark. You can then designate chapter marks with custom screen captures or thumbnail images of your choice. The D-R4 also lets you generate and save custom playlists using any title and chapter. Each list of desired footage can be separately titled and edited (for removal of, say, commercials) and then seamlessly played back. Time Slip lets you use your DVD recorder like a personal video recorder, or PVR. Because of DVD-RAM's fast transfer rate, you can view the recorded portion of an ongoing program from the beginning, while still recording the show in progress. The D-R4 features a 181-channel cable-compatible tuner and 2-month, 36-event programming. And, in addition to recording new video content, the D-R4 lets you transfer and even enhance your favorite video recordings to durable, space-saving discs--a terrific way to archive, preserve, and access your movies and family videos. The unit's EASY NAVI menu simplifies operation by giving you direct access to key operations such as locating and playing back of recorded content. For top-of-the-line playback, the D-R4 is equipped with a 10-bit/54 MHz video digital-to-analog converter capable of great color purity and detail. When connected to a high-definition or HD-ready television through its ColorStream Pro component-video outputs, the D-R4 delivers Toshiba's Digital Cinema Progressive picture. Progressive scanning, referred to as 480p for the number of horizontal lines that compose the video image, creates a picture using twice the scan lines of a conventional DVD picture, giving you higher resolution and sharper images while eliminating nearly all motion artifacts. The D-R4 also has Toshiba's Digital Cinema Progressive feature, which performs 3:2 pulldown detection and reversal. DVD mastering introduces a common distortion when adjusting 24 frames-per-second movies to 30 fps video; 3:2 pulldown digitally corrects this distortion, removing the redundant information to display a film-frame-accurate picture. The deck's abundant connections include multiple composite- and S-video inputs and outputs, stereo analog (left/right) inputs and outputs, and an optical digital-audio output for use with a compatible digital surround receiver. What's in the Box
DVD player/recorder, a remote control, remote batteries, a user's manual, a stereo analog audio/composite-video cable, and an RF coaxial video cable.
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| Customer Reviews: Read 53 more reviews...
 I miss my Toshiba August 20, 2008
I had two of these (I bought a second one from a 'display' sale at Best Buy). I burn lots of DVDs, so I managed to wear them both out. They were great to use. I could choose the background color, and I could set the timer for a specific length of time, (like 17 minutes) not just in 30-minute increments. I didn't like the fact that I couldn't choose my thumbnail image. (You just get to pick the moment that they grab the image in each recording - 3, 10, 35 seconds and so on)
 Best recorder i ever bought June 17, 2008
i bought mine roughly a year ago, from boscovs(please read entire thing, in order to avoid confusion). I had one before, an emerson which worked terribly. i would have stopped even trying but this was on sale so i gave it a try. Turns out i had the same problem and that was the discs wouldn't play anywhere but in the recorder. i didn't feel that returning would solve my problem. thus it would have a literal shelf-life.
then a week ago i found an old show on that i could not find on dvd. so since vhs's are going i gave the recorder 1 last chance to redeem itself by recording my show. now since it has been a year, i lost the instruction manual, but everything was labeled clearly on the remote. so after i recorded the show, i made a minute of recorded junk with assorted stops. then i decided to play around with all the controls to get use to them. the strangest label was the best: Easy Navi. On there was an option. Finalize DVD and after hitting it i was able to make a custom menu and finally solved the problem. the disc played everwhere, standard dvd player, ps2, even a different dvd recorder. my old one only had basic controls. so now i can safely say: BEST RECORDER EVER. it is a cheap and reliable recorder. hope you found this helpful.
and also, i read the review about Sony DVD-RW's not working. Sony DVD-R will work just fine. i'm not sure about -RW's because they never work for me and -R's are cheaper :).
 Multiple Flaws April 19, 2008
If this product worked properly and did all that it is advertised to do, then I would give it a 5-star review. Unfortunately, even out of the box the product was defective--and every few months something else breaks.
Specifically: This product is advertised to use RAM disks, and after a fashion it can use them--but from Day One I have had many, many problems with these disks (and I did buy the brand the Toshiba manual recommended). When you program recording with these disks, more than half the time the program won't end up getting recorded. Likewise, these disks often fail halfway through a recording. Also, many times when you insert one of these disks with material you have previously recorded and want to watch it, then the disk will give an error message and is unusable. Yet another RAM disk problem: When playing back a program you previously recorded, often the image breaks up, the audio breaks up, and usually a few seconds later the playback freezes completely. This makes your machine freeze up and there is no way out except by unplugging the power cord from the wall socket (the ONLY way to reset this machine, which does freeze up often). This, unfortunately, has the expensive and irritating effect of ruining your RAM disk. These disks are quite expensive, and I have ruined 4 or 5 of them because of this freeze-up problem. There are other problems with RAM disks that I won't go into, as it would make this review too long, but suffice to say that all of these problems have been chronic literally since the first day I used this product (I bought it a couple years ago).
Another terrible problem with this unit is that the "disk finalizing" process was always buggy and error-prone; moreover, when the unit was only about 6 months old, the process stopped working completely. This is actually the main reason I bought this unit--to be able to transfer movies from my video camera onto DVDs for archiving them and watching them on other DVD players. In fact, I WAS able to do this for a few months. (If you don't know what "disk finalizing" is, it is a process you must go through after you have recorded a DVD to make it playable on all the OTHER DVD players in the world. If you don't finalize the disk, you are only able to play it back on THIS particular machine--so if this particular unit ever breaks down you are left with a bunch of useless, unplayable disks!) Well, starting about 18 months ago, every time I try to go through the finalizing process, I only get error messages. (I have tried using lens cleaners on my unit; that does not help, so it is apparently not that kind of problem but rather is a software problem with the unit.)
Another huge complaint: Like so many remote controls in this day and age, after a few months the buttons that you use often begin to fail part of the time--and eventually fail completely. Right now, the ON/OFF button on the remote is useless and 3 or 4 other commonly used buttons are on their way out, requiring so much finger pressure to make them work that they are essentially useless. This is very frustrating, as I have to press the fast-forward button with all my might, 4 or 5 times, to be able to move quickly through a program. It has gotten so bad that fast forward has basically become a useless feature because of this.
This may be a small complaint to others, but to me it is very important: The onscreen type on the screen where you program future recordings is SO HARD TO READ. The colors and teensy type size (and I have a 26-inch TV) is nearly impossible to read; grant you, I don't have fantastic vision, but I am easily able to read the onscreen prompts and messages for my other connected TV peripherals and for my satellite TV service. It is only this one that has been so poorly designed, with such small type sizes and such low-contrast colors, that it is very difficult to read.
Another beef: The overall design is really counter-intuitive. For example, to delete a program that you recorded previously is a very clunky procedure--and confusingly, they offer 2 different ways to go about this (and one of the ways requires you to click click click through 3 screens before you can finally accomplish the deletion--then after the program has been deleted you get dropped back out to live television and have to click click click 3 times to get back to the deletion area to delete another program. It truly does seem like back-room engineers designed the human interface for this product, as in so many cases the way you have to go about doing the most common tasks requires you to go through several levels of menus--and in ways that are not obvious or logical as far as I can see. I believe this is the worst user interface I have ever seen for any electronics unit of any kind that I own.
My last complaint: The manual is REALLY bad. It is quite long, but in most places is very difficult to understand and is singularly unhelpful. A case in point: The previously mentioned process of finalizing a recording is (as is everything on this machine) extremely confusing, totally un-obvious, etc. The first few times you do this you will have to consult the manual, as the onscreen prompts are completely confusing and un-helpful. But when you do go to the manual, no light is shed on the process whatsoever; it basically just re-hashes the cryptic onscreen command names (without any explanation) that you see on your screen as you work through the many confusing screens you have to go through to finalize a recording. I eventually figured out how to do it, but then I had to make extensive notes in comprehensible English in the manual so that I would understand the next time around how to actually DO the finalizing process. (This was back in the days before my machine broke and finalizing a recording was actually possible!)
Anyway, if this product worked as advertised, then it would be a good one. But in summary it has many serious problems:
* RAM disk recording is so error-prone as to be worthless, right out of the box.
* The remote control buttons began failing after only a few months, and the problems with the remote are only getting worse.
* The finalizing process (required to play DVDs on other machines) stopped working after only half a year, so any recordings I make are NOW only able to be played on this particular machine (and things are failing so regularly on this machine that it will surely be completely dead before too long).
* The onscreen type/colors are very difficult to read.
* The human interface is very user-hostile and not at all intuitive or even logical.
* The manual is very, very opaque and difficult to follow. Don't expect it to help you out when you are trying to figure out the many confusing screens you need to negotiate to operate the product.
If you are considering buying this product, please think again. (In fact, out of necessity I just purchased ANOTHER one of these units. I recently bought a factory-reconditioned unit of this same machine at a far cheaper price than a new unit, thinking that doing this will actually be cheaper than sending my defective but out-of-warranty unit to Toshiba for repair of its many problems.) I just received the reconditioned unit but have not set it up yet; my hope is that I will be able to finalize the 75 disks I have recorded in the last 18 months but have been unable to finalize. I am also hoping the remote control that comes with the new unit will have more working buttons than the remote I'm stuck with now. And if I am really lucky, then even RAM disks might work on this replacement machine--though that would surprise me since they never worked on my first machine right out of the box.
Anyway, I have been very disappointed with this machine and wonder why Toshiba, which I thought had a good reputation in the electronics world, would place such a poorly designed and error-prone product on the market.
Judgment: A practical and reliable product November 13, 2006
6 out of 6 found this review helpful
How could I miss giving this dvd recorder the thumbs up that it deserves. Sorry, Toshiba! Even tho I had a problem prone laptop from you, this DR4 dvd recorder gets 5 stars. Have used it every week since I bought it to record our family outings from my camcorder. My family spread all over thanks you for the terrific quality of the dvds. Yes, I recommended it to others while it remains available.
Firmware Upgrade Fixes Problem with 16x Media October 6, 2006
11 out of 11 found this review helpful
I've owned the D-R4 since January 2006 and have not experienced any problems when using 4x and 8x speed discs from Maxell and Taiyo-Yuden. I took a chance on the Maxell 16x discs, which were on sale recently at Office Depot, and did have a problem finalizing them. As pointed out by someone else, the D-R4 records to the 16x media fine but gives you an "ERR 14" when finalizing. When I called Toshiba customer service (1-800-319-6684) about this, the rep sent me a firmware upgrade that fixed the problem.
I wish the D-R4 would load discs faster and I wish it could record back-to-back TV shows using the timer without missing the last two minutes of the first show (a quirk that is described in the manual), but overall I like this recorder very much. It does a great job archiving VCR and camcorder tapes. The 1-, 2-, 3- and 4-hour recording modes provide very good quality. Most of the problems mentioned in the reviews can be avoided by buying the recommended 4x and 8x media. Get the firmware upgrade to use 16x media.
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