Toshiba D-R2 DVD Recorder

I bought this unit to replace my VCR and improve the quality of recordings over VCR and convert my VCR tapes to digital so they don't degrade any more than they already have. The recorder works ok, but is finicky about the DVD used for recording. You should be aware it will record to inexpensive DVD but won't finalize them. That means after sitting around for 2 or more hours editing a DVD recording your work won't finalize and you have to start over!!! Sometimes it works and other times it won't but who wants to be unsure of two hours of work??? Next there is no digital audio input. So you lose the quality sound a HD signal or other high quality sound might have in your recording. No SACD or DVD-A compatibility. When recording a 16:9 video the machine crops an excessive amount of pixels so it looks like a small square in playback on a 16:9 tv. It also shows noise at the bottom of the video which you can see on a non 4:3 tv. A variety of video inputs is nice. The remote is ok but complicated with a flip down panel.