Toshiba RD-XS32SU DVD Recorder / HDD Recorder

This is an initial review of the XS32, I'll add to it as my experience with this unit grows, however I think this may be a valuable resource for potential buyers who want to know what they can do with this unit within a few days of buying one.

I chose the XS32 after looking at the various models available locally, then going to the respective manufacturer websites and downloading the product user manuals to compare features. My requirements were a recorder with a harddrive built-in, as well as an iLink/firewire/IEEE 1394 port for direct DV capture without analog loss. The ability for on-HD editing was also essential. The XS32 satisfies all of my requirements.

The Good:
The XS32 has very good video quality on recordings, and the ability to tweak the recording quality in 0.2Mbps increments from 1.4Mbps up to 9.2Mbps. Audio quality can be set to uncompressed PCM (48khz, 16bit, stereo) for maximum quality, or Dolby Digital AC3 (2 channel) in 192, or 384 Kbps encoding modes to save a bit more space. Because capturing and preserving the quality of the video is important to me, it was essential to have a recorder that was highly configurable for different recording tasks and has a good MPG-2 encoder.

The on-HD editing capabilities of the unit are pretty remarkable. Splitting captured video into chapters, deleting chunks, setting thumbnails for menus, editing program names, making playlists - it's all possible with the XS32. When you built a DVD, you're given the option of how many menus to create (title menus, chapter menus, nothing, etc), how the disc is set to play back (looping, etc), and much more. It's really quite remarkable how many features they've packed in.

If you're looking for a recorder to archive your favorite TV shows to DVD and want to edit out the commercials, this is the unit for you!

The Bad:
With a unit this complex, the main challenge isn't in the technology of the device, but the user interface required to operate it. While the user interface is logically designed (once you figure it out - some of the descriptions in the manual are a little difficult to understand until you have to perform an operation), it's difficult to navigate through quickly when you want to perform several operations repeatedly.

For example, I captured a bunch of TV episodes to the hard disk that I wanted to record-off to DVD-R. Before recording them, I wanted to trim out the commercial breaks and trim the beginning and end of the program. The XS32 can do all of these tasks, but it would probably take 5 minutes per-episode of remote-control button pushing to do this. Owners that don't care about the commercials and just want to dump their captured footage to DVD will have a much easier time. The on-screen user interface (drawing menus and controls) is just a tiny bit too slow for my liking. If they could speed it up by 50%, it would be perfect.

It's perhaps time that AV designers include an option for either a computer-control link (via ethernet), or perhaps even a simple USB port for keyboard/mouse control of the user interface, either of which would make editing and control functions vastly easier.

The remote control itself is functional, but the button layout leaves something to be desired. The tactile response is a little too soft for my liking - I'd prefer harder buttons with a more solid press; you'll be using them a lot if you are doing any on-HD editing. I'm also not a fan of the "flip" that has more buttons underneath it, which isn't quite as solid as I'd like and doesn't open quite as easily.

Other Considerations:
The unit does have the "timeslip" ability to pause and rewind live TV, but it's not nearly as refined as units such as TiVO or Dishplayer receivers. It takes about 5 seconds to get into "timeslip" mode. Once in this mode, you don't have a lot of ability to control captures to the HD or DVD (basically, save all, or none). It works, but I'll stick with the PVR on my Dish network unit.

Media makes a difference! I did some recordings on some white inkjet-printable DVD-Rs that I use for DVD authoring purposes, and they "appeared" to record correctly. Unfortunately when checked in the DVD-ROM drive in my computer, they had lots of read errors making them unusable. I moved to some 8x Memorex blanks, which recorded without any problems and checked fine in the computer. The moral of the story? Do a check anytime you switch to new media and make sure they can be read properly!

Some reviewers have mentioned a "black level" problem with regards to playing back video recorded on a different DVD player. This does not appear to occur with video recorded on my unit (software ver ZL11).

One other feature I've seen on another unit from a different manufacturer was the ability to "dump" an unprotected DVD to the HD inside the unit, to allow it to run-off more copies. This would be a handy feature that's unfortunately missing from the XS32.

For the price, this unit is hard to beat with the capabilities and quality it provides.

Dave