Toshiba D-R1 DVD Recorder

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DVD Recorder

Write support

Read support

FireWire
VCR, HD

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Toshiba D-R1

Write
~~CDR~~
~~CDRW~~
DVD-R
DVD-RW
~~DVD-R DL~~
~~DVD+R~~
~~DVD+RW~~
~~DVD+RDL~~
DVD-RAM

Read*

CDR
CDRW?
Few DVD-R
DVD-RW
DVD-R DL?
DVD+R
DVD+RW
~~DVD+R DL~~
DVD-RAM

*based on user reports.

Desktop, Firewire

$500

7.4/10
14 votes
Read 17
comments
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DVD Player features:
Video formats:
JPG?
Audio formats:
MP3
Other features:

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Region code free hack

DVD Media comments for this DVD Recorder (click on the link to read the comments):
1 Datawrite Red (V3) 4xDVD-R (VDSPMSAB 01.) comments, 0 good, 1 mixed, 0 poor.
1 Imation 2xDVD-RW (OPTODISCW002) comments, 0 good, 1 mixed, 0 poor.
1 Maxell 2xDVD-RW (TDK502sakuM3) comments, 1 good, 0 mixed, 0 poor.
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Comments

17 comments, Showing 1 to 17 comments

Hugh Terry from United Kingdom reported May 23, 2012:
Read features:						Time used:	Rating:
CDR CDRW?	Few DVD-R DVD-RW? DVD-R DL?	DVD+R? DVD+RW? DVD+R DL?	VCD? XVCD? XSVCD?	SVCD? SVCDSubs? SVCDTracks?	MP3? CVD?	over 1 year	5 of 10
DVD-RAM?
Comments:
Very good when it works - but it frequently rejects many kinds of DVD-R disc. Takes ages to load up when a disc is inside. Has far too many functions which I never use, nor would I ever want. Far too complicated, and I would be much happier with a simpler product.

jocelle from Canada reported February 05, 2010:
Read features:						Time used:	Rating:
CDR? CDRW?	Few DVD-R DVD-RW? DVD-R DL?	DVD+R? DVD+RW? DVD+R DL?	VCD? XVCD? XSVCD?	SVCD? SVCDSubs? SVCDTracks?	MP3? CVD?	over 1 year	7 of 10
DVD-RAM?
Comments:
That's a good Dvd Recorder...once you find the good media... I've tried so many brands. FujiFilm Dvd-R are the best. I recorded a lot with no fails. But not all FujiFilm. I use the one with the "green leaf" on the package "Eco Friendly DVD". I don't know abou the big formats (towers), but I use 10 Pack (with cases). Hope it can help.

Diane from Canada reported April 08, 2007:
Read features:						Time used:	Rating:
CDR? CDRW?	DVD-R DVD-RW? DVD-R DL?	DVD+R? DVD+RW? DVD+R DL?	VCD? XVCD? XSVCD?	SVCD? SVCDSubs? SVCDTracks?	MP3? CVD?	over 1 year	8 of 10
DVD-RAM?
Comments:
After trying several brands of DVD-R and being totally frustrated, I finally came upon the Fuji DVD-R. In the past week I have gone through a 50 pack without any failure at all. Bought this new a few years back and actually traded first one in because I thought the machine was faulty but discoverd later it was only the BRAND of DVD's that was the problem. I would have expected the manufacturer to do their testing before release to the public, but I guess consumers are the guinea pigs! If you stick with FUJI brand -R you will have no further problems.................

AN from Finland reported January 18, 2006:
Read features:						Time used:	Rating:
CDR? CDRW?	DVD-R DVD-RW DVD-R DL?	DVD+R DVD+RW DVD+R DL?	VCD? XVCD? XSVCD?	SVCD? SVCDSubs? SVCDTracks?	MP3 CVD?	over 1 year	10 of 10
DVD-RAM
Comments:
Fabulous machine

danny from United Kingdom reported July 30, 2005:
Read features:						Time used:	Rating:
CDR? CDRW?	DVD-R DVD-RW DVD-R DL?	DVD+R? DVD+RW? DVD+R DL?	VCD? XVCD? XSVCD?	SVCD? SVCDSubs? SVCDTracks?	MP3? CVD?	210 days	9 of 10
DVD-RAM
Comments:
got this for my Vhs to Dvd collection works a treat, adjust the bitrate to suit the video lenght and play/ record/finalise job done... The timeslip is pukker, phone goes want a loo break hit the button and a nice feature to have,down side is the load time and the fact it will not play some of my old picture to music dvd's and svcd's, that apart it really is a nice looking piece of kit, as other users have said it is a bit on the techy side so if you want a plug n play machine this really aint the one the manual is a dictionary in it self...

ukdude from United Kingdom reported January 18, 2005:
Read features:						Time used:	Rating:
CDR? CDRW?	Few DVD-R DVD-RW DVD-R DL?	DVD+R? DVD+RW? DVD+R DL?	VCD? XVCD? XSVCD?	SVCD? SVCDSubs? SVCDTracks?	MP3? CVD?	60 days	8 of 10
DVD-RAM
Comments:
This was the best looking machine on the market when i brought it even though it was end of line in a sale! I like the controls on the top, and it lights up like a xmas tree when you use the timeslip feature on dvd-ram discs. It is quite complicated but once you get used to the menus its not so bad, although not sure how it compares to other machines. I like the fact you can change the quality setting to fit stuff on the disc. on the downside... 1 takes 30seconds to recognise disks and power up. 2 dvd-ram disks make a squeal normally when i insert them, not sure if this is my machine but its always done it and its only a fraction of a second. 3 i've only tried cheap dvd-r`s but some of them it fails to record on or aborts mid record. although seams fine on dvd-ram and rw.

Nabeel from Denmark reported January 06, 2005:
Read features:						Time used:	Rating:
CDR? CDRW?	~~DVD-R~~ DVD-RW DVD-R DL?	DVD+R? DVD+RW? DVD+R DL?	VCD? XVCD? XSVCD?	SVCD? SVCDSubs? SVCDTracks?	MP3? CVD?	7 days	No rating
DVD-RAM?
Comments:
Hi I used this machine last 1 week its works very good but I tried 2 different (Verbatrim,TDK) DVD-R Disc brand but after 15 minutes message is come "dirt Disc" I dont know why ??????? what is problem ....If any one know's sp please reply me ...But DVD-RW works very smooth and good ....

D Mcleod from United Kingdom reported December 29, 2004:
Read features:						Time used:	Rating:
CDR? CDRW?	Few DVD-R Few DVD-RW DVD-R DL?	~~DVD+R~~ ~~DVD+RW~~ ~~DVD+R DL~~	VCD? XVCD? XSVCD?	SVCD? SVCDSubs? SVCDTracks?	~~MP3~~ CVD?	180 days	2 of 10
DVD-RAM
Comments:
Looks nice has lots of functions tried loads of discs nanya, budget, mirror, - all seemed to not be recognised duff disks when they are brand new!!. Got some nanya to start recording then bang on 10 mins dirty disc, disc is then duff, no probs with discs looking at them they are clean. then got some other disks to record half way thru dirty disc. disk then duff, managed to get to the end of some discs then finalized and no content nothing recorded what an earth. Tried some ritek then got a few to work then looked at the disk and you can see very bad wavy colours on the writing surface, also after recording and finalizing disk you eject disc and insert and disc says blank another duff. Tried verbatim media after 10mins on some 'dirty disc' disk now duff although most seem to work and finalize. just lots of duffs. Then tried nero copying dvd disk to share like manual says with mates as it says - nero does not recognise it as a disc! first track only! cant copy arghh annoying or what. Okay tried disk in my other players and samsung does not play! Well I even tried a mates cheap dvd recorder and this works better and makes a disc that plays. Also tested more r/w and it seems to find dirty discs and stops recording making many -r disks duff for no reason as even rechecked same r/w seems to just randomize dirty disk at 10mins!. Now the ram drive is clonking and rubbing and banging away. Having invested in and have 400 blanks I aimed to convert many videos to dvd excpet I have just got really stressed and wasted hours and hours I cant believe! I was intially impressed but it has too many duff discs problems although it would not completely fail having read that similar users have the same at 5 and 10 mins interval and the other compatibility probs I will go back to the shop and ask for a swap as this is obviously a lemon or has faults. oh yeah I got error 14 often asked toshiba and they said what you on about! I have wasted a lot of time and discs on this - it has excellent features but surely something is wrong. Anyway hope to get a new one and see what thats like and check difference. If you have had similar probs especially with the 'dirty disc' at 10 mins error then I would be interested to hear from you via email. Until then I think I have a lemon hopefully. arghhhhhhhhhhhhhhh

rgs_uk from United Kingdom reported November 24, 2004:
Read features:						Time used:	Rating:
CDR? CDRW?	DVD-R? DVD-RW? DVD-R DL?	DVD+R? DVD+RW? DVD+R DL?	VCD? XVCD? XSVCD?	SVCD? SVCDSubs? SVCDTracks?	MP3? CVD?	30 days	4 of 10
DVD-RAM?
Comments:
Thought I'd post an update. After a month, the DVD-RAM operation was becoming very noisy (clanks and squeaks) when reading the discs. I bought 100 more Infiniti yellow top 4x blanks and started having major problems with those too. They would record for ten minutes then stop with a 'dirty disc' message. So the DR-1 has gone back to the shop, they had no more, and I have got a cash refund. They tried my Verbatim -RWs in another DR-1 in the store and it wouldn't recognise them either. This lack of compatibility is something Toshiba needs to address, if it hasn't already done so in more recent models. Unless the shop had a batch of faulty machines? Anyway, I will probably wait until after Christmas, as I reckon prices on the 'PC writer in a box' models will fall dramatically.

rgs_uk from United Kingdom reported November 07, 2004:
Read features:						Time used:	Rating:
CDR? CDRW?	DVD-R? DVD-RW? DVD-R DL?	DVD+R? DVD+RW? DVD+R DL?	VCD? XVCD? XSVCD?	SVCD? SVCDSubs? SVCDTracks?	MP3? CVD?	N/A	8 of 10
DVD-RAM?
Comments:
I have had this machine for about a month. Video and audio quality are excellent. Being able to set the bitrate in such small steps means I can use the disc space most effectively. I like having the buttons on the top. Lots of people don't have their equipment in a 'rack' at eye-level, me included. The solid build quality reminds me of VCRs from 15 years ago. For the last year I have been capturing from TV and old VHS tapes using VirtualDub, filtering, and encoding with MainConcept MPEG2 Encoder. I have become pretty good at it. Before I bought the DR-1 I was concerned that a real-time recording wouldn't give me the same quality. But I have done a side-by-side comparison of frame grabs and found that the DR-1 gives a very similar result but with slightly less noise at the edges and on detail, due to cutting out the MJPEG capture step. Contrast seems to be spot on - highlights aren't burnt out. There is one setting to reduce the video input level and several to increase it. I haven't used any other stand-alone DVRs so I don't know how they compare. The DR-1 has a very efficient time-base corrector which stablises anything you put through it. I have copied third generation VHS recordings, a Hi8 long-play recording that had been copied onto VHS and all came out rock-solid, even better that the original I would say! Of course there is not the option to tweak colour, black level etc. on a 'difficult' tape, which there is with a PC capture. One possibility would be to feed the video output of a camcorder or VCR through the DR-1 and capture onto the PC -- thus getting the benefit of the time-base-corrector. Handy for analogue video material that is to be used for editing... My only criticisms are the time the DR-1 takes to recognise a partly-recorded non-finalised disc when it is inserted. It can take about 45 seconds, which is annoying if you need to swap a disc quickly. It is also extremely fussy about discs and will not record with some brands. Infiniti yellow top -R work every time and so do the Maxell -RWs that I bought. However the four Verbatim -RWs that I bought do not work, nor do two Memorex -RWs and nor do 100 Datawrite red v3 -Rs! Sometimes the Datawrites seem to record but then the DR-1 doesn't always recognise the recording. So you need to discover which DVDs are OK... The Datawrites play fine in the DR-1 when I author a DVD on the PC. The 'timeslip' PVR-type functions of DVD-RAM are useful. The only problem is if I record something onto DVD-RAM and then decide I want to keep the recording. As I have no way of getting that recording onto another disc (I'm not about to buy a PC DVD-RAM drive). So, for that reason, I use -RW more. Sometimes I record on -RW and then edit and author the final DVDs with TMPGEnc DVD Author, which works well. Some people enjoy equipment that is feature-packed, others don't. I would say the DR-1 is ideal for the enthusiast or more-technically-minded user. The all-English instruction book is 142 pages long. With an additional 56 page owners manual.

simmy from United Kingdom reported May 31, 2004:
Read features:						Time used:	Rating:
CDR? CDRW?	DVD-R? DVD-RW? DVD-R DL?	DVD+R? DVD+RW? DVD+R DL?	VCD? XVCD? XSVCD?	SVCD? SVCDSubs? SVCDTracks?	MP3? CVD?	N/A	No rating
DVD-RAM?
Comments:
Chuffster has hit the nail on the head really, I have to agree with all that he has said. The only reason this recorder doesn't get top marks from me is that it will only play my back-ups burnt on my PC if they are burnt at 1x speed, anything more & I get error messages about two thirds of the way through as I am watching it on the DR1.

Chuffster from United Kingdom reported May 08, 2004:
Read features:						Time used:	Rating:
CDR? CDRW?	DVD-R? DVD-RW? DVD-R DL?	DVD+R? DVD+RW? DVD+R DL?	VCD? XVCD? XSVCD?	SVCD? SVCDSubs? SVCDTracks?	MP3? CVD?	N/A	10 of 10
DVD-RAM?
Comments:
Firstly to comment on "ERROR 14". Pressing the "DISPLAY" button clears this. It appears merely as the result of an R/RW writing error caused on bad media. Inspite of the error on my machine, the disc that errored still played back perfectly on this and other machines. Amazingly the UK Toshiba helpline did not know how to clear this and advised me to return it. I stumbled upon the answer myself after pressing all the buttons on the machine and remote in sequence. I passed the info on to Toshiba, so hopefully they will pass it on to other customers. Odd that this error should not be listed in the instruction manual as it is non-critical and easily cleared by the user. That problem aside, it is hard to fault the Toshiba DR1. The flexibility of media use and record modes is what attracted me to this model over Panasonic's many RAM based machines. DVD-RW compatability was a great bonus that is currently unavailable on Pana machines. For frequent re-recording I use the DVD-RW discs as I can play them on every other DVD player or ROM drive in my house (of which there are six!). Obviously, replacing every machine in my house to be compatible with RAM or recording everything permanently onto DVD-R would not be practical, so DVD-RW recording is a valuable feature. Using the RAM disc feature does have it's benefits. Firstly, you can use double sided RAM discs which offer excellent recording duration. You do have to flip the disc over to use the other side, but this is no hardship. The intelligent way in which RAM is recorded means whatever space remains can be recorded on as one continuous block regardless of where the space is (eg. 30mins free at the beginning, 15mins in the middle and 1hour at the end would give 1hour45mins of continuous recording time). Compare this to +R/RW machines like the Philips, which can only record in a linear fashion, and RAM is the clear winner. Using the RAM timeslip feature is excellent and in operation the DR1 looks very pretty with all 5 of it's different coloured LEDs illuminated (owners will know what I mean). I can record a movie that starts before I get home, then begin watching it before the recording has finished. Or I can watch something whilst recording it on timslip, then pause it whilst I answer the phone, grab a beer or whatever. Perhaps the most powerful feature of the Toshiba DR1 is it's variable bitrate recording. Whilst some models of DVD recorder limit you to 3 or 4 record modes, the DR1 can allows you to vary the bitrate in 0.2 increments from 1.4 to 9.2. At a bitrate of 1.4 you can record up to 6 hours at the cost of reducing the video quality (still better than VHS). You can also vary the sound record quality too between 3 modes; 192kbps, 384kbps and L-PCM (best) which will either lenghten or reduce your available recording duration. It should be noted that there is a Panasonic model that offers 8 hour recording but the quality at that bitrate would defeat the purpose of owning a DVD recorder. Connectivity, as usual with all Toshiba DVD machines is excellent. Offering 4 inputs (2 SCART, 1 composite/SVHS & 1 DV) as well as outputs through SCART, composite, component, SVHS and both optical and coaxial digital audio!!! Certainly enough to keep a wire freak like me happy. Of course, if you use the component output with a suitable TV you can use Progressive scan which gives the best picture quality. The only minor niggle I have with the DR1 is it's launch time. It takes a little while (around 30 seconds) to start up with a disc in the drive or when a new disc is inserted. Having only tried this with one other brand of DVD recorder I can only guess this is fairly normal standalone recorder behaviour (a colleague of mine who owns a Pana model confirms this is normal on his machine too). To sum up; the Toshiba DR1 is a joy to use and in just one month of ownership I don't know what I'd do without it. Also, it is without doubt the most attractive machine on the market. Be advised that the less technically minded will initially be baffled by the complexity and plethora of features the DR1 offers, but once mastered it's unbeatable.

leonardo from Portugal reported April 20, 2004:
Read features:						Time used:	Rating:
CDR? CDRW?	DVD-R? DVD-RW? DVD-R DL?	DVD+R? DVD+RW? DVD+R DL?	VCD? XVCD? XSVCD?	SVCD? SVCDSubs? SVCDTracks?	MP3? CVD?	N/A	8 of 10
DVD-RAM?
Comments:
I think that this recorder is very good, the support for DVD RAM is very useful for broadcast recordings using timesplit and TV pause. The possibility to control manualy the bitrate is underfull since it's possible to adapt the record quality to the video lengh that you want to record. If I want to record just 1 hour and 11 minutes, I will put the bit rate so 4.7GB DVD will be full with 1 hour and 11 minutes, if it is 2 hours and 13 minutes, the same... It support DVD-R and DVD-RW, so I'm not oblied to use just DVD-RAM media for re-recording. I just don't give 10 because of 2 negative points: 1 - Don't have Optical or Coaxial sound input 2 - In DVD-RAM just support DVD-VR video format and no DVD-Video

Butch from Other reported January 16, 2004:
Read features:						Time used:	Rating:
CDR? CDRW?	DVD-R? DVD-RW? DVD-R DL?	DVD+R? DVD+RW? DVD+R DL?	VCD? XVCD? XSVCD?	SVCD? SVCDSubs? SVCDTracks?	MP3? CVD?	N/A	9 of 10
DVD-RAM?
Comments:
The DR-1 is a God send for me !! I tried out 6 recorders till I found this one . I use the DR-1 as a capture unit and then import the video into my computer, edit out content I don't want with the Womble Mpeg Editor and author it with DVD Lab . With the adjustable bit rate of this recorder I can fill a disk with 84 minutes of original encoded content after editing with Womble (84 minutes is the actuall content of 2 one hour shows or 4 half hour shows.) The DR-1 has editing capabilities, but is not very accurate and the Womble editor is faster anyway ! For my uses I give this recorder a 9 out of 10 !!

stuart from Other reported January 03, 2004:
Read features:						Time used:	Rating:
CDR? CDRW?	DVD-R? DVD-RW? DVD-R DL?	DVD+R? DVD+RW? DVD+R DL?	VCD? XVCD? XSVCD?	SVCD? SVCDSubs? SVCDTracks?	MP3? CVD?	N/A	7 of 10
DVD-RAM?
Comments:
When I heard about the automatic picture thumbnails on the title and chapters,I just had to have this machine. Well it does create the thumbnails. It does record in dvd-r,dvd-rw and dvd-ram. Most of the editing features actually relies on the "dvd-ram" part of the recorder. Now comes caveat. I had to return the 1st new in the box unit because it did not record all the time! I was dumbfounded. On top of that the machine itself is extremely touchy when loading any disc. Sometimes when recording a program off the air, the vu meters are going(yes it does have led vu meters and level controls)the red recording light is on..but when it came to finalizing the machine told me "no source recorded." Oh well, I returned the unit to "The Good Guys" to exchange for another one. No luck for a new in the box. All of the Good Guys were out of stock for the holidays. One 'open box' was left..sure why not, let me have it. So far it records pretty well. The previous machine must have been damaged. The only problem I had so far was after I recorded two separate one hour TV shows on one DVD\RW. When the disc was finalized for playback, the toshiba d-r1 freaked out and would not recognize the disc it just finalized? Then it flashed "error 14"...Huh? The owners manual has a list of error codes stating what each error is. Except error 14. I called "toshiba service center" to find out what "Error 14" meant. They had no idea. "Uh. maybe you should exchange the unit for another one." No, I'll stick with this one just a little bit longer. Maybe it was nothing....I hope. I still have 20 days left on my return slip. One last thing I heard about the Toshiba D-R1, that it was originally a european machine, sold in Europe, then converted to sell to the U.S. Also it was set with the wrong "ire" setting. European "ire" (0). U.S "ire" 7.5 . The result would be recorded discs that looks washed out and grey instead of black. Apparently, the Toshiba compensates for this when playing it's own discs. So far I did not see this problem. Well, wish me luck other Toshiba D-R1 buyers. The unit looks and feels great. I just hope it's not a lemon. p.s. I wrote this review two week ago, the machine works fine, the previous machine I bought was obviously defective. And also, "error 14" never showed up again. I might upgrade my rating to "8" . We'll see...

Thomas Gorecki from Other reported December 23, 2003:
Read features:						Time used:	Rating:
CDR? CDRW?	DVD-R? DVD-RW? DVD-R DL?	DVD+R? DVD+RW? DVD+R DL?	VCD? XVCD? XSVCD?	SVCD? SVCDSubs? SVCDTracks?	MP3? CVD?	N/A	8 of 10
DVD-RAM?
Comments:
WORKS GREAT All media does not work ritek o3 1x dvd-r NO PRINCO DVD-R YES MEMOREX DVD-RW YES

Gary L. Gehman from Other reported November 04, 2003:
Read features:						Time used:	Rating:
CDR? CDRW?	DVD-R? DVD-RW? DVD-R DL?	DVD+R? DVD+RW? DVD+R DL?	VCD? XVCD? XSVCD?	SVCD? SVCDSubs? SVCDTracks?	MP3? CVD?	N/A	No rating
DVD-RAM?
Comments:
Excellent quality set-top DVD recorder. Only model I know of that permits direct manual control of recording bitrate; thus answering the question: What to do with that 2 hour 23 minute movie? You just adjust the AV quality control in manual mode to 3.8 Megabits (or whatever) and go! No hard drive; I don't care. Records onto DVD-RAM in VR mode only. Records onto DVD-R and DVD-RW. Auto chapter stops at 5, 10, 15 minute intervals or off. Thumbnail menus for Titles AND Chapters. Good noise filtering, Y/C separation and sync stabilization. Very nice front panel controls. It burns Comp USA cheapie media. Play quality is great, and the discs it makes play great on my OLD pioneer 343. Some menus are less than intuitive and the manuals are not always helpful. Excellent value for ~$400 street.

17 comments, Showing 1 to 17 comments

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Original Equipment Manufacturer.

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The manufacturer of the main chipset the DVD writer/recorder is based on.

Write support / Read support
DVD-R = Works
~~DVD-R~~ = Is not supported
DVD-R? = Not tested

Connection
FireWire = Computer desktop DVD Writer with IEEE 1394/FireWire/i.Link connection (some standalone desktop dvd recorder supports this also but then it is usually to connect your DV camera to the recorder)

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