DVD recorders with harddrives?
 

What is the major consenus with DVD recorders with harddives. I've been looking at Toshiba. I've always had good luck with Toshiba. I have a Toshiba laptop, just bought another, DVD burner-it's grat, Toshiba TH-love it! Is there anything I should be looking for? Here are the specs of the machine I'm interested in: I do see that it only records in video mode-what's that? Does anyone know anything about this machine???

NEW TOSHIBA RS-TX20 120GB 140 HRS TIVO DVR DVD RECORDER

TIVO BASIC FREE! PLUS DVD RECORDER!
RECORD YOUR SHOWS,DIGITAL CAMERA OR
DIGITAL CAMCORDER PICTURES TO DVD!
FREE Basic LIFETIME TIVI SERVICE & 1 month premium Tivo TRIAL

Records in DVD-R & DVD-RW Media
Up to 140 hours of recording
Digital Cinema Progressive for both DVD & TiVo playback
ColorStream Pro Component Output for both DVD & TiVo DVR
JPEG Viewer
WMA & MP3 Playback
24-Bit/192kHz Audio D/A Converter
Optical TosLink Digital Audio Output
DVD/DVD-R/RW/VCD/CD/CD-R/RW/MP3 Playback
Specifications:

Disc Qty: 1

Disc Play: DVD-Video/CD/CD-R/CD-RW*/VCD/DVD-R/DVD-RW

Disc Record: DVD-RAM, DVD-R

Hard Disc Drive: 120 Gigabytes

Video D/A 10-Bit/54MHz

Component Video Output ColorStream Pro Progressive Scan

3:2 Pulldown Digital Cinema Progressive

Resolution 500+ Lines

3-D Y/C Comb Filter

Digital Video Noise Reduction Playback Time Slip Recording/Playback

Time Base Correction

Instant Replay/Instant Skip





On-Screen Camcorder Download Controls

JPEG Viewer

Fast Scan, Slow Motion

Audio D/A 24-bit/192kHz

Dolby Digital?/DTS Compatible

WMA & MP3 Playback

Auto Clock, Daylight Savings Time Adjust

Time Zone Adjust

One-Touch Record

Auto Title/Chapter

Disc Content Viewer

IR Blaster C3 IR Control for DBS and Cable boxes

Remote Control Unified







Outputs: (rear panel)
Y/Pr/Pb: x 1 set
S-Video: x 1
RCA-Video: x 1
L-R Audio (pair): x 1
Optical Out: x 1
RF 1 (tuner pass through only)

Inputs:
S-Video: x 1 front & 1 rear
RCA-Video: x 1 front & 1 rear
L-R Audio: x (pair) 1 front & 1 rear
IEEE1394DV: x 1 front
RF: x 1 rear

Manufacturer Warranty: One year parts 90 days labor

Toshiba Advantage

High performance DVD recorder and TiVo Digital Video Recorder for a complete one-box solution.
Allows users to record and playback their favorite videos in stunning MPEG-2 digital video on either a DVD-R or DVD-RW formatted discs
Digitally record up to 120 hours of your favorite programs onto built-in hard drive ColorStream Pro Progressive Scan Component Video Outputs compatible with today's finest analog and digital televisions for delivery of stunningly colorful images
Simultaneous Play & Record (HDD and DVD, DVA and HDD)
TV Trick Play features offers the user the ability to begin watching a recording that is already in progress, or 'pause' a live recording and then return to it later using HDD or -R/-RW media
Line Inputs, Front A/V & IEEE1394DV Input, and RF Input for dubbing content from

As far as I know, you cannot dump the TIVO to a DVD, there is not cross-talk between them. And then some TOSHIBA units have an IRE error, meaning all your video will be too bright for viewing on USA tv sets.

PIONEER or JVC would be better choices.

I'm not sure if this is one of those combo units, I have seen DVD recorders with TIVO units built into them. I tend to try to stay away from such units because if the dvd player side tears up, then you have yourself either an oversize TIVO unit that can't record to dvds or finding you have two things to have to replace. On the other hand if your TIVO tears up, then you have a dvd payer with no signal being sent to it.

I vaguely remember reading there being issues with defragmentation of the hard drive. Not sure which models the problems were with. Probably the Panny [:x)]