TOSHIBA DR430 DVD RECORDER (REFURBISHED) IS A GREAT UNIT FOR THE PRICE
I was looking to purchase my first DVD recorder. Like many folks out there, I mainly wanted to copy my favorite VHS tapes before they totally disintegrated. I have several that are irreplaceable. I began looking at new recorders, and comparing prices, and then I came across a couple of sellers with refurbished units. Normally I would never buy anything refurbished, especially electronics, but after reading comments and opinions from online forums it seemed to me that nearly everyone who bought a new unit had problems with it either immediately or within a few months, and that those who had purchased refurbished units seemed to have much less trouble. So I went ahead and purchased this Toshiba DR-430, it seemed the be the more reliable unit from what I had read, and the price was hard to beat. I also purchased the additional Square Trade warranty as it was really cheap for an extra 2 years coverage, I figured I would be finished copying my tapes well before then, so if it lasted 2 years I would be happy. I have had this unit now about 4 months, and have copied over 30 of my VHS tapes, I have been very pleased with the quality and performance of the unit, no issues so far.
It is true that the refurbished units only come with a quick start guide, NOT the full factory manual, BUT you can easily go to Toshiba's website and download the factory manual, which I did. I had read many people say that the factory manual was very hard to read because it was not organized very well. That is definitely true in my opinion, but I am not very tech savvy and was able to figure it out, so the average person should have no problem.
I do have to share this fact which I found out immediately when I tried to copy the first VHS tape...most, if not all, pre-recorded tapes have copyright protection and the DVD recorder, no matter what brand I am told, will not record anything with protection. And there were several different types used. So I went back to Ebay and found a gizmo called a Digital Video Stabilizer, I bought the cheap one that is just a circuit board that comes in a brown cardboard case, cost me about $25, it is easy 1 wire hook-up, and it did very well, considering that I could not record most of my tapes at all, but with this little box(it works off a 9 Volt battery, thats it) I was able to copy @ 80-90% of my tapes, many came out better looking than the original tape did, some still have a little of the copy protection evident, just depends on the tape, but they were still watchable, better than not being able to record them at all thats for sure. That is just for pre-recorded tapes, if you have tapes you made yourself you will have no problem, but I still recommend the stabilizer because it actually does digitally clear up your tape signal and records it with enhanced clarity. So now that I have the stabilizer I have been really pleased with the Toshiba, I have even recorded Disney movies and cartoons that the recorder would just give an error message because of the copyright protection, so that little box is well worth the price. I tried 2 different versions of that stabilizer, and only 1 worked, the other was more expensive and did not help at all. The one I bought, which is still available to date on Ebay, it looks cheap with the little cardboard cover, but it does work well at a reasonable price. I hope some of this information helps anyone who was lost at first like me and hopefully this will save you some of the hassle I ran into.Read full review
