The Toshiba D-R1 is not only a full-featured progressive-scan DVD player that handles DVDs, CDs, MP3 discs, and JPEG-filled recordable discs; it's also a DVD recorder equipped with VCR Plus+ for advance programming. The recorder can store up to eight hours of audio/video--whether broadcast programming or copies of your home movies to share with loved ones--on a 9.4 GB double-sided DVD-RAM disc and four hours on a write-once DVD-R or recordable DVD-RW. The D-R1 offers the flexibility of recording on both DVD-RAM--perfect for instant chapter access and for multiple rerecordings--as well as DVD-R, the most widely compatible of the many DVD formats (great for sharing camcorder footage with loved ones). DVD-RW compatibility lets you erase and rewrite, though relatively few players and computer drives will play back DVD-RWs. DVD-RAM discs can be read, written, and erased more than 100,000 times.
When recording, the D-R1 captures the first video frame and displays it as the chapter mark. You can then designate chapter marks with custom screen captures or thumbnail images of your choice. The D-R1 also lets you generate and save custom playlists using any title and chapter. Each list of desired footage can be separately titled and edited (for removal of, say, commercials) and then seamlessly played back.
Time Slip lets you use this DVD recorder like a personal video recorder, or PVR. Because of DVD-RAM's fast transfer rate, you can view the recorded portion of an ongoing program from the beginning, while still recording the show in progress.
The D-R1 features a 181-channel cable-compatible tuner and two-month, 32-event programming. Input your own program data or take advantage of built-in Gemstar VCR Plus+ technology for simplified programming. Battery backup retains programming data during power outages, and XDS auto clock set ensures that the recorder will never blink 12:00. In addition to recording new video content, the D-R1 lets you transfer and even enhance favorite video recordings to durable, space-saving discs--a terrific way to archive, preserve, and access your movies and family videos. A convenient front-panel IEEE-1394 input is perfect for direct digital transfers of miniDV camcorder footage.
For superlative playback, the D-R1 is equipped with a 10-bit/54 MHz video digital-to-analog converter capable of great color purity and detail. When connected to a high-definition or HD-ready television through its ColorStream Pro component-video outputs, the D-R1 delivers Toshiba's Digital Cinema Progressive picture. Progressive scanning, referred to as 480p for the number of horizontal lines that compose the video image, creates a picture using twice the scan lines of a conventional DVD picture, providing higher resolution and sharper images while eliminating nearly all motion artifacts.
The D-R1 also performs 3:2 pulldown. DVD mastering introduces a common distortion when adjusting 24 frames-per-second movies to 30 fps video; 3:2 pulldown digitally corrects this distortion, removing the redundant information to display a film-frame-accurate picture. The deck's abundant connections include multiple composite- and S-video inputs and outputs, stereo analog (left/right) inputs and outputs (with a choice, on the audio input, of uncompressed PCM or Dolby Digital 2.0 encoding to conserve disc space), and a pair of digital-audio outputs (one coaxial, one optical) for use with a compatible digital surround receiver.
EAM (Enhanced Audio Mode) offers three audio-enhancements: "normal" mode equalizes regular digital-audio signals; "3-D" provides virtual surround sound through Spatializer N-2-2 circuitry; and "Dialogue" enhances the center-channel frequencies when you're playing Dolby Digital-encoded discs via the D-R1's analog audio outputs.
What's in the Box
DVD player/recorder, remote control, remote batteries, user's manual, stereo analog audio interconnect/composite-video cable, and a RF coaxial video cable.
