Toshiba DVR620 DVD/VHS Recorder, Black Review

Unit doesn't come with HDMI cables, which is normal, so I used my own and plugged it into my Samsung HDTV. It plays my old VHS wonderfully! I can actually hear the sound on my old Disney movies ... a problem I was having with my old Panasonic VHS.

I then tested it on recording/dubbing my old home videos on VHS to DVD. I had problems because I got the red circle with the slash through it. So I called up Toshiba customer service and after a few button pushing of 1's, 2's, and 3's, I was connected to a representative who told me to skip step #7 on page 50.

Step 7 is the "press [dvd], then press [rec mode] ..." I basically skipped that step and went straight to the press dubbing button and everything works perfectly!

The catch with not being able to use step 7 is I have to sit and watch the entire VHS so I can hit the "stop" button again. But if I do fall asleep dubbing, the VCR to DVD duplication automatically stops if it senses no image for more than 3 minutes. So it's not that bad.

And one more tip the Toshiba rep gave me is that I must be in L1 mode. There is an L1, L2, and L3 mode (you can change by pushing the input button on the top left of the remote control). I haven't explored the rest. But she said I must stay in L1 mode to dub VHS to DVD. Which is the mode you first get when you plug in the unit ... so as long as you don't change it, everything is fine.

The reason I didn't give it 5 stars is because I must have the remote control to eject the VHS. No remote, the VHS is forever in the unit. There's only 2 buttons on the entire unit ... 1) eject DVD button and 2) power button. If they had a 3rd button to eject the VHS, I would have given it 5 stars.

I will revise my review if I experience any more problems with the unit. But overall, I'm very happy with it.


Buy it here now!