Toshiba Rd 85DT Dvd Hdd Recorder

Design

Even though the 85DT is lacking two very important features, it is certainly compensating for them. It supports multi-formats including DVD-RW, DVD-RAM, single layer, DV-R, JPEG and MP3 playback. It’s also got all the desirable connection like a component-video output, RGB-enabled scart and S-Video. You may have noticed that an RGB-enable scart wasn’t in that list and you are probably just as disgusted as we were. Why, in the year 2006 have Toshiba omitted one of the most important connections? Who knows. What’s even more of a letdown, is that Top-up-TV isn’t catered for either, however, FreeView is their saving grace. We like the feature that lets you play a DVD whilst the HDD is recording. Toshiba have come up with four unique recording modes with the ability to be customised, allowing you to optimise recording quality with any source. It also boasts a 32 event or 2 month timer ready to be programmed manually or by using the 8-day EPG. Filing your recordings in one of the 24 available folders couldn’t be easier, and there is a useful garbage bin for those unwanted odds and sods. You can edit your play lists into chapters which is very handy, what’s more it that you can also transfer non copy-protected recordings from DVD to HDD. Like most other DVD recorders on the market, the 85DT automatically optimises bitrates so recordings can be accommodated in the available space at the highest quality. Last, but certainly not least is our favourite feature, where you can preset the DVD menu backgrounds by taking images from the video - top banana!

After trying out the 85DT with different source material we settled on our favourite performance which was DVD playback. It provided awesome, clean detail and really distinguished visuals. Recordings from the Freeview looked amazing with good colours and loads of detail. We like the High-bitrate XP mode which improved the performance with all the sources. Sound quality was equally as good too. We were a bit concerned that every time we burnt a recording, the player automatically whacks subtitles and interactive banners on them - subtitles they can get away with but we weren’t big fans of the latter. The menus were detailed enough but not as straightforward as other DVD recorders.