Toshiba DVR670

List Price: $249.99

Price: $212.68 (You Save:$37.31) + FREE Shipping.

Toshiba DVR670/DVR670KU DVD/VHS Recorder

with Built in Tuner

Technical Details

  • DVD and VHS Recorder with two way dubbing
  • Built In ATSC, QAM, NTSC Tuner
  • Playback:MP3, VCD, JPEG, Kodak Pic
The DVR670 is a true multi-purpose solution with VCR and DVD playback, as well as 1080p upconversion to near HD quality via HDMI and a built-in digital tuner. Easily copy your VHS tapes to DVD with bi-directional dubbing, and enjoy your favorite digital photos in an on-screen slideshow.
The Toshiba DVR670 was first announced at CES 2009. It’s a powerful little DVD recorder with features recording and playback abilities for DVD-R, -RW, +R, and +RW media disc formats. The DVR 670 is the third of four Toshiba D digital video recorders. It’s an upgrade from the Toshiba DR620, providing ATSC/QAM/NTSC tuners for picking up signals, and new connectivity options for HDMI, composite A/V, and component cables. Apart from these differences, you get the same quality package with its peer, the DR670. The Toshiba DVR670, for instance, also features the DVD/VCR combination recorder found in its contemporary. The Toshiba DVR 670 also provides HDMI-CEC to allow you to sync entertainment devices to one remote. The DVR670, in addition to the HDMI-CEC option, boasts auto-finalization for formatting created DVDs (allowing them to be playing on any other DVD player), 1080p up-conversion capabilities, and HDMI output for high-quality HD video playback.
With the dual decks found on the Toshiba DVR670, you can record your favorite television programs and save them to either VHS tapes, or to DVDs. Quality downgrades slightly when played back on VHS, but DVDs are up-converted when recorded on — so you’ll get playback qualities slightly better than SD. Whether you want to record moves on DVD or casually record your favorite shows, the Toshiba DVR670 is the perfect unit for you. While actual DVD discs may be a little on the expensive side, there is no monthly fee to own or operate, in any way, the DVR670. The Toshiba DVR 670 may not be the pinnacle of HD recording or playback, at $220 dollars this unit is well worth its cash in practicality and affordability. See also Toshiba DVR670 Review

DVR670 Customer Review

Have used this recorder for three weeks now after the ol’ VCR died and it works even better than I had hoped. The digital tuner can pick up all the “clear” local HDTV signals on Cablevision’s cable system so now (using a simple splitter) I can record one show at 480p using the DVD while watching another in full HD either via the TV’s tuner or via the cable box. Or record any of remaining channels non-clear channels using the cable box’s S-Video out (the best you can use as external recording input source).

The quality of the resulting tuner recordings (in 2 hour SP mode) is almost as good as the original as seen on a 720p TV (and I am very picky in that respect), and Toshiba DVR670 is certainly far better than the VCR side. Plus, the DVD-RW discs are of course re-usable via an erase (or format, as Toshiba calls it). Recording is almost one-touch; really very convenient. I can’t see any reason to record anything on a VHS tape again. This box is a great alternative to the monthly fee for a HD based DVR if you do not need any of the fancy programing and scheduling features that come with such other options.

I bought a set of 10 Sony DVD-RW disks and they work as expected. I can view recordings on my PC and also create DVDs on my PC (in DVD-VR mode only so far, via NeroVision) which are then viewable on this unit. I have not been successful in creating AVI movies that the unit is happy with but after converting such movies (or WMV files etc.) to DVD-VRs I can view them on this Toshiba DVR670 unit just fine. It also played mixed folders of JPGs in slideshow format, although if you have many files in a directory any kind of manual navigation gets a little tedious. I have not tried any of the other myriad supported formats yet other than a CD-R music CD which also played as expected.

I tried VCR->DVD recording (“dubbing”, as the manual calls it) and it works as expected but the quality is just so much worse than a HDTV tuner->DVD recording but that is just a limitation of the VHS technology. It did seem that the quality of VCR playback was a little worse than on my old 15 or so year old Mitsubishi but since the latter died I was not able to do side by side comparisons. However, this unit serves its purpose well of digitizing old home movies etc. before the tapes degrade even further.

The only small negatives are the almost impossible to read “gray on black” text on the remote (now who thought that would be cool?), and the slightly noisy VCR motor or fan (?) that is always on when the unit is powered on.

All in all, I am very impressed with this Toshiba DVR670 unit’s performance and even the manual is quite readable I thought and I have had no issues with what I have tried to use it for so far.

Click here to see full review.