I was wanting to buy a new DVD player and saw that Toshiba had a DVD Player / Burner for $117 at Best Buy this week:

http://www.tacp.toshiba.com/dvr/product.asp?model=d-rw2

Model D-RW2, which was rated a “best buy” in Consumer Reports’ latest issue. My TV is a 27” Toshiba CRT, not high def or plasma, etc etc. Just a basic TV. I looked for an owner’s manual at Toshiba’s website for the D-RW2 but they didn’t have one for this model.

Here is my question: There is no hard drive on this model so when I start recording I’m copying it to a DVD-R or DVD-RW. Here is what I would want to do: Record a 30 minute or a 60 minute TV show each week onto one disk until the disk is full, then watch it all. Do DVD recorders let you do that, or do you have to finalize the disk each time you take the disk out?

Let me try it this way: Can I record a 30 minute show on a DVD-R or DVD-RW, take the disk out (without finalizing it), put it back in a week later and record another 30 minutes on the same disk, and keep doing this until the disk is full or would each 30 minute show be it’s own unique disk?

Thanks, hope that makes sense.

My Pioneer recorder has a hard drive but when I record to DVD-R(W) it has to be finalized to play on another player.

The recorder will "unfinalize" DVD-RW media to allow further recording on the same disc.

You don't have to finalize the disc until it is full but you must finalize the disc to have it play on other machines. Most recorders let you select how much time you want to record on a disc: 1 hour, 2 hour, 4 hour, 6 hour and flex mode, which lets you select the time in increments of 5-6 minutes. This all depends on the DVD recorder that you have as different brands have different features and different recording modes.

Bob

Yes. You can continue adding to a DVD-R until it is full or has been finalized. Will not play on other players until finalized. Before I had one with a hard drive I used to do this, however , the recorder had problems recognizing the disc sometimes when re-inserted. I would record a one hour episode and then a week later put the disc back in to record a second and sometimes it just couldn't read that partially recorded disc. Don't know about this model or if maybe they've improved things, this was three years ago. I still think it's best to finalize a disc before removing it from the recorder for any reason.

Was that a Toshiba by any chance?

And thanks to everybody for your responses. I think I'll be picking up this player since: a) I need another DVD player anyway and a decent DVD Player would run ~ $60 or $70, so this is just $40 or $50 more; b) I have a bunch of Best Buy Bucks (McDonalds) that I need to use on something; and c) this appears to be a good low-end recorder.

Panasonic. An early one. Got it in 2002.