Toshiba DVD Recorder?
Delighted with the performance of this Toshiba DR420KU DVD recorder for several years. About a year ago, occasional "bad disc" messages (and the disc being recorded—naturally--is a "bust"). This was corrected for quite sometime by rebooting the unit and using a cleaning disk. Yet, lately this (and even popping open the case and physically cleaning the laser "eye" with alcohol) is not quite doing the trick...and the machine may work properly for as little as one disc...then BAM, the major dysfunction. Last night, we got through one complete disc, then two hours of another four hour format disc, then got the dreaded message. This time, we did get a "save" on the two hours (usually means a DOA disc..and all program content GONE), but this is very worrisome. Oh, playback function is flawless.
What I'd like to have is some explanation of why the problem. Does the playback function take less "ooph" than the laser BURNING function? Is there any extra stress on the unit when one uses the "pause" function a lot, as in skipping TV commercials, and working to record all episodes of a given TV series, one at a time? And, even more--perhaps--when one leaves the unit on "pause" overnight (which I have only very recently been doing on occasion)? Toshiba a couple of years ago said "No," but I am not completely convinced. Incidentally, last time I checked, Toshiba no longer had a “customer service” office for the USA. I’ve been very happy with their products, but this is RUDE.