Toshiba RD-XS34 recorder
with 160GB hard drive
How it works and how to make its fan more quiet
(The pills are not included)
HD Recorder that nobody wants
Every time
I visit Best Buy it seems they have growing pile of "open box" Toshiba
RD-XS34. For people from galaxy far-far away, the "open box" is a code
word for the item that customer didn't like and returned it back to the
store. Store then tries to sell if for a discount to another customer
who will probably return it as well.
New or
open-box this Toshiba seems to be one of the cheapest DVD recorder with
160 GB hard drive, with its price about $300 and falling.
So what is actually "wrong" with this machine ?
Noisy Fan club.
The first and major complain from customers seems to be the fan noise
(Comparable to a laptop or a quiet computer fan noise). That itself
would not be such enormous problem except the fact that the fan runs
constantly, even when the recorder is set to stand-by.
Did the designers miss something? I wouldn't say so, the recorder is tied up with the TV Guide and
as all TV Guide aware devices, the tuner and processor have to actually
run in its stand-by mode, because it receives the TV Guide listing
precisely during the time when it is in that so called "stand-by" mode.
The designers leave fan always on 100% to cool down the 5V and 12V
power stabilizer during stand-by and to cool down the HD during power
ON.
Once I
opened the XS34 many things become quite clear. The designers actually
used a pretty quiet fan! You barely hear anything when the XS34 is
opened.
The whole
problem is the design of the case, most probably the openings on the
back that makes the air "whistle". So we know who to blame. See later
in this article how to bring the noise about 50% down.
The Guide that doesn't guide.
Another complain from people is the strong connection to TV Guide.
This
strong "friendship" become a bit of burden when your cable doesn't send
the TV Guide listing or you don't actually use it with a cable but
rather with something like a satellite And if you don't use cable/air
you will get a nasty surprise when a daylight savings time kicks in or
out. You will find out that you can't change the internal clock
manually. Toshiba fixed this problem in the latest firmware where you
can reset the Guide and the time settings become adjustable manually.
Even if
you don't want to use the TV Guide, you have to at least set it up in
order to allow a manual time recording (this is pretty much same on
most of other TV Guide recorders like Panasonic E85). However in XS34
setting up guide ultimately disable the ability to set the clock
manually. That means if you want to use it with a satellite, you will
have to reset the Guide twice a year.
The Interface with a face
When all the above doesn't affect (or bother) the
user, some will still complain that the XS34 interface is complicated.
Most of users will mention that if you for example want to delete the
commercials, you have to first set a chapters around them, then go to
different menu and delete these chapters (you have to remember which
ones you want to delete). More button clicks than it is necessary,
especially because some of the buttons (Edit) are hidden under the
remote flip cover. On other hand the Panasonic E85 has a dedicated
"Shorten movie" screen where you set the start, the end and then remove
it, all in one screen.
Black level bug (that isn't there)
Previous
model (RD-XS32) had a problem called "Black level bug". The recorder
was set for playback and record of black levels in Japan NTSC norm.
This didn't affect viewer watching the recorded video on the XS32
because the playback BL and record BL cancelled itself out, but once
user recorded it to DVD and play on other DVD players the picture could
become grayish.
The
RD-XS34 doesn't have this problem as it has selectable both Playback
and Input Black Levels. For North America NTSC you simply set both
to "Standard" (as it is by default) and all will be just fine. (Do not
set the Input Black Level to Enhanced - this is for Japan)
What is my opinion ?
Despite all the above thing, I gave it two thumbs up.
I had about 50 DV tapes (both 4:3 and 16:9) to put on
a DVDs. So I was looking for a recorder that would be the most suitable
for this task. And incidentally I came up with the cheapest of them
all, the "unwanted" - Toshiba RD-XS34.
And after working with it I must say:......... it is a perfect recorder!
The Toshiba is literally build around the older, 2004 NEC MPEG2 AV chip EMMA 2RL.
In fact this little single wonder-chip does everything inside the box:
from MPEG encoding/deceoding through audio/video input/output to
controlling/decoding DV, decoding IR remote signals, applying all the
video scalling, 3D noise reductions and finally controlling IDE devices
such as HDD and DVD. We should probably call the DVD recdorder NEC
rather than Toshiba, because the very few other things that are not NEC
are the things that don't really work well - such as the TV Guide or
the noisy hardware. But we will probably find the NEC EMMA in many
other devices by companies that do not produce their own MPEG2 chip.
(It is often found in different satelite PVR's or in Sony's Bravia
LCD's)
Here is my top list:
It has DV in.
Simple, but it seems many recorders are missing this very obvious
feature. The more expensive E85 that sits in my living room and records
shows (I will never ever watch) does not have DV in.
The DV recording interface offers all necessary information about the time, record quality and the equipment connected.
Good work with chapters
The DV recording has also an option to automatically set chapters by
scene change or by the date. This is actually a pretty neat and
unexpected bonus.
When you
set it by scene, remember that if you later want to record it on DVD
you can have maximum 99 chapters. If you have many short scenes you may
end up with far more chapters. Fortunately it is very easy to delete
all chapters by a single command.
There is a single command to automatically add chapters after
recording is done in certain intervals. This is all very interesting as
many other recorders will allow to set auto-chapters only before recording and after it is done you can only add them manually.
What I really like in the Chapter editing mode is the fact that I can see the density
of chapter placement on the video. On the image above this is the white
thin rectangle in the middle with the vertical lines. Each line
represent a chapter and each chapter is also pictured below with
thumbnail. (Where you can also move with cursor). You can actually
preview a chapter which will play first few seconds from beginning and
last few seconds from end of chapter. Also note that the Toshiba is
aspect aware, displaying the 4:3 ratio.
The only thing missing from the Chapter editing mode is to ability to
delete the chapter. For that you have to go to either the Content menu
or to Delete item menu.
User selectable bitrate.
A great thing about XS34 is that you can set the bitrate to anything
you want from 1 Mbps to 9.2 Mbps using 0.2 Mbps increments. You are not
limited to SP, LP or EP, but you have few slots (not just one!)
for user defined bitrate. For example for my 90 minute DV tapes, I set
the Toshiba to record in 5.8 Mbps. This produces an excellent quality
mpeg2 that nicely fills the DVD (with few minutes as a reserve). You
can also select from two bitrates for AC3 audio (192kbps and 384kbps)
XS34 can record 16:9 DVDs (!).
The thing that is often forgotten on most of other recorders is that
people actually may want to record 16:9 cameras or movies and send them
to friends. Of course any recorder will record 16:9 (squeezed) and then
play it back fine on 16:9 TV, because the TV will stretch the signal,
but the problem is when you want to record it to DVD and then send to
someone. Most recorders will make no difference between 16:9 or 4:3 and
the final DVD will be recorded as 4:3 - people who have standard TV's
will see my 16:9 recording squeezed (long faces).
Not the XS34. Not only you can select what aspect you are going to
record before the actual recording starts but you can also actually
force the DVD aspect during DVD writing to be 16:9. The result
widescreen DVD will play fine on both 16:9 and 4:3 TV's. You no longer
need to bring the DVD to computer and change the DVD flags to 16:9 as
with many other recorders. For me, using 16:9 cameras, this is one of
the big plus.
Good DVD menu options.
The recorders usually don't have much in terms of "DVD authoring", but
Toshiba seems to have a bit more than others. You can set if you want
create menus for Titles and or Chapters, you can specify what will
start play first (common in other recorders) but you can also specify
where to jump after each title (next title or menu) and also you can
specify where to jump after last title played (Menu, Title1 or Stop
player). I also mentioned before that you can force 4:3 or 16:9 aspect
ratio on your DVD.
Very good encoding quality.
The Toshiba uses few selectable filters: 3D DNR and 3D Y/C Separation
and very good encoder that produces flawless pictures within reasonable
bitrate.
The interface is actually very well done.
Apart from the missing dedicated screen to shorten movie, most of the
other things are actually better and more logical than in other
recorders. Dividing chapters, joining chapters, copying from HD - DVD,
creating new videos by combining various chapters from various videos
using HD to HD dubbing etc... all is pretty well done and pretty visual.
There is
also a bonus that is so simple yet unfortunately not common on other
recorders - Operation and Recording complete beep. The XS34 can be set
to beep when it finish recording. You can also set it to beep whenever
you send command with the remote - which is also a good option.
The fan noise
OK, back to the first and most often mentioned
complaint about the XS34 - the fan noise that never stops short of
physically unplugging the recorder from power line.
What can we do about it?
First, be
warned that messing with things you don't fully understand may a)
seriously break them and b) void warranty, so please don't say I told
you to do things described below.
The 12V
fan use three wires, red, black and blue. The Blue is a RPM feedback -
the XS34 is pretty smart. If for some reason the fan stops it will show
on its display FAN Error. It will do it even if the recorder is in
stand-by. That means you can't really switch fan off without the X34
complaining or without some way to trick the XS34 that the fan is still
running. I am not sure what exactly the fan returns as RPM and what
exactly the XS34 expects, I could imagine a test by driving some
voltage through resistor to the blue wire may do the trick, but I
didn't research this area.
So the
very simplest way is to actually lower voltage to the fan, which will
slow down the rotation and therefore make it more quiet. This is often
used in computers where they wire 12V fan to the difference between +5V
and +12V so it runs more quiet on 7V.
I could do
the same because right next to the fan connector is the standard
computer +5V,groud,ground,+12V connector, or I could add a pot trim to
the red wire and adjust the RPM manually. I decided for the second
option.
For that I choose 500 ohm trim pot. The fan can actually rotate on almost any voltage, but it can start only
on voltage within certain range. That means we have to set the trim so
the fan can easily start on its own when the recorder is plugged in.
I cut the
red wire to the fan and solder the 500 ohm trim. I turned the trim
half-way, then plugged on the recorder to power outlet and quickly
turned the trim until the fan started. (Before the XS34 shows Fan
Error, if that happens you have to unplug the power cord). The fan
self-starting range in my case was until about one third on the 500 ohm
trim, which is within range of 0-160 ohm.
Then I
took electricians isolation black tape and slightly wrapped the trim so
it doesn't touch anything on the boards or the metal case.
The result is about 50% lower noise from the fan and it is noticeable only when I am close to it.
I verified that the XS34 doesn't actually get too much heat during
operation (neither the power stabilizer, diodes, nor the Hard-drive) so
lowering the RPM should not affect the operation. I believe the Fan is
there mostly for the power stabilizer, not actually for the hard-drive
per se. Hard-drives are designed for higher temperature. By the
position of the fan and the holes the designers seems to try to
increase the air flow near the power stabilizers while hard-drive is
further in front.
My second unrealized idea
was to control the speed of the Fan with transistor or tyristor, where
I can wire the base to some place that is aware of the ON/OFF stand-by
switch. A good place would be probably the front panel blue LED that is
OFF during stand-by and it could easily drive the transistor base.
This is the basic idea:
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