I always found disk compatibility an issue with the Panasonic DVR. For some unknown reason, any white DVD-R ( Sony for instance ) would always seem to record okay and would play back immediately after dubbing was complete, but once you took it out of the machine, most discs couldn't be read either on other DVD players or on the HDR/DVDR itself. This lead to a lot of lost content, before The problem was noticed. I have no Idea if the same problem exists with the Toshiba.
Other than that , I have been very pleased with the Panasonic HDR/DVDR as a recording device. I can't imagine using a DVDR whitout the capability to preview and edit on the hard disc.