Testing the VCR functions gave us the chance to dust off our gold Star Wars Special Edition VHS boxset and we weren't disappointed with the results.

Colour reproduction is bright and feisty, making the blue skies of Tattooine look fundamentally vibrant, although their purity is sullied somewhat by clumps of grubby, flickering noise.

Detail reproduction isn't bad by VHS standards. You can make out the texture and shadow detail contained in the movie's dusty desert landscapes, which makes the picture enjoyable to watch despite the format's inherent softness.

As for the quality of internal recordings, the combination of tape and an analogue tuner results in soft, unstable pictures that don't really do justice to today's top-quality TV material.

Sound

VHS sound quality is crisp and undistorted with some audible hiss but nothing too drastic. The cacophony of lasers and explosions in our Star Wars tape is delivered with a pleasing amount of punch, dialogue is clear and stereo DVD/CD playback is also impressive. But for the full sonic experience, hook up the optical digital audio output to a decent amp and speaker system and take advantage of the deck's superb 5.1 surround sound.

Our only grumble is the absence of WMA playback, which is limited to MP3 only.

Value

At first glance, a combined DVD/VCR unit for £90 represents extremely good value for money, particularly from a reputed brand such as Toshiba. But in this day and age, where upscaling is common on even the cheapest players, we'd have expected HDMI output and a digital tuner, at least. Internal recordings, meanwhile, aren't particularly impressive. These shortcomings are amplified by the fact that you can buy a DVD recorder for the same money online.

Clearly the SD-38VB is aimed at people who want a DVD player, but aren't quite ready to leave their VHS tapes behind and it serves that purpose well. DVD playback is impressive and the VCR section delivers decent picture quality from shop-bought tapes, all of which makes it worth a look.