Newbie needs Help

I recently bought a Toshiba DVR, D-R410KU.
Let me backtrack and state I have
had a LITEON 5005 for the past four years without a problem. The burner part just
failed so I bought the above mentioned device over the weekend to carry me over
until I found a new liteon part to place in their DVR.  My wife and I are High
School history teachers and we use many cable shows to help us teach.
I just
tried to copy a Biography we had recorded to our Time Warner Box. It is a
Scientific Atlanta Explorer 8300HD, and we have had no trouble with it. When
pressing record on the DVR remote a black rectangle appears in the picture
removing about 50% of the picture.
Our LITEON did not do this, or the person
who sold it to me may have had a way to remove the protection. Is the problem in
the DVR or the 8300HD box. When recording directly live off of a local station no
rectangle is found. Both Time Warner and Toshiba were of no help, both stating
it was the others problem.
Any idea's
Thanks,
Paul