Sony RDR-HXD870 160GB Storage, Upscaling DVD Recorder Reviews

+ (Compared to failed 15 month old Samsung HR725 which it replaced)
- attractive and well finished exterior
- quiet
- best of all, much better editing of programmes - especially removing unwanted sections from programmes to be retained
- lots of recording speed options to make best use of recording media
- good manual ( necessary for the vast range of menu options)

- Doesn't want to read some of the DVD-Rs recorded on the Samsung (but that may not be the fault of the Sony)
Nothing else, so far

+ great hard disk capacity

- no simple way to flick between channels , sometimes a delay which can be annoying . Also remember if you are recording something you cannot watch another channel , unless you opt out of Freeview
My advice is buy a recorder that lets you record and watch something at the same time

+ Good format easy to use

- I was thuoght there were 2 digital tuners, but I can only find 1 anologue and 1DTV

+ Hard disk drive very quick and easy to use

- Too early to complete the reliability boxes.
Can't record a digital programme at the same time as watching a different current digital programme which was what I thought it was able to do BUT I now find I am not alone in what I thought it could do

+ Excellent reproduction.

- Display on standby almost unreadable it is so dim.
I had great difficulty understanding the instructions.

+ Looks good, ease of use, hdd and dvd recorder in one package

- No twin tuner

+ Nice bit of kit for the money.

- Single Tuner.

+ Very easy to use. Good storage capability on hard disk.

- Can't record two digital channels at once.

+ Very easy to set up and use. I have it matched up to a HD TV set up and the picture and sound reproduction is very impressive. The list of additional features is a real bonus, I particularly like the juke box facility.

- Should point out that this does not have twin digital tuners, its actually one analogue and one digital.

+ User interface and robust software compatability

- none noticed

+ none at all

- wish I had never bought the thing as very disapointed in this sony product picture quality is the worst that I have ever had from sony

+ looks sophisticated, great lights and power saving when the tv is off!
overall an incredible buy!!!

- recording guide can be slow to load, ugly orange light when watching a dvd - would have been perfect if red!!!
when recording cannot bring up recording guide.

+ The major plus point of this player must be its ease of use. Both myself and my kids were up and running with it in a matter of minutes. The remote control looks complicated but as you only really use a few buttons and these are handily placed it takes no time to get used to it. Recording to HDD or DVD is very starightforward using the TV guide and the playback quality on DVDs is excellent. A great purchase that does nearly everything I need for a great price.

- The TV Guide is a little cumbersome to use and scrolling forward to record future progs is a bit time consuming. The only regret I have is that I would possibly have bought a player with two digital tuners as, obviously, you cannot change freeview channels during recording - it does have an analogue tuner and this works excellently for terrestrial channels. But no regrets a great buy.

+ Excellent picture quality from the digital freeview tuner (it has an analogue tuner as well but I can't see me using it) - easy to set timer recording from the EPG. Great also for editing and copying home video from my digital camcorder. Lots of excellent features I haven't even tried yet. My son thinks its great having his Doctor Who episodes available on tap from the HDD.

- doesn't play some of my DVD -R's that I've recorded on my PC. I haven't really explored this yet though. The same blank DVD -R's work fine on the recorder.

+ Nice looking & matches other Sony equipment.

- Locks up at times.
Picture output looses sync requiring it to be unplugged to correct.