Sony RDR-HX525 - DVD recorder / HDD recorder with TV tuner
Sony RDR-HX525 - DVD recorder / HDD recorder with TV tuner
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Daewoo DH6100P Multi-region Capable DVD Recorder with 80 GB Hard Drive 
Customer Review: Fab!
Not being a great technocrat, I needn’t have been worried. Connected to cable and TV set, plugged it in and it did the rest. Really easy to use and very clear instructions. A great buy.
Customer Review: NTSC Compatible?
I just bought this and it seems pretty good, but although I followed the multiregion instructions helpfully provided here by M Crouch, it still doesn’t seem to be fully NTSC-compatible - so it does play region 1 DVDs, but with flickering lines across the image. Is there another code that can deal with this? I’d be grateful for advice if anyone can help!
PHILIPS Hard Disk/DVD Recorder DVDR3460H/05 250 GB 
Used Price: ?74.99
Customer Review: PHILIPS Hard Disk/DVD Recorder DVDR3460H/05 250 GB
Item brought secound hand as needed to replace the video.Setting up was a bit hit and miss( it a man thing.. just can’t wait) but it does help if you fully read the instructions, as its straight forward really. Records all programmes even sky, can’t see why other reviews say cant record sky.It’s a big unit but looks ok, feels well made, not the cheap plastic ones.Easy to operate. It does all the jobs I need to do.Im pleased with. it.
Customer Review: worst ever i had
This is my second one with philips same problem as first one. I won’t every buy any product from philips. Both i sent back to seller with my own parcel package. I wasted around 40 quid in that. When i connect thru tv/loop i can see true colour. but when i connect thru ext2 it’s really dark, bad colour, really annoying. My advice is don’t buy philips any product. I bought sony that was perfect but bit costly but it’s really worth buy from them.
Ellion 530S Slimline Dual Format Multi-region Capable DVD Recorder with iLink 
List Price: ?99.99
Amazon Price: ?75.52
Customer Review: suspicious
I note that the positive reviews for this product are written in very odd-sounding english and that the reviewer has only reviewed products from the same company. Draw your own conclusions…
Customer Review: frustrating
Am tearing my hair out now, because I just got home, and found out that the disc the ellion recorded match of the day on is unreadable…AAARGH Reliability is everything…
Philips DVDR7260H - DVD Recorder With 160gb Hard Drive - With Freeview 
Customer Review: VERY GOOD - COULD BE BETTER
On the whole my first 2 weeks with this recorder have been very good. It is really quiet if a little big. Connection and set up was easy and well documented, although it did take about half an hour to automatically search for all the digital and analogue channels, which left me wondering if I’d set up properly. The pause live tv function is really usefull, basically when you turn the machine on it automatically records the current channel being viewed to memory (and every time you switch channels it records that). It does this for 6 hours then starts writing over the begining of the 6 hour cycle. It means that anywhere within the 6 hours you can rewind/forward/pause/jump to live, etc. It is then very easy to transfer any part of the recording in the memory to the HD to keep or burn to dvd. CAUTION - if you turn the machine off you lose what was in the memory unless you transfer it to the hard disk - and the tv guide button is too near the standby on the remote, I’ve done it a couple of times! Recording to Hard Disc (HD) is a doddle. There are a couple of ways to do it. Just press record when your on the channel you want, (another press will do half an hour, a third an hour and so on. The first initial press will record for 6 hours if a second/third press isn’t applied). Using the Guide + is just like Sky + (which I don’t have), It’s a menu showing a grid of all channels and programmes for 7 days ahead - just highlight the programme and press record, then forget about it, you can do up to 25 timer settings. If your not going to be around when the recording is about to start (which is normal) then you need to put the machine in standby, but if your watching something else you don’t as it will give you a warning 10 minutes in advance, then you can either follow the instructions or cancel. The GUIDE+ also has search functions for films/soaps/sport etc that can be tailored, and repeat recordings for Eastenders/MOTD etc. TIP - add a few minutes onto the end of your recording so you don’t miss anything, it’s easy to do with the press of one button increasing the end time by 5 minute intervals with each press. It also has the video plus system, but that only works on the analogue tuner. Recording in standby - When the machine is recording you can turn the machine on and watch the begining of the recording whilst it carries on recording the rest of the programme, and use the pause/rewind/ff etc. You can then turn the machine off and it will still carry on recording. Recording ‘live’ - if you hit the record button to record what your watching, you can turn the machine off and it will carry on recording to the end (great for late night programmes when you can’t stay awake!). You can record a programme whilst watching a dvd too. I’ve read that people find it a problem not being able to record direct to dvd from the tuner. This is true, but I think this is a plus. How many times have you lost a recording due to faulty discs/finalising problems? I have many times! Not any more ‘cos it’s on the HD until I’ve checked my dvd disk works. Also copying to disc is really quick (about 12 mins for standard play 2 hour {2gig} programme). Recording quality is really good, with pin sharp picture and good colour, the sound is good too although I’m only using my TV, I don’t know what it would be like hooked up to anything else. It records onto all kinds of disc + and -, and r, r/rw, as well as dual layer (I havn’t tried yet) and the firewire link for digital camcorders is perfect. I would have liked a USB link too, but there isn’t one. I would give this product 5 stars, but I don’t feel that any product is perfect. So now for a few bad points- It has two tuners, 1 analogue and 1 digital (freview), but if you’re recording anything you can’t access the other tuner! Waste of time having the analogue one in there! (This may be the same on all other machines, but I don’t know). I’ve read some people have a problem with the machine not responding on start up. I’ve not had this problem but it is slow starting up, I counted about 25 seconds, but then I suppose it’s got to access the hard disk and tuners. There is also an annoying delay in changing channel, once you hit the button (channel up, for instance) it may take a second or so to actually change. Doesn’t sound much but really annoying when channel hoping. The quality for recording is set in the main system preferences and can’t be changed quickly for individual recordings, a problem when a film goes over the 2 hour mark. Once recorded to the hard drive the quality of the recording can’t be altered, so you can’t shrink it to fit a disk. Saying that if something is longer than 2 hours then it can be split on the hard drive and put onto a number of discs. I would have liked the ability to record to to the hard drive from the disk tray but that can’t be done. You have to hook up another dvd player to do that. Maybe it’s got something to do with copyright. It has a 160 gig hard drive which really should give you 80 hours of standard play but you only get 68. I assume it uses the other 12 gig for the 6 hour continuous `buffer’ recording, so it’s worth the 12 gig `loss’ I suppose. Finally, I think it’s a little expensive. Not in comparison to it’s rivals, but just in general. It’ll probably be half the price in 6 months time The good points far outway the `minor’ bad ones. I would reccommend this machine, even the missus can work it!
Customer Review: Solid, silent but slow!
I’ve had one of these players for about 2 months now and while it is good in some ways - the build quality is very good, it’s very quiet and features such as the timeshift buffer are useful, it does have some major flaws. My main problem with it is the speed of unit. When it’s plugged in, you press the on/standby button on the unit or the remote, nothing happens, you press the HDD button on the unit or the remote, nothing happens, you then press the TV tuner button on the remote and hey presto it comes to life. Sometimes it does work with the first press, but for the most part, it does not. I’ve pressed my ear to the unit to see if there is any sound coming from the HDD after the first or second press of the on/standby button, but there is no sign of life. The other main problems are the inability to change the quality of recording for one program - this is all down to the timeshift buffer - you can only record at the current setting so if you want one program in HQ and one in LP, you can’t do this. The other main drawback is the inability to record direct to DVD, everything has to be recorded to HDD, then copied. The copying is fast however. Having paid less for this unit than I would have done for a similar unit from Sony, Pioneer, Panasonic or Toshiba, I can forgive the shortcomings, but it’s just a shame that a company like Philips can fall short of the mark.
