Sony RDRHXD560S 80GB HDD DVD Recorder with Freeview
Sony RDRHXD560S 80GB HDD DVD Recorder with Freeview
80GB Hard Drive DVD Recorder model with Digital Tuner.
Customer Review: Super piece of kit but slow menu system.
Having previously owned the excellent non-freeview forerunner to this model I didn’t hesitiate in choosing this freeview model so as to cut down on the number of remotes confusing my wife! Absolutely no problems with setup. Made a positive choice for 80GB rather than 160GB - you’re not going to leave stuff you want to keep on the hard drive - you’ll want that on DVD so having more disk just delays that initial cleanup you have to do when the disk is full and you want to record something. 80GB gives plenty of HQ recording time IMO.
My only disappointment is with the speed of response when starting up and from the remote. When in standby, pressing any function will wake it but takes about 30 seconds. Operating the menu system is inexplicably slow when compared to the previous model - e.g. each down-scroll through the title list takes a second or two whereas the non-freeview version was pretty much instantaneous. This is true of any command issued from the remote so can become tedious.
Other than that it is an excellent machine:
- Superb EPG, weeks in advance.
- Series timer that works properly.
- Well designed menu system.
- High speed dubbing and automatic re-formatting if the source is too big for the DVD capacity (4.6GB = 1.5hrs in high quality).
- Low/no noise.
- Separate TV controls on remote.
- Even my wife can program it (no offence ladies) - just make sure you’re clear which device is the target i.e. hard drive or DVD!
Customer Review: Switches off every 5-10 minutes - stay away from this!
It is too late for me to return the product to Amazon, but I will see what I can do with the Sony customer services. I have used it for a month and, with a few minor problems, it has worked OK for 3 weeks. In the last week, however, it keeps switching off VERY frequently. It does so when I watch TV and also when I am watching TV. On the TV, it freezes for a few minutes, so you lose 5 minutes every time it switches off - frozen image, switch off, switch on again and bring it back to the right channel.
I am going back to my cheap freeview box + dvd player. If I cannot return the dvd recorder, I will only use it for the occasional recording, but then it is far too expensive for this!
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I-link, DivX, Time shift, Live Pause, One touch record
Amazon Price: ?252.18
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Pioneer DVR-550HX-S DVD Recorder
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Used Price: ?114.99
Customer Review: Problem: time and date show default. Help Help
Hi i got one problem that my DVD-HR735, everytime i set the time and date in but when i switched off few hour and ON it back the Display LCD showing “AUTO” and asking to reprogramme TIme and date. So is it there Internal battery low or Faultly, but i try to open up and see the internal battery but unable to find it, when to do upgrade the frimware also same thing. HELP…..
Customer Review: samsung dvd-hr735 dvd recorder - a sheep in wolves clothing
If you have an hd ready tv then you should AVOID this player at all costs. Although it has an hdmi output it in theory should be capable of 1080i upconversion through dvd playback. It is NOT. The best this player can do is 576p contrary to Amazons own product tech review which says 1080i.Can you imagine my disbelief when i hooked up the player to my samsung plasma tv through hdmi and saw a grainy picture with the words 576p in the corner.I looked in the manual and it clearly states 576p up conversion which can be attained by component leads on dvd players and recorders from the 90’s. This in effect makes the hdmi connection useless and is not even worth using as you can get the same 576p upconversion through the players own component connection. I can only assume samsung wanted to save money by opting out of 1080i output and still fool customers into thinking this budget player was up there with the big boys but it is not. Let this be a warning to you, make sure any hdmi output device is hd capable which means it can at least output a 1080i signal otherwise do not disgrace your shiny new hd ready tv with such an inferior outdated product. I exchanged mine and got a sony RDR-HXD860 in my opinion one of the best on the market, beautiful picture upscaling abilities.
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in Black
Amazon Price: ?109.99
Used Price: ?119.99
Customer Review: Good picture quality and easy to use but has recording problems
I was pleased with everything about this DVD until I discovered that mine had a couple of faults (not sure if these are common faults). When recording, it often doesnt switch off after the selected program has finished recording and so it records the next program until it uses up all the disk space, then the disk keeps spinning and gets hot, and you can only stop it by switching it off at the mains. Also there is no way of knowing how much room you have available on the disk and it will accept a recording request when there is not enough room on the disk. I’m afraid to say I will be taking it back.
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