Sony SVR-S500 - Digital TV Recorder (DVR) with 80GB Hard Drive and Freeview

Sony SVR-S500 - Digital TV Recorder (DVR) with 80GB Hard Drive and Freeview
With a Twin Freeview tuner and the 80GB HDD you will never miss aprogram with the SVRS500.

Customer Review: Love it…
Many negative reviews below, BUT (fingers crossed) I’ve had mine up and running a week now and - well, yes, it’s a bit slow, and no, it’s not completely silent, but I still LOVE it.

No messing with DVDs, you can see exactly how much room you have on the hard drive, I can pause and rewind TV whenever, and you can be recording 2 programmes at once while watching something else you recorded all at the same time (where else can you get that?)!

Channel 5 reception not fantastic but also never was with my last freeview box, so it’s not really bothering me. I may one day be tempted into cable because it’s pretty much picture perfect ALL the time, but I’ll still have it hooked up to this machine for recording.

I had a true electrickery anorak (and perfectionist) come round the other day and he made very impressed noises about how excellent it was for the price, so I’ve got no complaints.

Think the answer is to not have it in your bedroom if you’re a light sleeper.

See also review below by Allan Kelly below from 12 Aug 07, very helpful.

Customer Review: Worst Sony Product ever - and that is being kind!
I love Sony - or did at least until I bought this. After having a successful introduction to Freeview via a Daewoo unit my hubby bought me for the bedroom, we decided to ditch Sky and go for Freeview in the livingroom. I saw some of the reviews regarding the Sony, but thought they had got it wrong. After all, Sony were great weren’t they? Got it all plugged together okay, got it switched on and then heard the fan from hell. Now, we live in a detached house and have the telly up loud - and I can still hear the fan going. The 3am download it does is no laughing matter either - horrendous fan noise which sounds more like my pc when its running at full pace doing the virus scan - this goes on for at least 30 minutes and seems to get longer every day. If you’re looking to buy this for the bedroom - forget it - the only thing you’re likely to get is a heart attack. Now don’t get me started about the EPG - it is the worst I have ever seen - menus are slow to load - not user friendly in any way - interesting that the Daewoo leaves Sony standing on all fronts for this. Picture quality is appalling - again the Daewoo leaves this well behind. In short, the only reason I give this unit 1 star is it hasn’t frozen yet.

Take my advice and steer well clear.

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MPman - 3″ Pocket Digital Freeview TV - With Remote Control
Amazon Price: ?99.99
Customer Review: tiny TV perfection…
I do find it strange that I can be within a mile of Gatwick Airport (fairly built up area) and only get a 2% signal (which is still enough for a perfect picture anyway on this device), then head off to the New Forest and get a 40% signal when I’m apparently in the middle of nowhere! My experience with portable digital TV is you either get a perfect picture or no picture at all. Not sure that this particular brand is specific to signal problems of that nature though, mine has been perfect so far, as have some friends who also own one. Either way, this little TV has fared extremely well for me and not having had problems with lack of signal, can’t knock any stars off a perfect score. The picture is pretty much perfect (even easily watchable outside during sunny days), news tickers can also be read clearly and believe it or not, you can see the ball when watching golf! (Not a golf fan btw, just pointing out the quality. A final worthwhile example is the kids have been able to watch CITV/Cbeebies etc in the car on the way back from school with no loss of picture at all! (A trip of about 8 miles). The sound is loud enough despite the tiny built in speaker, it fits in my shirt pocket and weighs about the same as my mobile phone. Battery at full volume lasts me about 3 hours, charges in less than 1 hour. 40+ TV channels and digital radio in a unit slightly larger than a pack of cards: I for one am impressed. Just as importantly, my mates are too:-) I can’t knock its performance in and around Surrey and Hampshire though I’d assume there are places it won’t work, (just as with handheld analogue TV) I just haven’t found any yet. A worthy 5 stars.
Customer Review: Bargain price - no picture
Having bought the tv from Maplins for the bargain price of ?59, I can now see why this model has been withdrawn. Despite living less than 3 miles from the Bluebell hill Freeview transmitter, in line of sight, I was unable to get ANY TV channels and only 3 digital radio channels on it’s integral arial, and only 11 TV channels with the supplied arial. Those channels I was able to see had a near perfect piture and clear crisp sound of good volume - but why couldn’t it pick up a signal. Design flaw? Luckily, Maplins offer a no quibble refund which I gladly used. Don’t buy one of these unless you live under the Arial mast of are using Jodrell Bank as your main arial!!

Sony KDL-32U3000 - 32” Widescreen Bravia HD Ready LCD TV - With Freeview
Amazon Price: ?499.00

Toshiba 32WLT68PG - 32″ Widescreen HD Ready LCD TV - With Freeview
Amazon Price: ?549.99
Used Price: ?399.99
Customer Review: Great tv, but is the euro version
I bought this tv last week, as my father has a 42wlt66, which apart from slow remote response are both excellent tvs. Yes this is a euro version, but it does not affect use in the uk, as you just select english language. Ive set up freeview no problems and red button interactive works fine. For the price i dont mind its not a full uk version. End of the day we are part of the eu and have the normal warranty via amazon. Back to the tv, sd signals are great, much better than a cheap tft i had recently, and i use an xbox360 and it looks fantastic, the tv will accept a 1080p signal but as it is not a true 1080 screen it will be downscaled, i cannot make out any difference between 720i 1080i 1080p for games. Improvement over the wlt66 is that you can press ok to get straight into the input selection menu. The swivel stand is great but it does poke out quite a bit. Overall very impressive 32″ at a good price, what sold it to me was 3 hdmi ports and 100hz.
Customer Review: Beware ‘PG’ model in UK
Beware of this product as according to Toshiba UK the PG means it is meant for the French market not the UK, affecting set-up and access to services e.g. interactive ‘red button’ The carrier also says there is a large F stamped on the box which people believe means Freeview but it would appear probably means France! They have had reports from people that they can’t get the TV to work properly. 32WLT68 is a superb TV but 32WLT68PG is not ,in the UK!