DVD Recorders > Sony DVD Recorders > with Dolby Digital

Advantages: Sony quality
Disadvantages: More inputs on back, just has Scart with S-Video on front of unit

Very happy with the unit, no problems so far (had it 2 weeks). I've got mine recording from a PVR (Virgin Cable) - got it for £80 so don't need the digital tuner, recording quality ok over RGB Scart from the PVR. I've go the unit outputting to the HD TV through component, upscaling seems to work quite well, overall I think original movie DVD playback is certainly better than my last player (nothing special, old Samsung). You need to use either the ...
...of the upscaling feature of the player. I've just been using Verbatim 16 speed DVD-R and DVD-RW discs (not +) and had no compatibility issues so far using DVD's I've made on this unit in other DVD players. I've had issues using the DVD+ discs in the past with compatibility. To clarify on the previous review, the specs of the unit claim it will burn to all + and - DVD's including R and RW. Just to clarify on the spec: REAR: HDMI out (with 1080p ... Read review

Advantages: User friendly, easy to setup, excellent all-round choice
Disadvantages: No DVD playback when recording to HDD

The setup is relatively easy and mostly intuitive. What's not so straight forward is, that you have to choose each country you want to receive before scanning the DVB-T channels, so the manual could be better. However the the onscreen menu is logical and fairly intuitive. Spend some time with it, fiddle around and you'll learn a thing or two about your new recorder. The digital tuner is excellent, delivering fantastic quality, the EPG is very cool. ...
...supply your free to air digital channels with an analog cable offering the best of both worlds. The recorder can help you in so many ways: If you're running out of space on the HDD, you can set the recorder to lower the quality of the recordings to fit. Never loose another recording! In manual mode, you can fine tune the recording quality, for maximum quality on the DVD. The remote is easy and user friendly, the recorder is quiet and efficient. This ... Read review

Advantages: Record to hard drive, DVD drive, watch and record at the same time.
Disadvantages: I needed to read the instruction manual!

...what was available. Being a Sony lover I was impressed by the RDR-HXD-890, one of the latest hard disk drive/DVD recorders from Sony's Range. It seems that black is back in vogue which I have always preferred; when I bought the last recorder, all I could get was silver, but there is a choice of black or silver with the RDR-HXD-890. When I got the machine home, I discovered that there were so many options on this machine that I had to sit down and ...
...lot different to my last Sony machine. The RDR-HXD-890 has a built in digital tuner for freeview, and an analogue connector for those who cannot yet receive a digital signal. It has two scart lead connections and HDMI output to connect to a high definition television. The machine has a 160GB hard disk drive and a DVD Recorder. The hard drive will store a maximum recording of up to 455hours and 23hours in HQ+ recording mode. There is a button on ... Read review

Advantages: Easy to use with long record time on the HDD
Disadvantages: none

What a piece of kit this is, it is so simple to use and set up. It had lots of really good features and a long recording time on the hard disk. There are lots of different settings for recording quality and time but when you get down to the low end then the recording time might be high but the quality of the picture is not really watchable. We have it set so that there is approximately 250 hours worth of record time and this gives a picture quality ...
...is the USB input so you can use it and your TV like a very large digital photo frame, the only downside is I have not been able to download onto the USB which would be useful as some USB sticks are large enough to take a small movie. The DVD player and recorder both work well and so far we have had no problems with it and would recommend to anyone looking for a HDD and DVD setup. ... Read review

Advantages: Easy to use
Disadvantages: Unreliable

...OK for a couple of weeks and then same faults deveop. Would definately not recommend, despite having chosen this machine specifically because it got a good rating from Which? magazine. I am now trying for a refund and doubt if I would buy a Sony DVD recorder again. ... Read review