Sony Hi-MD recorder

Sony RDR-HXD-890 Hard Drive & DVD Recorder

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

Last weekend our old video-recorder started chewing tapes, so it was about time that we upgraded. We already had a DVD recorder, but had been using it in tandem with our video recorder through an aerial booster that split the signal between the two machines without loss of quality. When it comes to such gadgets, being the sort of person that likes to see what I am buying, I went off to Comet's to see 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 ...

derek-j-a 23.11.2008 · Read full review
Ciao members have rated this review on average: very helpful
Review of Sony RDRHXD890B.CEK

Sony HDD+DVD recorder, 1080p upscaling.

Advantages: Perfect recordings in SD mode, even better in HQ mode. Goodlooking unit.
Disadvantages: Only one digital tuner, can't watch one channel whilst recording another

Off air DVB-T recordings in SD are totally indiscernable from the original broadcast quality, that alone is very impressive, but even more so is that HQ mode, which records at a staggering 15mps seems to actually *improve" over the broadcast quality! And it is HQ mode recordings when being upscaled via HDMI (To a 40" panny 1080p) that it really is impressive, No smearing, true deep colours etc. But HQ mode cannot be burned to DVD, HQ recording mode is only available to the HDD. DVD playback is excellent. Minus points: No USB/network capabilities. CD playback is good but bass light. The default setting output is S-Video, had to rummage around menu to activate full RGB SCART, and Component. An excellent recorder, but sonics slightly lacking richness. 9/10 ...

jdigitallyfiltered 26.12.2008 · Read full review
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Review of Sony RDRHXD995B.CEK

mini disc, maximum quality

Advantages: Loooonnnggg battery life, good sound quality Hi-MD
Disadvantages: Mediocre earphones, plastic body, 1gb discs too pricey

this player because of it's Hi-MD feature which lets you store up to 45 CD's per Hi-MD disc. This is a tad optimistic and is the norm for manufacturer's unrealistic claims. The fact is the more CD's you squeeze on it the lower the quality they have to be ripped. The lowest quality sounds like AM radio so you can guess what your 45 CD's will sound like. The software supplied is nothing special, most of it is easy to use without instructions and you could have your first couple of CD's ripped and transferred to your minidisc in a few minutes. The player needs to be hooked up to the PC with the supplied cable and is recognised by windows as a mass storage device. You can drag and drop any file type you wish onto the minidisc including mp3's but you cannot play them back this way. The software first of all has to convert them to Sony's Atrac3 ...

LawrenceP 19.11.2005 · Read full review
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Review of Sony Hi-MD Walkman MZ-NH600