Sony RDR-HXD710

We bought our Sony RDR-HXD710 DVD recorder in August this year, just a few months ago. We'd been flirting with the idea of getting a DVD recorder for quite a while but we kept putting it off, mainly because they seemed so unreasonably expensive at the time. However, prices of DVD recorders have gone down significantly in the past year or so. These days you can get a good machine for about £300-£400 compared to £500-£600 a couple of years ago. The ...
...was causing it. I called Sony but the technical representative couldn't help me. He suggested that we should return the unit as it was obviously faulty. Before doing so, I ran a quick search on Google and found the cause of our problem. The ghosting was the result of the terrestial input from the television set interfering with the digital signal from the recorder's tuner. The solution was very simple: we had to cut out pin 19 of the scart connector ... more

We bought our Sony RDR-HXD710 DVD recorder in August this year, just a few months ago. We'd been flirting with the idea of getting a DVD recorder for quite a while but we kept putting it off, mainly because they seemed so unreasonably expensive at the time. However, prices of DVD recorders have gone down significantly in the past year or so. These days you can get a good machine for about £300-£400 compared to £500-£600 a couple of years ago. The HXD710 cost us just under £400 from Amazon, including delivery. This model first came out in September 2005, and as far as I know, they no longer manufacture it since it's been replaced by another model, which is not necessarily better, I hasten to add. The HXD710 is still available from electronic stores and online retailers.

In this review, I'm going to discuss some of the basic functions of this DVD recorder for the average user without going into details about the more advanced features, which can be found in the user manual. I will also mention some issues that potential buyers should be aware of.Basic Features
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• 160 GB Hard Disc Drive (HDD)
• integrated Freeview tuner
• compatibility with most DVD discs (+/-R/RW), incl.DL discs
• Firewire compatibility (i.LINKconnection)
• EPG Electronic Programme Guide
• pausing live TV

Features lacking
=============* This DVD player only has one tuner, which means that if you're recording a programme from one channel, you won't be able to watch another freeview channel at the same time. It is definitely a shortcoming, but you can go around it by connecting an external freeview tuner. We've done this and it has solved the problem. We use the external tuner for watching live telly and the integrated tuner for recording, so there's no conflict.

* This recorder has no HDMI (High Definition) connection. For us it's not an issue as our telly is not high definition at the moment and we have no intention of buying one within the next few years. However, if you already have an HD enabled telly, it would only make sense that you buy a recorder that supports this feature.

The appearance
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The word "sleek" pretty much sums up the appearance of this beautiful machine. It is slimlined, understated and elegant-looking. The box is silver coloured, mainly metal, though the front panel appears to be made of plastic.

This DVD recorder was designed for use with the remote control primarily, so there are only a few buttons on the front panel supporting some of the basic functions: On/Off, Eject, Play, Pause, Stop, and Record. These buttons are long and slim and they're very discreet, almost invisible. The bottom half of the front panel flips open to reveal some more buttons and connectors.

The remote control
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The remote control looks as if it belonged to a completely different brand or product altogether. It's not nearly as well-made as the recorder itself and feels a bit cheap and plasticky. The buttons are way too small and difficult to push. The recording buttons are located at the bottom of the controller under a flap which slides open. I've heard reports that this flap is susceptible to wear and tear and may come loose after a few months' of use. I can see no signs of this happenning to our controller yet, but I can easily imagine these reports to be true.

Setting-up
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There are different ways to connect this DVD recorder to your TV set and I will not attempt to discuss these here. The manual gives detailed instructions on how to do this and it's relatively straightforward. However, I have to mention a little trick that's worth knowing.

When we first connected the HXD710 to our TV set using a scart cable, we immediately noticed that there was a continuous vertical line running across the screen. In technical terms this is known as ghosting and we had no idea what was causing it. I called Sony but the technical representative couldn't help me. He suggested that we should return the unit as it was obviously faulty. Before doing so, I ran a quick search on Google and found the cause of our problem. The ghosting was the result of the terrestial input from the television set interfering with the digital signal from the recorder's tuner. The solution was very simple: we had to cut out pin 19 of the scart connector at the TV end. I was amazed and delighted to find that this trick actually worked and we immediately had crystal clear reception - problem solved! How come the Sony guy didn't know about this?

Recording
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There are two methods to record from your TV set. If you're watching a programme and you suddenly decide that you want to record it, you can just simply press the REC button under the flap on the remote control and it will immediately start recording onto the HDD. No need to find empty tapes like you always had to using your old VCR. At the end of the programme, you have to press REC STOP, otherwise the machine will carry on recording for 8 hours.

The other method is to pre-set a recording using the EPG (Electronic Programme Guide) up to 8 days in advance. Essentially, you can schedule a whole week's worth of recording in a matter of minutes. All you have to do is press the EPG button on your remote control, which will display the TV schedule, and then you just select the programmes that you want recorded. No need to set dates and times. It's very user-friendly and couldn't be any easier.

You can also record directly onto DVD discs, or you can dub (copy) your HDD recordings onto discs at a later date. This is better if you want to edit the recordings first, eg. to get rid of adverts.

Playback
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You can display the programmes that you recorded by pressing the TITLE LIST button on the remote control. The recordings will be displayed in chronological order, with the most recent recording at the top. Simply select the programme you want to watch and press ENTER. A number of options will appear that you can choose at this point, including Play, Erase, Dub, or Edit.

It's a good idea to keep the HDD tidy so it remains easy to manage. We always erase the programmes that we've already watched and copy them onto DVD discs if we want to keep them. The 160 GB HDD will hold a maximum of 300 titles and approximately 67 hours worth of programmes recorded at SP (Standard Mode), which is the default setting. This can be extended up to 269 hours in SEP mode, but obviously at the expense of picture quality. There are altogether 8 different recording modes, but we've only ever used the SP setting. I think it's a good compromise between quality and quantity. I can't really notice any difference between the broadcast and the playback quality.

Editing
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There are two ways to edit your recordings. You can either delete entire chapters, or you can use the A-B Erase function, which requires you to manually set the start and end points of the sections you want to delete. Sometimes the chapter erase works well when you want to edit out the ads, but it's not always accurate.

Dubbing
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Dubbing is the technical term for copying. With the HXD710, you can easily dub titles from the HDD to DVD discs. Just pop a blank disc of any format (+/-/R/RW) into the tray and select the title you want to dub from the HDD. Press ENTER, then select Dubbing, select Dub Mode, followed by Start and ENTER. And that's all there is to it! Your recording is already being copied.

You can reverse the dubbing direction and copy DVD discs onto the HDD, as long as the disc you're trying to copy is not copy protected.

DV Dubbing
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With the HXD710, it is possible to dub DV tapes from your digital camcorder onto the HDD or directly onto DVD discs, provided that your camcorder is i.LINK compatible. Just connect your camera to the recorder via the i.LINK connection, located under the flap on the front panel, using a firewire cable. (Note that this cable is not supplied!) Once connected, you need to set a few parametres on the recorder, like destination, line input, audio input and recording mode, which are clearly defined in the user manual. Once set up, just simply press the ONE-TOUCH-DUB button located right next to the i.LINK connection and the whole tape will start copying. You don't even need to rewind the tape to the beginning, as the machine does this for you automatically. So easy, anyone can do it!

Pausing live TV
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Suppose you're watching your favourite programme on live TV and you get a phonecall. Just simply press the PAUSE button and answer the phone. When you're finished, you can resume watching your programme by pressing the PAUSE or PLAY button again, and you haven't missed a thing.

Issues with the HXD710
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I must say, I'm very impressed with the ease of use and functionality of this machine. In a small way, it has changed our lives. I would have gladly given it five stars, it it wasn't for a rather worrying problem that I have to mention below.

Just a few days after we got this DVD recorder, we experienced a series of lock-ups, whereas the machine wouldn't respond to any commands. We had to switch it off at the mains and turn it back on again to bring it back to life. (Since then, I've learned that you can do this by holding down the ON/OFF button for 15 seconds instead to perform a so-called 'soft boot') After this unpleasant episode the machine was OK for a few days. Then it crashed again. I got on the Internet and found an online forum where other owners of the same machine reported the very same problem. The weird thing is that these lockups seem to happen at the same time! Sony refuses to acknowlege the problem. Here's a link to this discussion forum if you'd like to find out more about this issue, but let me warn you that it is a very long thread with over 200 posts:

http://www.digitalspy.co.uk/forums/showthread.php?t=429239

Conclusion
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We haven't had a lock-up for about a month now and when the machine works it's fantastic. If we didn't have this issue, I would wholeheartedly recommend the Sony RDR-HXD710. However, with this recurring problem, the machine is unreliable and I couldn't with a clear conscience recommend it.

I published a review on Amazon just a few days after we first got this recorder and I gladly gave it five stars then. That was before we experienced any problems. I must say, I'm quite at a loss as to how I should rate this product now. I can't possibly give it five stars, but neither can I rate it 'Very Poor' so I think I'll give it an average three.

Our HXD710 is still under guarantee and we could easily send it back to Amazon and get a full refund, so why don't we? For a strange reason, despite these problems, we still love this machine and I would be very reluctant to send it back, unless the lock-ups become a regular occurrence. I'm just hoping that the problem will either resolve itself, or that Sony's going to issue a software upgrade soon. Most people on the discussion forum seem to think that this problem is software related. Like I said, the machine is working fine at the moment. If we get more frequent lock-ups, I'll come back and update this review. 

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