Sony RDR-HXD 870

Like it or not, Freeview TV is coming - that's the over-the-air digital TV that bit by bit will see off analogue TV, and in fact the process has started, with the whole country slated to be 'cut over' by 2012. Just being able to watch it, assuming you can (I'm conveniently forgetting any aerial upgrades that may be needed), merely requires either a set-top box or a TV with the digital tuner built in. Try recording it though and your options get slimmer. You can either buy a set-top box that also contains a hard disk drive and two tuners, (aka Personal Video Recorder or PVR), or buy a machine ... more

I recently upgraded my old Dvd recorder which had an 80 Gig hard drive to this Sony RDR-HXD870B with a 160 Gig drive. The fact that i paid nearly £150 more 3 years ago for my older 80 Gig recorder only goes to show how much prices have fallen and now is the best time to purchase these products. Pricing and warranties. I paid £220 from empire direct who also give you the option during purchase to upgrade to a 3 year warranty for an extra £20. You need to sign up to become an edxtra member at a cost of £20 for 1 years membership. You then get a free 3 year warranty on selected products over £200 ... more

I have always wanted someway to keep all my media and films together and playable from the main TV in my house, and when I saw this I knew that this was the solution to my problem I can now get rid of all those old VHS tapes and have all my favourite content in one place and be playable from my home theatre. And I can also record all the programmes I like to watch off the TV so I never miss any of my favourite programmes again, this recorder has built in freeview and an EPG (electronic programme guide) so I can set this up to record a whole series of the programme I want to record so that I ... more

I have changed to this unit from a Samsung machine, the advantage is this has an analogue and digital freeview tuner, it also has the facility to pause live TV and record to the Hard Drive, or the DVD discs. this also has the ability to record to more formats. this feature is particularly useful, allowing you the opportunity to buy discounted blank discs of more types. i had the firmware updated and its great, also it has a digital co axial cable for sound and hdmi upscaling so allows you to play standard dvds at near to hd quality. it works too. the remote also allows you to operate your tv ... more

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 that looks the same as broadcast. Another thing I like is the USB input so you can use it and your TV like a very large digital photo frame, the ... more