Sony RDR-HXD 870 > Reviews (9)

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. There is no limit to how many items you can purchase within your 1 years membership. So I paid £240 for 3 years warranty,
a bargain considering this model sells elsewhere for between £220 and £320 for a basic 1 year warranty.

Audio / Video Connections

This model has 2 tuners, an analogue and digital or freeview. Ideally you should use the digital tuner as the old analogue system will end transmitting by 2012. You also have 2 scart connectors, 1 goes to your T.V, the other goes to a set top box like cable or sky, so you can record programs from sky or virgin media to your recorders hard drive. You also have the option to connect via HDMI for use with high definition Lcd or Plasma screens. There are 2 Audio outs, 1 analogue via phono connections and 1 digital via a coaxial out for 5.1 and DTS sound. You also have front connections for DV camcorders, USB for music and JPEG files and a pictbridge printer input.

Quick set up guide

On powering up you get a welcome screen and the option for a quick set up, which you should take. You are then asked to search for T.V channels either manually or automatically, again select auto. Once this is done the clock will be set and that's about it. You can then go into the initial set up menu for a host of other tuner, audio and video settings.

Documentation

I don't what to put anyone off, but the instruction book weighs in at 172 pages. By all means refer to this when you need to know how certain functions work, but i find the dive in hands on approach to be more beneficial. The manual is broken down into separate sections on how to play discs, use the hard drive, timer recordings, erasing and editing etc, which is well laid out, and overall easy to understand.

Performance

First impressions were very good. Pictures from the digital tuner were crisp and vibrant, and bear in mind that i have it hooked up to a 32" CRT T.V for now, so its going to look so much better on a Lcd or Plasma screen. Again, this is another reason to use the digital tuner as images appear so much more life like. You will however need to make sure that you can receive freeview and that a rooftop aerial is fitted with a good quality coax cable being recommended to receive the best signal possible.

When it comes to recordings the Sony is first class. With HQ level recordings the highest quality the picture is utterly pristine and even
the lower quality settings are acceptable, although I would not advise setting the recording level lower than LSP.

I have my level set at SP from which you will get 68 hours of very good quality recording time.

Dvd playback is where this recorder really shines, with full upscaling all the way to the heights of 1080p. Again, once this is connected through the HDMI output to a Hi-Def screen this is going to look stunning. Black levels are excellent and contrast levels look very natural. It can also handle Divx playback.

A comprehensive array of sockets including DV and USB inputs are present at the front of the recorder behind a drop down panel.

If you're wondering what you could do with a USB input, there's a pleasant surprise. It lets you instantly rip music from a USB device onto the hard-disk using the music jukebox feature. The sound quality from the USB drive was as good as playback from an actual disc.

You can also transfer images to the hard drive from a digital camera from the USB input. As an added bonus you can then print images on your hard drive by connecting a compatible pictbridge printer to the USB input on the recorder.

The remote control is well laid out and easy to grasp and you will find that you only use a handful of these buttons at any given time.

Other models and finishes

There are four models in the range 770 / 870 / 970 / 1070 all of which have similar specifications but have different hard disk capacities, from 120 Gig for the 770 to the enormous 500 Gig of the 1070. The letters B or S at the end denote black or silver finishes. This model (870) has a 160 Gig disk.

I won't prolong this review by listing the individual features and specifications as the link for this and where to purchase this model with the optional 3 year warranty is below.

http://www.empiredirect.co.uk/content/pr​oducts/details/index~mode lcode~SON-RDRHXD870B~dept~dvd~subdept~DV​DHDDRECORDER~brand~sony.htm
or,
h ttp://tinyurl.com/32ljc4

Conclusion

I have to say that this is the best player / recorder I have seen at this price, and the best purchase I have made in a long time. The USB input to rip music to the hard drive is my favourite application, and sound quality when connected to an AV amp is so good, but this machine does so much more. Without a doubt I would recommend this model if you are in the market for a new Dvd recorder with a large hard drive.