Good judgement comes from experience. Sometimes, experience comes from bad judgement. Often that's...
Good judgement comes from experience. Sometimes, experience comes from bad judgement. Often that's more fun, unless you're the one picking up the bill...
Member since:29.01.2008
Reviews:9
Sony RDR-HXD870S
We've used the Sony since summer '07 as our sole Freeview box and as a way of archiving TV series and films recorded via our Sky+ system. The only difference between the 870S and the 870B illustrated above is colour - the 870S is silver (to match the rest of our AV kit).
I'll start with the bad points, of which the Sony has 2 major ones:
1. The Freeview Guide can take a very long time to populate. If you are used the the Sky guide, or other Freeview boxes for that matter, it can be a pain. Delays of over 2 minutes are not uncommon even when looking at the same day listings. We are running the 870 from a newly installed digital aerial, aligned and tested by a professional, and the 870 itself says the signal is perfect, so this is not the cause.
2. The originally supplied software that deals with the Freeview recording had a fault that could cause it to miss the recording if you programmed it more than a day or so in advance. There has been much discussion of this fault on AVForums and DigitalSpy, and a solution now exists. If you can, get the retailer to check the box being supplied has Hardware version 435, Software version 125 AND hidden software version 1.65 (latest version, though according to the forums version 1.63 is also good). If they do not know how to check the hidden version, they will probably not have upgraded the machine. If you wish to upgrade the machine yourself, AVForums have a step by step guide and a link to the Sony data file you will need. The proceedure is not tricky, and took me 30 minutes total, including searching the 'net for the solution.
The good points:
1. Fantastic picture quality. This is the best of any non-satellite broadcasting I have seen, and streets ahead of previous cheap Freeview boxes. The 870 will also upscale to 1080p output via the HDMI socket, which is very useful if you have an HD screen without the expensive upscaling processors built-in.
2. Large HDD - approx 23 hours of recording in the highest quality, 68 hours in standard play mode and up to 455 hours in the lowest quality mode.
3. Series recording feature. Works like the series link on Sky, but with the added benefit of a 'tracking' mode so if the series is off air for a week or two (eg: sporting events take its place in the schedules) it will keep looking for it and then add it to your list when it next occurs.
The RDR-HXD870 is a very competent DVD and HDD recorder. It has one analogue and one digital tuner, Freeview and GuidePlus programme guides (one is chosen during set-up), 2 SCART sockets, component and S-Video outputs, HDMI output and a digital co-axial output for audio (note - no optical output). It has a good set of editing functions and intuitive menus.
Overall, despite the Freeview programme guide and initial software issues, it is a solid performer with excellent picture quality - exactly what this type of AV system should offer.
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