Advantages: Sleek, stylish, feature rich
Disadvantages: Expensive, slow to respond

...Sony RDR-HX510 After much research I had narrowed down the selection to 2 products - 1 from Panasonic and this 1 from Sony. Both were similarly priced when I bought the Sony RDR-HX510 at £320. There was not much in it when quality was compared, but the clincher was compatibility - I have mostly Sony everything so I reasoned that it was more likely to work well with own brand then competitor brands. What's in the Box? ----------------------- Recorder unit, basic audio/visual cables, manual, power cable and remote control (with batteries). What's not in the Box? ---------------------------- No sample recordable disc (very poor Sony !!!) No Scart cable(s) No Progressive scan connection cables (these will set you back £20-£30 for a cheap set) No sample memory stick (again - poor Sony !!!!) No channel... Read review

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Advantages: Picture quality, series recording, connectivity, editing features
Disadvantages: Software issues, Freeview EPG takes time to populate

...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... Read review

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Advantages: simple to set up and use, great recording quality
Disadvantages: slower than a drunk snail, no HDMI

...I recently aquired a Sony DVD recorder (RDR-GXD360). The Sony has freeview built in and a good reputation for audio visual quality. Set up was easy, I used the smart link connection between DVD and TV which means you can operate alot of the TV functions by the DVD remote which saves on fiddling around with two handsets. There's no hard drive but you can record onto most DVD media except dual-layered DVD-R and DVD-RAM discs. It has a number of recording modes, which gives aropund 2.5 hours on the LSP mode, 3 hours on ESP, 4 hours on the LP mode and up 8 hours to SLP mode, obviously that effects the quality of the recording. It has EPG (Electronic programme guide) which makes selecting programmes to record easy. You also have the benefit of being able to watch one thing on tv and record another on the dvd at the same time... Read review

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Advantages: Goes way beyond just being a TV recorder
Disadvantages: You have to read through 172 pages to find out to what extent!

...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 like the Sony RDR-HXD870 which can not only receive Freeview, but record to a hard drive, and thence to a built-in DVD recorder if the need to archive anything should crop up. This also means that it doubles as a DVD and CD player. So... Read review

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Advantages: Multiple recording settings, record tv & watch DVD simultaneously
Disadvantages: when recording cannot switch channels

...I purchased one of these recorders from my local sony centre a few months ago and I have not been dissapointed, well not by much. The device is relatively simple to use in its basic functions, allthough I have yet to try the more compex features. Its 160GB capacity hard drive is ample for storage as there are various levels of recording compression you can use - I have several full length movies and multiple TV shows recorded at the standard setting and I'm only at around 30-40% capacity. The built in Free-view decoder eliminates the need for a separate box and multiple scart cables. The recorder supports several mainstream disc formats, although I have been unsuccesful in playing discs recorded on PC's - possibly due to file formats rather than disc types. All of the main surround sound types are supported such as Dolby Digital... Read review

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Advantages: Clear instructions to use. Simple
Disadvantages: Not at all reliable in our experience!

...I\'ve had to send two of these machines back. Both in warranty. The second as a replacement for the first model we had. They might be from Sony but our experience is one of complete lack of reliability and both machines just stopped recording and playing any disc back within a month on the first occasion, and we managed to get 2 months out of the second machine. I liked aspects of the machines though, not least the user friendly on screen menu which I think is one of the best I've seen, but absolutely no good to you if the machine isn't reliable enough. It also set up easily enough from the box and the instruction manual is clear and comprehensive enough for most newbies into the DVD recorder market to understand. Its just a shame we've had such a poor experience with the actual machine. I certainly cant recommend it to anyone... Read review

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Advantages: Large hard drive, music jukebox, price.
Disadvantages: Size of instruction manual.

...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... Read review

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