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Sony RDR-HXD870 - DVD Recorder With 160GB Hard Drive - With Freeview - Black | 
 enlarge | Brand: Sony
Category: CE
Buy New: £189.99
New (9) Used (5) Refurbished (2) from £150.99
Rating:  73 reviews
Media: Electronics
Shipping Weight (lbs): 14.5
Dimensions (in): 19.6 x 15.7 x 8
Legal Disclaimer: Layer One UK does not offer any warranty other than the one imposed by the manufacturer. Consequently, the warranty conditions proposed by Layer One UK will be an exact copy of the manufacturers.
MPN: RDRHXD870B.CEK
Model: RDRHXD870B.CEK
EAN: 4905524419504
ASIN: B000OQ7878
Release Date: March 10, 2007
Availability: Usually dispatched within 1-2 business days
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| Features:
| • | DVD recorder | | • | Freeview and Analogue | | • | Audio Dolby Digital / Dts Surround | | • | 160GB Gb hard disk capacity | | • | Recording format DVD-R/DVD-RW/DVD+R/DVD+RW |
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| Editorial Reviews:
Product Description
The RDR-HXD870 player/recorder can record hours of high-definition video in resolutions of up to 1080p! With Sony's technologies such as Bravia Theatre and Theatre Sync, this player/recorder lets you discover the new face of digital videos, as it incorporates a Freeview tuner that allows you to tune in and record free digital television channels. It can also record high-quality images onto DVD-R and DVD-RW discs or CDs, and is compatible with Pictbridge and other multimedia applications, thanks to its USB port. You can store your JPEG images and MP3 files on its hard drive and make DVD backups of your home videos. You can even increase the quality of your creations by connecting your camcorder to its i.Link input. Also equipped with an HDMI output, the RDR-HXD870 will set off your audio/video system a treat!
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| Customer Reviews:
Great value piece of kit August 24, 2007
Gobucks (London)
153 out of 158 found this review helpful
Just bought this through amazon market place.
Good points:
- This has a fantastic quality freeview picture that blows my old pvr80 out of the water.
- its quiet for a hard disk recorder and starts quickly too
- Straight forward to use but you do have to read the manual
- You can watch or edit a recording on the hard disk while recording another channel
- Easy to make great dvds with your own chapters and theres a few different index themes to choose from
- Upscaling DVD playback is good but not quite as impressive as some of the high end upscalers (but then I am comparing it to a top end Denon that is three to four times the price)
- looks like a quality piece of av kit
- freeview playback is the feature I bought this for. Being able to automatically record a whole series of my favourite programmes is great.
- connectivity is great: hdmi, component, scart, usb for pictures/music and you can hook up a printer
- PRICE!!! 160gb hard disk, fantastic freeview tuner, freeview playback, dvd upscaler, dvd burner, usb port for pics and music from Sony. That is a lot of machine for your money.
Bad points (or why its not perfect and looses out on that fifth star)
- Only one tuner, why do all manufacturers of hdd/dvd recorders only include one tuner with their machines? However Sony have made up for this (a little bit) with their great remote that can be used with other brand tvs which means that I can easily switch to my Toshiba tv tuner with one button press when I am recording something.
- The tuner is fantastic but it doesn't appear to have a built in signal booster so sometimes weaker signal channels can have some artifacts and stuttering. This is very rare for me and doesn't affect the major channels but I am sure if you have a weak freeview signal it would be worth investing in a signal booster.
- Early batches of the machine lose recordings unless you turn off EPG link when setting a recording. If you have an early machine contact Sony and they will send you a cd with software that will fix this bug
- Some people don't seem to like the EPG, I think its fine as it looks similar to Sky. However if you don't like it Sony have also included Guideplus which means you don't have to put up with it.
So overall I am very happy with this unit and can highly recommend it, the quality and features make it a steal at current prices. Even the bad points are just minor niggles rather than anything to worry about. The only competitor would be the panasonic ex77 but it doesn't have freeview playback and is more expensive.
 A superb feature-laden machine that delivers excellent results and is great to use July 2, 2007
Gadget Man (Surrey, England)
70 out of 72 found this review helpful
Having had this for a week now I can heartily recommend it. I spent some time researching these machines as I wanted one that had the following features:
1) HDMI output
2) 1080p upscaling
3) S-Video and iLink (Firewire) input for converting my camcorder footage to DVD
4) Digital Freeview Tuner (and analogue back-up)
5) Decent size hard drive
Not only does it provide these it also has a great user interface, lots of advanced features and makes recording and archiving camcorder footage and off-air recording a cinch. I had also heard that these fan cooled devices created a high level of ambient noise (like a PC). This Sony is damn near silent! Picture and audio quality is excellent. Overall - very highly recommended, and because of its usability a real bargain.
Great functionality - pity about the interface July 25, 2007
David (Edinburgh)
48 out of 51 found this review helpful
This review is based after 48 hours of usage. Good build quality, smart case and lights can be turned off. Good quality digital freeview recorder (although oddly possibly not quite as good as the Sony TV). Quality of HDD recording and transfer/dubbing to DVD is very good. Integrated with digital EPG and has series record feature so even if programmes are moved it will still record them. No problem transferring HQ 16:9 from Hard disk to DVD-RW despite reports otherwise, but the manual indicates there are issues with lower quality recordings and DVD+RW. USB copying and reading is okay but bit of a gimic, will only transfer jpegs and mp3 so no copying of divx or mpeg (and no rename function I can find, so no copy and rename)however will play Divx from Data DVD or USB (haven't tried so can't comment on quality) but not mpg. Great features like the ability to edit and crop films on the hard disk. Even defrag and format functionality, the later suggesting you can replace the hard drive. HDMI connection (but no cable supplied) Up scaling to 720p is superb, noticeably better than a Toshiba SD-360.
However, after all these good things there is the user interface which is poor to dreadful, I'm a tech-head and it took me a good hour to get it to show 4:3 DVDs in letterbox mode. The EPG guide is very poorly rendered on screen and frustratingly awkward to navigate, setting a recording is as bad as old fashion video recorders, there is no consistency with the interface and functions are hidden away, Vistas media centre or Apple TV are miles better. The English manual has 172 pages which says it all. I hope its a Linux kernel underneath which can be upgraded (there is an upgrade function) so hopefully we will see a dramatically improved interface. it seems odd that a company that can produce the smart interface on the PSP could make such a mess of this.
So great product, great features, if you like fiddling with technology go ahead and buy one but if you want a simple to use box, think carefully.
Since writing this review its become obvious that there is a software issue with the RDR-HXD ranges freeview EPG, it has a nasty habit of not recording EPG linked programs and actually wiping EPG timers not yet recorded. This can be easily rectified by seting the times manually which can be automatically set in the EPG. However that does mean that series recording won't work reliably neither will the sustem reliably adjust times for early or late programmes. At the moment Sony are publicly refusing to acknowledge this is a software error and there help desk suggest this is a hard disk fault and machines should be returned. Sorry sony but this is just silly everyones hard disk are only failing in the exact physical location where the epg info (which is probably randomly located anyway) is stored, but all other data written to the hard disk is fine. This is clearly a software fault but as the system can be upgraded over the air it shouldn't be a problem to fix it.
 Do Not Buy this product. July 18, 2007
Ms. S. Wood (London, UK)
35 out of 66 found this review helpful
I bought it as a present for my parents. It never worked & it's Sony's policy to only repair devices. It has been to a Sony repair centre twice which is a 2 hour round trip for my parents. Each repair has taken at least a month. It still doesn't work. Beware of any Sony product even this policy. I bought directly from Siemens - what I bought was damaged it went straight back & a replacement delivered within a week. I really can't understand why Sony won't do this.
Very pleased July 30, 2007
d67 (London)
32 out of 35 found this review helpful
Had this for less than a week, but just to add to the other comments, I am very happy with this recorder. I did a lot of research, and this one had all the functions I wanted, whilst others didn't quite do it all.
I have tested the DivX function and have successfully played home movies in .avi format. Picture was great. MP3 and JPegs works well. The pause TV is also a great function.
Also, it is very quiet, which makes a change as my old DVD player was annoyingly loud.
Shame the USB doesn't allow .avi movies to be viewed, as this could have saved on a few discs, but that is the only negative so far.
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