Pioneer DVR-530H-S Ultra slim DVD-R / DVD-RW Recorder, 160 Gb HDD - Silver

Amazon Customer Reviews

(4 out of 5)

Pioneer DVR-530H-S

I've had this DVD recorder for a week now and I'm having second thoughts......

One of the main reasons I bought this recorder was the jukebox function... bad move.
You cannot transfer either mp3 or wma files to the hard disk - a BIG mistake by Pioneer.
Instead you have to transfer songs from CD to the hard disk in real time, although you can play mp3/wma files from CD.

Setting the recorder up is easy and straight forward .The guide + is excellent,
although it does take a long time to download the data from the host channel.
Its great for controlling your Skybox via the Glink cable.

Good points:-
Picture quality
Guide plus
chase play

Bad points:-
Cannot transfer mp3/wma files to the hard disk
Cannot transfer SVCD/VCD to the hard disk (but I don't think any recorder can)
no digital coaxial out
no scart cable supplied
Cannot record onto dvd+r or dvd+rw

(4 out of 5)

A Good Piece of Kit

Works well but with a few 'wish it did that' features.

It would be nice if it coped with all types of DVD+/-R disks, especially as it uses the other type of disk (DVD-R) to my PC DVD writer! As others have said, it would also be great if I could archive off my MP3 collection directly to its hard drive - how about a network connection Pioneer?

The guide+ EPG seems to work well but took me a couple of days to set up. It apparently works with either Eurosport from Sky (not a freeview channel!) or analogue ITV. I'm using the latter which means I had to connect an analogue aerial - not sure what will happen when that gets turned off as I don't intend to subscribe to Sky for Eurosport.

So far I've used EP for HDD recording which gives over 200 hours and the quality is as good/better than tape. I have bought some DVD-RWs but not used any yet and with this capacity I'll only be archiving off things I really want to keep.

It's possible to start recording and then pause and then continue playback. It's also possible to 'catch up' as playback at something like 1.5 times includes audio without sounding like Pinky and Perky.

I like this piece of kit but I should say I didn't buy from Amazon and they are charging about £80 over the odds at the moment. At around £300 it's worth the money.

(5 out of 5)

Fantastic machine changes the way you watch tv

The previous reviews seem concerned about the lack of network capability to transfer mp3 files from a PC. I think this entirely misses the point. The Pioneer records TV at great quality and you can edit the recording (with ease) to remove adverts etc before saving to DVD-R if you so wish. But the best thing is that the machine comes with Guide+ from which you can schedule timed recordings. These recordings can be made using the internal tuner or from external decoders such as SKY satellite box or Freeview boxes. Up to 3 of these can be connected and an infared cable changes channel on the decoders when required. This is the fantastic bit. You choose which channels appear in Guide+ and tell which decoder they can be found on. I couldn't find another box that was capable of doing all this. And it is all easy to do, I didn't have to refer to the pretty comprehensive manual at all.
And yes you can store your music collection on it too if you want to. When you consider that all the other MP3 music servers that I have seen cost over £600 it's not bad to have this thrown in on a video device that shouldn't cost you more than £330. So the music side is not so comprehensive as a full music server but they cost over double and they don't do video.
So if you want to record programmes from SKY and don't want a monthly subscription to SKY+ then this does what you need and more. It's almost like SKY++

(5 out of 5)

Love It!!

This for me is as close to getting Sky+ as I can get without having to shell out for one of Mr Murdoch's whizzy boxes!

I'm impressed with the Guide+, but I've noticed that if a programme is shown at a different time the following week the guide doesn't follow suit. However, the fact that I can get it to change channels on Sky is a big bonus, I can now record what I like on whichever channel I like without using Sky's EPG. OK, the Guide+ doesn't list all channels on Sky, but for me the key ones are there, and you can manually enter channel numbers anyway.

The 160GB HDD is more than enough space, I've been recording programmes left right and centre, and hooking it up to a VCR to transfer material from VHS to HDD is easy peasy.

The picture quality is fine, I use SP for programmes to watch at a later date, and the editing functions are great.