Home > Consumer Reviews > Sony RDR-HXD710 DVD Recorder with 160 GB Hard Drive and Freeview

This box gets my praise. Just to clarify two mysteries which have been discussed on the net:
1) Indeed my box froze up, about every two weeks. Only solution is pull out the power cord, a bit drastic. Sony Customer Support confirmed it is a known problem with a "small batch of units" needing a firmware upgrade by them. So my supplier (not Amazon) took my box back for repair, I heard nothing for ages, and then inexplicably got a refund after 9 weeks. So if you have the same problem, maybe Sony can fix it but at least don't believe you have to live with it.
With the refund in hand, I ordered exactly the same unit elsewhere, which shows I am happy with it.
2) Don't buy this box for your bedroom. It turns itself on around 4 or 5 am, and the noise can wake you: it's not loud, but is noticeable against complete night-time quiet. I think the box is disk defragging, or maybe downloading EPG. I have not seen any way to configure the time towards something more convenient, such as breakfast time.

While it was "at repair" I was in mourning. Pathetic isn't it?

We were very close to sending this DVD recorder back just the day after we got it. We had no problems with the recorder itself. It is very user friendly and more than suitable for our purposes. However, we had a major issue with picture quality. The images were flickering and there was a continuous vertical line moving from left to right on the screen, known as ghosting. Sometimes we could see text as well, which was clearly visible against a blank background. It turned out to be interference with another channel and we couldn't get rid of it. Even the Sony tech guy didn't have a clue of why this was happenning. I was about to send it back as faulty, when a quick Internet search revealed that this phenomenon is quite common with DVD recorders/digital tuners (not just Sony), and it's caused by the terrestial signal output from the TV interfering with the digital signal of the Freeview tuner and can be easily rectified by cutting out Pin 19 of the Scart connector (at the TV end). It did the trick! The picture is now perfect and everything else seems to be working fine. We have yet to discover the more advanced features of this DVD recorder, but I can honestly say that recording a TV programme onto the Hard Disc couldn't be any easier. I'm so glad that we get to keep this machine!

So far, so good; it performs superbly in everything I have asked it to do. Recording at Standard Quality, (2 hrs on a DVD) I cannot tell the difference from live transmission. Even at LP (3hours) it is indistinguishable from the original, unless that original was particularly clear.

So far I have used previously bought Bulkpaq Orange 8X DVD- and White 4X DVD+ and Datawrite 4X DVD+ with faultless results, though this recorder will work faster.

The Hard Drive is wonderful. I have transferred Analogue Hi8 video from my old Canon Camcorder Tapes so EASILY I was amazed, and those results are superb. I suggest dividing up those 90 minute videos into smaller sections (very simply achieved) before further editing work on this machine or with software on a computer.

I have seen criticism of the tuner, complaining of shadows/ghosting, but I have no such problems.

A word of warning about the EPG automatic programming; it is ABSOLUTE SIMPLICITY, but until our broadcasters stick more accurately to their broadcast timings, I suggest you use the manual timer and allow a few minutes extra at the start and the end. Videoplus with PDC does not operate on Dig. Terr. Television (Freeview) and although Sony say there is some built-in compensation for inaccurate transmission times, it does rely on the broadcasters, and it is not reliable. DON'T BLAME SONY. :o))

If you get up at 4.30 am and, horrified, realise that your machine's fan has switched on despite the whole thing being clearly OFF, fear not!! It is downloading data through the tuner for the future programming details.

I think this DVD HD recorder is well worth the extra over some machines with lesser specifications.

Not often does something this good come along. This machine ticks all the right boxes. It is very easy to set up, I had it working fifteen minutes after it arrived. The picture and sound quality are excellent, the electronic programme guide is simple to use and makes recording easy. An hour of recording in SP mode uses about 2Gb of disc space. Dubbing onto discs is easy too, but I did find out that there are two formats to DVD-RW discs, VR and Video. Video mode is the more common format, but the machine defaults to VR mode. The only other minor hitch was when playing a DVD that had DTS and not Dolby 5.1, it took me a while to find the audio settings to switch DTS on.
On the whole I am delighted.

I agree with most of the comments that the other reviewers have made here. Typical Sony - it is well built and reliable with a good range. I previously had a Humax 8000 PVR which worked very well but had limited harddrive compacity and no DVD dubbing feature, hence my decision to buy the Sony.

Good points:

Well built, reliable, dubbing to DVD is very fast particularly with 'minus' format discs and flexible range of formats; plays and records every type except DVD-RAM. Recordings off-air are excellent quality and a flexible range of compression rates from HQ to EP, etc Camcorder downloads via the I-Link connection are a dream, this is 'plug-and-play'the way it should be. You can record radio too but only in MPEG not MP3. You can play MP3s and JPEGs (but only up to 200 photos, from CD only). Dubbing from other sources e.g VHS, digiboxes, etc is quite straightforward.

Bad points:

DVD playback is limited by slow start-up and only 3 fast forward speeds (my Thomson player can spin up to 32x), the EPG doesn't always show details for every programme, subtitles are awkward to access. It is fussy about DVDs with mixed files i.e. MP3s and photos on the same disc. I wouldn't recommend this as your main player for commercial DVDs as a dedicated player offers more functionality e.g. zoom, fast forward, etc. Can't record to CD-R/RW.

Despite these minor niggles it is one of the best machines on the market. If you can afford it, it is well recommended.