Home > Consumer Reviews > Sony RDR-HXD870 - DVD Recorder With 160GB Hard Drive - With Freeview - Silver.
Sony RDR-HXD870 - DVD Recorder With 160GB Hard Drive - With Freeview - Silver.
Average Customer Rating
(3.5 out of 5)
Amazon Customer Reviews
Most Helpful First | Newest First | + Share77 of 83 people found the following review helpful:
A superb feature-laden machine that delivers excellent results
(5 out of 5) by Gadget Man on Jun 29, 2007 (Surrey, England)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.
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.
41 of 45 people found the following review helpful:
Best Value By A Mile!!!!!
(5 out of 5) by G. Horn on Nov 22, 2007While i don't dispute that some people may have had problems with their machines, i felt i had to come on here and defend it. IT'S BRILLIANT!!!
I've had the RDR-HXD870 for a few months now and I have no idea how i ever lived without it before! It's the best thing i've bought in a long, long while. It was very simple to set-up, the Freeview pictures are noticeably better than the standard analogue images, the 1080 upscaling is excellent, and it's ultra-reliable.
After researching for an eternity, i'd decided to go for the Panasonic DMREX77 and was about to buy it, when i read a review that felt the Sony was a better option. After comparing the two, i felt the Sony was superior, and i'm SO glad i made that decision. I'd always heard that Sony HDD recorders suffered from noisy fans, which was apparently true on early models, but the HXD870 is virtually silent.
The EPG system is excellent and simple to use.
In the 3 months i've owned it, it hasn't failed to record a single programme i've set it to record.
The edit functions on recorded media are EXCELLENT, allowing you to edit your recordings by chapter, and by the second.
It records to all DVD formats (+/-R, +/-RW, DL, ROM).
The USB port on the front is an inspired idea, allowing you to simply plug in a flash drive or mp3 player and transfer your music to the HDD Jukebox, or transfer photos the the HDD photo album.
...all this, AND it plays DivX, AND it has HDMI, AND a DV port!!!
Try finding that level of specification on another quality-brand machine for such a low price.
I would recommend the HXD870 whole-heartedly. A brilliant piece of kit.
I've had the RDR-HXD870 for a few months now and I have no idea how i ever lived without it before! It's the best thing i've bought in a long, long while. It was very simple to set-up, the Freeview pictures are noticeably better than the standard analogue images, the 1080 upscaling is excellent, and it's ultra-reliable.
After researching for an eternity, i'd decided to go for the Panasonic DMREX77 and was about to buy it, when i read a review that felt the Sony was a better option. After comparing the two, i felt the Sony was superior, and i'm SO glad i made that decision. I'd always heard that Sony HDD recorders suffered from noisy fans, which was apparently true on early models, but the HXD870 is virtually silent.
The EPG system is excellent and simple to use.
In the 3 months i've owned it, it hasn't failed to record a single programme i've set it to record.
The edit functions on recorded media are EXCELLENT, allowing you to edit your recordings by chapter, and by the second.
It records to all DVD formats (+/-R, +/-RW, DL, ROM).
The USB port on the front is an inspired idea, allowing you to simply plug in a flash drive or mp3 player and transfer your music to the HDD Jukebox, or transfer photos the the HDD photo album.
...all this, AND it plays DivX, AND it has HDMI, AND a DV port!!!
Try finding that level of specification on another quality-brand machine for such a low price.
I would recommend the HXD870 whole-heartedly. A brilliant piece of kit.
27 of 30 people found the following review helpful:
Very good for the price
(4 out of 5) by Nicholas J. Henning on Aug 6, 2007 (Isle of Wight)This unit is fairly compact and neatly presented. The display, while informative, is too small and dim for my liking. I think the decision to use it was was driven more by styling than anything else... There are not so many connectors/controls under the front panel flap that would seem to justify it.
That apart, the recorder performs very well. The controls and screen feedback are informative and functional (not particularly nice looking but they get the job done). Ther are lots of options for recording quality etc. that generally give results accordingly.
Dubbing to DVD is easy and very flexible.
I guess one of the main selling points of this unit will be the 1080p upscaling. I am glad to report that is works very well. It has a slightly "softer" image quality than the tuner of my Sony X-series TV for freeview transmissions, but upscaling for DVD looks very nice if you have a TV that supports 1080p.
Overall, well worth the money.
That apart, the recorder performs very well. The controls and screen feedback are informative and functional (not particularly nice looking but they get the job done). Ther are lots of options for recording quality etc. that generally give results accordingly.
Dubbing to DVD is easy and very flexible.
I guess one of the main selling points of this unit will be the 1080p upscaling. I am glad to report that is works very well. It has a slightly "softer" image quality than the tuner of my Sony X-series TV for freeview transmissions, but upscaling for DVD looks very nice if you have a TV that supports 1080p.
Overall, well worth the money.
26 of 29 people found the following review helpful:
Good recorder let down by EPG
(4 out of 5) by Mr. D. R. Flack on Dec 27, 2007 (UK)This is a very good recorder let down by a fault in the EPG. Basically it's fine if you set it to record programs on the same day. However programs set more than 24 hours in advance can be lost.
The good news is that apparantly (according to the pcadvisor website) Sony have a fix on CD-ROM. Call them on 0800-1695263.
The good news is that apparantly (according to the pcadvisor website) Sony have a fix on CD-ROM. Call them on 0800-1695263.
13 of 14 people found the following review helpful:
Decidedly average for Sony
(3 out of 5) by S. Osbeck on Nov 6, 2007 (Aberdeenshire, UK)Although this unit has a fair few good features it falls down on some really basic areas. Firstly, the start-up and shutdown times are very long. Start-up taking approx 5-10 secs and shutdown taking a full 30 secs. The EPG is frequently wrong and doesn't always record the programmes scheduled. It has been suggested that this is simply due to poor reception but it didn't occur on my freeview box (also a Sony) so I don't see why it should be happening with this. It also doesn't play .wma files which is a bit of an irritation. Barring those flaws (which are very frustrating) the unit operates well although with hindsight I think I'd have opted for a similarly specified Panasonic.