Home > Consumer Reviews > Sony RDR-HXD890 Freeview+ 160GB Hard Disc Drive DVD Recorder - Black

We bought out HXD890 based on the positive reviews - that, coupled with the sparse choice of DVD-HDD recorders on Amazon. Unusually for Free Delivery, it arrived at 8:00 AM on the dot the day before it was due back in stock. Thanks Amazon!

Not surprisingly, the manual has received unanimous negative-views, which is both right and wrong. The manual is basically the same "theme" as any other Sony product - Tiny text, a million and a half sub-chapters, child-like diagrams, and words getting translated poorly from Japanese most likely. Despite all this, it IS readable, and after just 20 pages we were set up. The other 120-odd pages are really self explanatory as to extra features that aren't even advertised. Did you know about Printing from the unit? Nope - we didn't either...

Set-up took about an hour, after re-adjusting our current equipment to accommodate this unit. The set-up menus do take a good 10 minutes to get used to - in which time you'll tear your hair our by pressing the wrong buttons, due to their tiny nature on the remote (and also, be very un-logically layed out), but you will get accustomed to it. Unfortunately, we had a couple of problems cable wise - the manual poorly explained that if you want both Analogue and Digital TV receptions on your Unit, you need to plug the RF cables in the the 'Analogue' socket. Not such the case - You need to plug them into the 'Digital' sockets, which according to the manual, is purely for people without terrestrial TV....

E.P.G (Electronic Programme Guide) downloaded all the information within one hour of the first operation. Unfortunately, not all of the Sky channels are present - this is back up by the Manual which suggests some may need "adding manually". A bit of a pain, but oh well.

The EPG is a bit clunky, but it does the job so can't complain. Even displays little pictures of the Channel Logo's, bless. Timer Recording for future programmes only takes about 2-buttons and you're done. Very handy if you want to record a few programmes when you're not around.

The "Pause" live TV feature is OK, but no-where near as smooth as that of Sky +. On Sky +, it's just one button, and it pauses... On the HXD890, their is a short preparation time, then a 'pause'. Forwarding to the Live transmission isn't as smooth, but we tested it on a football game this evening and it was surprisingly effective. It even has a feature that locks to the pitch of the sound, so that as it forwards, the voices stay the same pitch.

A DVD Recorder is built into this unit and is very easy to use - perfect. Playing back DVD's is also a doddle and everything can be viewed on HDMI. We've chosen to connect our unit via SCART and HDMI, so that the TV switches to Scart automatically when the Unit is turned on, and we can play back DVD's just by choosing HDMI on the TV remote. To be fair, the up-scaling isn't effective enough to be used 24/7 - SCART is perfectly fine.

With regards to video's, during set-up we completely took it out and simply connected it via component-SCART (Yellow-White-Red) to the front of our new Unit temporarily. This allowed us to copy any remaining programmes/films we had to watch. Thankfully, most were just awful Channel 5 films!

I do sympathise with those that have exchanged grim words with the Owners Manual. Over 150 Pages long and it still took us several different cable layouts over 3 days to get everything working properly, not to mention the way in which it refers to future Instances (eg Step 5 from Step 1) in the past tense, when the Step hasn't even begun... Or the tiny text they persist in printing with... or their Sub-Chapters in Sub-Chapters in Sub-Chapters in another larger Chapter... Welcome to the world of Sony Manuals! Trust me though, my ATRAC Walkman 4 years ago was far worse.

The reason it took us this long to set everything up correctly was because the Manual only offers 4 different 'Set-ups';

A) HDD Recorder + TV (Operating only the Analogue Tuner)
B) "" "" "" + TV (Operating only the Digital Tuner)
C) "" "" "" + TV(Operating Both Analogue + Digital Tuners)
D) "" "" "" + TV + Satellite Box (Analogue Tuner OR Digital Tuner)

So hang on... What about the most common set-up that everyone's going to want? The HDD Recorder + Satellite Box, running both Analogue and Digital Tuners?

It's not even covered!

I was about to crack on the 3rd day, catalysed by spilling red wine on the carpet near to the TV (I thought the influence of well matured grapes may improve my reading of the manual). So, I decided to try and combine set-up D) with C) as a last effort. Success! But did Sony not think that people might actually want to use both Analogue and Digital tuners, even if they have a Sky box?

One touch recording is fantastic, LINE IN inputs are great for recording off Videos/Games consoles/Old camcorders/absolutely anything temporarily if you only want to plug them into the front of the machine via Scart Composite or S-Video. This was how we transferred our Video's onto the HDD - luckily however, the majority were rubbish Channel 5 films! Theirs also a mass of features that aren't even covered on this product page, including Printer connection for Photo's.

160GB = around 70 hours of 'SP' Quality footage, but this is actually identical to any Digital broadcasting. So I highly doubt you'll even touch 'HQ' mode. Music and Photo options are rather good, but not as easy or quick to use as that of our Playstation 3. USB Storage Devices can be plugged in to transfer data/files.

The Remote Control offers an INPUT button to switch between all of the mentioned functions, which is very handy. Syncing the new Remote to our Philips TV took just one special "code" combination - I was suprised as regularly these never work. My final delight - the package comes with a tiny plug-in Infa Red receiver which automatically switches channels on your Sky box for the Timer Recording feature. Brilliant!

As far as negatives go, the only big disappointment is that you can't switch channels/INPUT when you're recording something. We've tried countless times using the INPUT button to switch between Sky/Digital/terrestrial, but it simply says "Cannot Perform The Operation Now". Unless your TV has Digital built in, you're going to be pretty bored!

Just in response to other peoples problems; Our Unit only makes a slight whisper of a sound. I suspect Sony have redesigned the box, as quite frankly, it looks very different to the picture on this Product Page (much, much thinner, a bit wider, different placed buttons). Also, to those that complained about having to "have the box on to view Sky/terrestrial TV", think again. The Power Save menu lets you choose which connections can be 'allowed' through even when the Unit is turned off.

Sony RDR-HXD890 Freeview+ 160GB Hard Disc Drive DVD Recorder - Black
This is an excellent machine which once set up is actually very easy to use. Setting up is easy (some reviews have said how difficult this is)- you just follow the instructions relevant to how you want to set it up with regard to your existing equipment and whether you're in a Freeview area or not (most probably will be). The instruction book is not as bad as it first appears, as someone else has already said it would be very difficult to make the manual less detailed given the amount of possible functions on the machine. It is very much a question of learning how to do the bits you want and not be daunted by all the options available.
I did find it difficult to work out which EPG I should use (given that I could use both) but opted for the GuidePlus EPG which once downloaded is excellent. I would advise you to learn how to programme the timer manually (very easy) as the one button function is brilliant but since BBC1 was overrunning on Christmas Day by about 3 minutes I had a whole load of programmes recorded with their ends cut off (they actually continued into the next programme). This was very annoying as it would have been nice to have copied one or two programmes to DVD but since the ends of these programmes now merge onto the beginning of the next recording the easy DVD/HDD dubbing won't be much use here. Yes, there is PDC but unless I've missed something, I don't think that works on the one button record function. Picture quality is excellent both for DVD playback and HDD (only used HQ setting on the HDD at the moment - approx 35hours at this quality). Assume quality will get worse on lower quality settings but not tried. Remote is fairly logical but a few buttons are a bit randomly placed - just a question of getting used to it really.
A tip not clearly mentioned in the instructions but is probably there if you look hard enough - NEVER switch machine off at the wall or unplug the machine as it will loose the EPG information. It will then take another 24 hours to get it back. The unit is designed to stay on - so don't worry about it - anyway you'll notice that it updates the EPG twice a day and won't be able to do this if you like switching things off at the wall when you're not using them! There's probably more to say, but don't want to confuse you more - well recommended but do take the time to learn how to use it properly. Recording to HDD is a joy - so easy!

I bought this on the strength of other Amazon reviews, and I have to say I'm not in the least disappointed. The picture quality from the Freeview was immediately so much better than I'd been used to through my old LG recorder. I didnt realise there was such a world of colour out there! The unit is quiet, a doddle to setup, and though the manual is a little hefty, you hardly need it. I felt like I'd had it for years within a day. The recordings are excellent, both on HDD and DVD, and dubbing from one to the other is a breeze.

I've had this unit a week, and so far, there's no downside.

I have been using an Eltax DVR-555HD Recorder for the last 2 - 3 years and partly due to the number of set-top boxes I had connected and also the trusty old Eltax being a tad noisy I decided to upgrade to a machine with a Freeview tuner, upscaling and HDMI included. Having read various reviews on the Sony machine I took the plunge and ordered one.(Thanks for free delivery, landed two days before expected) The first thing I noticed when the machine was on was the distinct lack of mechanical noise, setup was straight forward enough, soon found all available Freeview stations. There is an option for using Guide Plus+ programme guide making it necessary for the machine to be left on standby through the night and also the analogue aerial connected, after giving this a go I decided to keep things simple and just use Digital EPG. There are quite a number of recording quality settings available via System Setup Menu. In fact there are a bewildering number of various options available for the adventurous! Advise downloading operating manual from Sony site to see what this machine is capable of. There are various editing options available when editing recorded content, this took a little getting used to after the 'simple' Eltax. Just a note: unlike the Eltax this machine detects if programme content is protected and will not record it. The ONLY critisism I have of this machine is the handset, when editing, any one with 'podgy' fingers may struggle due to the smallness and closeness of some buttons. I do a lot of editing when making DVDs for my 6yr old grandson and one of the options available is to make a photo slide-show (either transfering files from CD or memory stick) and add music tracks for a musical photo album. On the whole I am delighted with this recorder and fully recommend it.

The unit probably deserves 5 stars, recording to the hard drive is as easy as putting in an old VHS tape and pressing record.
Once the electronic programme guide is set up (it takes 24hrs) then timed recordings could not be easier and after 2 weeksI have had no cut offs, I like the juke box and the photo album, just plug a flash stick into the usb and you can listen to mp3 and view photos from the stick or copy them onto the hard drive.
So why not 5 stars ? well this is my first Sony product and I have not been impressed with the `experience'. The manual is NOT easy reading, they should have a separate leaflet with a quick start up guide, the instructions cover set up for digital and analog settings, why a digital recorder needs analog is beyond me. Ok it could be me and the instructions are starting to make sense after 2 weeks reading and as I get used to the machine.
My biggest gripe is this everyone told me to buy an HDMI lead as the picture quality would be better and I would have less cables
cluttering the back of the TV so I purchased one at the same time. Everything seemed to be working fine then I tried one of my old films
I have over 100 recorded to DVD from my old VHS and from the TV, but the picture would not fill the screen, I have a 42'' TV and the picture
was 4:3 about a 25'' square picture and no matter what I did with the TV zoom buttons the picture would go no bigger, then I noticed that this was the case for some of the music channels although the adverts were ok, also new bought DVDs were ok.
After reading the manual and finding no solutions I fitted the scart lead , everything through the scart fills the screen.
I emailed Sony and asked them if this was normal, they came back to me and said that if a programme was recorded or broadcast in 4:3 then that is how the HDMI would 'see' it. 90% of my recording will be to the hard drive, but I did try a timed recording to a DVD this also came out 4:3. So to prove it one way or the other I put in a brand new DVD and did an instant record for 3 mins the programme was the BBC's breakfast show I stopped the DVD and did an instant record to the hard drive the same programme, result: through the HDMI is DVD 4:3 picture hard drive fills screen???
10 days ago I re emailed Sony to explain this but as yet I have had no reply, A couple of days ago I called in the Sony shop in Meadowhall and asked them if this was normal I don't think they knew, and then the guy asked where I bought my unit I told him Amazon, and then he said 'we are not supposed to give out technical information to people who had
bought from the internet'.If you do buy this machine do not bother with HDMI lead then every thing should be ok. I know its not the end of the
world I can watch new DVDs and the hard drive through the HMDI and everything else through the scart but I seem to have had a lot of hassle to find all this out.
Mick Carver