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

Spent weeks trying to decide which model to buy. My priorities included a) Quiet b) Easy to Use c) Easy to Install d) Compatible with my existing equipment (includes Epson Projector, LG Cinema Sound, Sharp LCD. It came up trumps in all requirements. My wife could not get on with my previous LG DVD recorder...far too complicated, but within 30 mins was recording to HDD quite merrily. The manual looks daunting, but to be up and running you need about 3 pages only. The manual is available on-line at Sony's site, so I got everything planned before it arrived.

A couple of Reviews on the "Black" version complained about noise ... must have been a faulty item, and another about intrusive LEDs but neither have been noted.

I would recommend this to anyone.

All my electronics are Sony and this lived up to my expectations fom a quality manufacturer. However, like all modern equipment, you need a degree to get the most out of it! Why have Sony changed the layout and functions in the various menus? Admittedly this recorder receives Freeview as well as analogue TV but it has made it rather more complicated than earlier models. Manufacturers ought to aim to simplify. Fortunately this was an upgrade from another Sony DVD recorder otherwise I might also have found the manual a little daunting. Perhaps things will improve when analogue finally ends. One other niggle is the front display. It is very dim and difficult to read against the bright HDD/DVD indicator and the light from the TV. The clock is almost invisible when in standby mode, especially in daylight. Having said all this, I am still very pleased with the functioning of this equipment and would definitely go for Sony again.

This is my second Sony DVD recorder and it performs just as well as the first with the added bonus of Freeview. There are a few oddities though.
1. Almost every Sony DVD recorder has a totally different way of adding titles to recordings Why ?
2. This machine seems to have the ability when you transfer an ITV HD recording to a DVD to allow you to then separate out the adverts so you can clip them out but this is not advertised - I wonder why ?
3. If you choose to transfer the recording to DVD using a lower standard (eg EP to SLP) the new recording is redated and retimed. Why on earth do this ?
All in all an excellent machine but Oh dear, what a manual - no better than the last !!

I haven't given this unit full marks but it is one of the best digital recorders I have ever bought - my first experience was so good I bought a second one for upstairs.

What do I think is so great? It has bullet-proof reliability - so rare among modern digital equipment. How many times have you gone out leaving the timer set for your favourite program, only to come back and find your recorder has locked up or fallen over? It's extremely frustrating when you miss that key episode of your favourite soap or sci-fi series. This Sony unit has never (yes, I mean never) failed to do exactly what was programmed on its timer.

OK, perhaps I value timer reliability more than some people, but for me this is the most important attribute. The best quality unit in the world is useless if you go away for two weeks holiday and come back to nothing recorded.

After all this praise, why less than five stars?

First, the unit is complicated to use. I am quite technically enthusiastic and I usually suss out everything I need in a few minutes. Not with this unit - a good long sit-down with the manual is a must. However, after some study and once you get used to it, thing improve rapidly. This video is probably a bad idea for those who have difficulty with technology but the rest of us should cope well enough.

Second, although the unit can split recordings up, it can't splice separate recordings back together. Although you can trim the fat off the start and end of programs before copying to DVD, you can't edit out adverts etc. in the middle of programs. This is a strange omission given its ability to cut files accurately in its frame-accurate edit mode.

Third, I sometimes use +RW DVDs to take temporary copies for viewing on another player. The DVD must be finalised or it won't work elsewhere. When I want to reuse the DVD, the Sony occasionally refuses to reformat the finalised disk (i.e. erase it for reuse) - the option remains grayed-out. When this happens, I have to reformat the troublesome disk in another recorder before reuse in the Sony. If you don't have another recorder (or a computer), you might throw out used +RW discs once in a while.

I love these machines to bits but they may not suit everybody. I hope the information above proves useful.

The Sony RDR-HXD890 is a DVD recorder with an added hard disc. Unlike a Humax PVR9200T, it is NOT a digital PVR as it does not record the original digital data, so there is ALWAYS a loss of quality. Just like a DVD recorder, the picture is converted from digital to analogue and then back from analogue to digital. The built-in digital encoder is no match for those used by TV stations. This has severe consequences:
- Recorded picture quality is never quite as good as live picture quality (even at HQ+).
- The best recorded picture quality takes up huge amounts of disc space compared to a digital PVR.
- When recorded at about the same bandwidth as the original broadcast, the picture quality is poor.

Minor problems with its DVD-recorder approach include:
- loss of selectable subtitles
- loss of program information
- pausing live programs takes a few seconds to kick in

On the positive side, it does a lot quite well:
- Freeview receiver and DVD player with HDMI upscaling
- music juke box
- photo album
- G-Link recorder from set-top-boxes (Sky or Virgin)