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

This machine is a little gem, as with DVD recorders it can be a little slow at startup and when preparing discs to use. It is however very easy to setup and it takes only minimal reading of the instructions to get up and running.
The freeview image quality is very impressive and the build quality is rock solid a classy looker. Tons of record options to DVD which allow the user to decide what quality they want.
Well worth a look I have yet to start ripping cd's to the hard disc but the jukebox feature looks very good.

GOOD VALUE AT ABOUT £170(NOW SEEMS TO BE £230?)QUICK DELIVERY.
VERY COMPLICATED SET UP AND USE.NOT USED ALL FUNCTIONS YET AFTER 2 MONTHS.TOOK ABOUT A WEEK TO USE BASIC FUNCTIONS MAY BE MY AGE,BUT THEN AGAIN I'M RETIRED AND HAD ALL DAY TO SET UP!!!! ETC.VERY MANY MODES TO USE,WHICH IS EXCELLENT,BUT INSTRUCTION BOOKLET NOT USER FRIENDLY(ABOUT 150 PAGES)ALTHOUGH "ON SCREEN" INSTRUCTIONS ARE BETTER.

I read the reviews on the black version before buying this one and being a die hard (read sad) Sony loyalist I finally took the plunge...and so far i can report that a)Its easy to set-up b)theres no noise c)the manual's heavy going but straight forward d)the screens are straight forward.

The HXD-890 (or Magic Box as my kids call it) works just fine on normal freeview.

The only reason not to give it 5 stars is that the onscreen EPG isn't as nice as the VTX800U freeview box that I use for normal day-to-day viewing (i have it chained through the HDD) on my Sony KLV-27" LCD!!

I wanted a second Freeview / DVD recorder and as I already own an earlier similar Sony which has been superb, I had no hesitation in going for this unit. The recorder has both analogue and digital tuners and it is fairly easy to set up using the easy set up feature which takes the user through all of the set up procedures in a number of stages. The user manual is well written and the only issue I had was with selecting the correct EPG to use as there are two different EPG's "Guide Plus" and "Guide Digital" the latter being the standard DVB EPG. In use the device is very easy to operate and I would recomend this device to young or old, experienced users or novice.

After 2 months use of the recorder, am very pleased with the performance. I am presently in an area that receives both analogue and digital signals and the recorder records both with no difficulty. As always, a pain to set up; you need a higher degree in Physics to follow the instructions. I had to call upon the service department of Sony to clear up one difficulty, but they responded with the information I needed. Can now record all the TV stations and also record from an old video recorder to the new unit, making it easy to convert old videos to DVD discs. Copying DVD discs, one to another, is also easy with the dubbing facility. All in all, a good buy - though with the qualification that the Recorder is still only two months old.