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

This is a fantastic piece of kit. This is the 3rd one I have bought, this one was a present for a relative. This recorder has everything in it, DVD player, DVD recorder, freeview, hard drive recorder, photo storer, jukebox, it upscales DVD's to near HD quality, shame it doesn't make the tea. I can not recommend this product higher.

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.

After several problems with a previous purchase, (Amazon not at fault), we now have a product worth buying. Excellent model, good clear and sharp vision.

The Sony RDR HXD890 has lived up to all my expectations and moore, it is running quiet and the digital and HDMI picture quality are suburb.
The manual is a bit daunting, but I used on screen instructions,and had it set up and running in no time.
I just like to add I am 73 years old and usually not very good setting thing up, this was just a piece of cake!
Although not on the cheap side, I would still recommend this to any one , go and get it, it's a 'GEM'

The product arrived and it took mere minutes to set it up. It took approximately 24hrs to be fully ready to use as it downloaded programmes. The only issue i had with it was that i was expecting to be able to use the guideplus function however following many emails to help centres i found out my system would not accept it. Given that i am still very happy with the product.