Sony RDR-HXD710 DVD Recorder with 160 GB Hard Drive and Freeview

I personally had to learn to use the machine first, but now I realise it is quite easy to use. It records on dvd and hard drive in varios speeds.it was as described.

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We purchased this unit back in October. It's absolutely brilliant and I would purchase another tomorrow if it were stolen tonight. At a stroke it enabled us to replace our video recorder, freeview box and DVD player with this single unit (out with 3 remotes and in with just 1). Also because most of the programmes we watch are just time shifted (rather than saved long term) the hard drive effectively replaced the need for numerous video tapes too. The menu system is childs play and the list of programmes recorded are listed chronologically each with the name of the programme, the date and time it was recorded, how much space it takes on the disc and a thumbnail picture as well. Sony provide a number of differnet recoding qualities with the best ones undetectable from the original broadcasts. The 8 day electronic programme guide makes set-up so simple even my better half can do it (and find the recordings to watch again too). Simply scroll through the programme listings over the next 8 days and click enter when you find the programme you want to record - job done. Pause TV and chase playback are brillinat too. Recorded programmes can easily be dubbed to DVD if required. The DVD uses exactly the same menu system as the HDD. If I had to suggest any improvemnets then an bigger hard drive would be great (but then there's the 910) and a second digital tuner so that you could watch one channel and record another (but our old freeview box lets us do that). All in all an excellent unit that we now wonder how we previously manged without before.

This is a brilliant machine. We've had it since November, and I use it every day. I can't believe I was thinking about getting one without Freeview: the EPG and PVR functions are what make this recorder so special, way beyond what a 'normal' DVD recorder does. Setup was incredibly easy, picture quality is stunning. I only had a set-top aerial with an amplifier and expected to be ordering a new roof aerial, but it found 70 stations. Picture quality appears to be better than our NTL cable connection. I haven't used any of the editing functions yet, but dubbing onto DVD from hard disc is pretty easy, and works fine. I've only used SP quality (there are two higher levels) which looks as good as broadcast to me. You can dub an hour at SP in 5 mins, though you need to allow a couple of minutes each for formatting and finalising the disc - the latter if you are going to play in another machine. In conclusion, this machine exceeded our expectations and has in a small way changed our lives. It is so easy to capture the programmes we like that the only challenge is finding enough time to watch them.

It may have cost me more than a Panasonic or whatever, but this is a great machine. Talk about user friendly. The on screen functions take you effortlessly through everything from initial set up to the content library. The EPG guide (TV listings) means viewing or recording a program is only two or three clicks. Quality is excellant too. Just make sure you buy the UK version (HXD) and not the European (HX), which doesn't have the freeview decoder, EPG, etc. I very nearly fell into that trap when comparing prices. If I were to have a nit pick, it would be about the layout of the remote control.

Not often does something this good come along. This machine ticks all the right boxes. It is very easy to set up, I had it working fifteen minutes after it arrived. The picture and sound quality are excellent, the electronic programme guide is simple to use and makes recording easy. An hour of recording in SP mode uses about 2Gb of disc space. Dubbing onto discs is easy too, but I did find out that there are two formats to DVD-RW discs, VR and Video. Video mode is the more common format, but the machine defaults to VR mode. The only other minor hitch was when playing a DVD that had DTS and not Dolby 5.1, it took me a while to find the audio settings to switch DTS on. On the whole I am delighted.

I had been biding my time for 6 months waiting for a suitable DVD recorder with HDD in my price range. I identified the Sony RDR-HXD710 as the device for me and I have not been disapointed. The setup is fairly intuitive and although the remote control is sizable, it merges the DVD and Freeview controls but with out confusion. The Freeview part of the machine is super, it replaced a Phillips box I had which kept freezing, losing channels and was generally a nightmare. The Sony Freeview reciever has worked perfectly. The DVD recorder offers pause live TV, chasing playback and the timer works really easy with the Freeview EPG (8 days). I was suprised at how easy this works - no more messing with video tapes for me. There are 4 different record modes depending on the quality/ size of recording wanted. Also the 160 Gb hard drive is large enough for all my recording needs. Although fairly pricy, the quality, ease of use and reliablility of the machine means I would recommend it to anyone. The only downside I have noted is the absence of an HDMI socket for connection to a hi-definition TV.