Sony RDR-HXD860 (160 GB) DVD Recorder / HDD Recorder

This unit is the replacement to the highly successfull RDR-HXD710.
Its an action packed unit, with a freeview tuner, 160Gb hard disc drive, dvd recorder plus the ability to "upscale" your standard dvds.
If you have a Hd ready tv, well worth buying an HDMI lead and using this unit to play your dvds. It will upscale the image to 1080i, and enhance the quality.
Rated as product of the year for DVD recorders 2006.

*update may 2006*
This machine is about to be replaced - the new rdrhxd870 is an almost identical machine, but supports "theatre sync" (a new feature coming out on sony tvs) plus upscaling to 1080p.
So you should see the price of the 860 drop as stores try to dump their stock ready for the newer model.
steve

well what can you say about sony apart from there goods are allways A1 its easy to use and would not get rid of it for all the tea china it get the big thumbs up from me a 10 out of 10 well happy

This is an excellent DVD/HD recorder. Looks good and will do pretty much everything you want - you can watch a programme from the beginning even while it is still recording the end and it is great for burning directly from camcorder to DVD. Has revolutionised my freeview watching and I now have two of these beauties. Cons are that it is slightly slow in responding to the remote and it only has one digital tuner, but since you can't find a box that has two tuners aswell as a DVD recorder, this is probably the best you will get - like I say I have two so this is not an issue for me.

Feature packed, & excellent quality.
Takes some getting used to, had a Panasonic machine previously, and that was much easier to use. I guess that's the price you pay for having more bells & whistles.

The only negative things I can say about the machine, there seems to be a lag on the remote control, and fan noise can be noticeable.

I would give it 8/10.

Many reviews on his were excellent so after a lot of thinking i decided it was the one.

The ease of use is fantastic. Easy to follow menus and no worries with setup. It also looks the part and if you own a sony TV then the control functions for the TV are just as easy to understand.

However, why didn't sony buil twin tuners into it? I mean come on, How many people want to record a programme while watching another? Before anyone wonders why i still went for the this make and model the plan was that i already have a set top box so am using it as an equivalent of a video recorder, able to watch a programme on the other box.

Anywaygood luck and i hope you make the right choice.

Robin

what a fantastic machine!!!!!! not only does it do everything a DVD recorder do but it also has a 160GB hard disk aswell, add to that freeview built in and the fact that it plays DivX movies and you've got the ultimate entertainment package, HDMI is excellent quality at full 1080 it's so simple to use just plug in and run auto setup and you're done, it's the best thing i've bought in ages, it's even got a DVi input so it's compatible with the camcorder aswell, full editing facilities built in, sony have really outdone themselves. excellent excellent excellent!

The only possible way to improve this machine would be to bolt-on a 2nd tuner, so that you could record two differnt programmes at the same time. That aside, this machine cannot be bettered.

This is a fantastic bit of kit,very easy to use.The finish is as you would expect of sony.Highly recommend this player.The only down side is a single digital tuner so you can't watch one channel while recording another.

Although only a single tuner this PVR allows some things the dual tuners don't. You can record external sources to disk including Sky. It has a Freeview tuner and is also a DVD recorder.

I bought this as a simple to use PVR for my mother and it is reasonably intuative. I prefer a Toppy as a PVR but as a DVD recorder this has more bells and whistles than you can ever need.

This Sony was decided upon chiefly because is has no record "Stand By" mode. It is easily forgotten to switch to stand by mode. As it is impossible to see the DVD indicators at more than a meter away [why oh why] this is important.

The recordings are good, the Manual a let down-too small- to verbose- it is understood that the item is switched off by pressing the "ON/OFF" switch!

Jack Thompson. Age 85.

The only downside (not really a downside) is that it takes about 20 to 30 secs to turn on and initiate the hard drive.