Sony RDR-HXD870 DVD Recorder 160GB HDD - Black

I use it with a TV with built in freeview. It means I can record one digital channel on the hard drive / dvd and watch another on the tv at the same time. Timer recordings can be made same way without the need to set the channel timer on the tv as i had to before. Absolutely brilliant !!! Build quality is to sony high standards and the remote operates the hard drive as well as tv and accesses text........set up took 5 mins........

This was a replacement for my samsung HDR730 and I tell you the samsung belongs on the scrap heap
This dvd recorder does wonderful things and the recording quality is truly brilliant even on the lower quality settings, not sure about the recordings but am sure they will fit to the disc so even if they are on high quality it should down scale the quality automatically.
only down sight is the front display which is a little dull but dont take that away from what this amazing product does
Highly recommended to all out there you will not be disappointed at all

First impressions of the 870 were very good. Pictures from the digital tuner were crisp and vibrant, and bear in mind that i have it hooked up to a 32" CRT T.V for now, so its going to look so much better on a Lcd or Plasma screen. Again, this is another reason to use the digital tuner as images appear so much more life like. You will however need to make sure that you can receive freeview and that a rooftop aerial is fitted with a good quality coax cable being recommended to receive the best signal possible.

When it comes to recordings the Sony is first class. With HQ level recordings the highest quality the picture is utterly pristine and even the lower quality settings are acceptable, although I would not advise setting the recording level lower than LSP. I have my level set at SP from which you will get 68 hours of very good quality recording time.

Dvd playback is where this recorder really shines, with full upscaling all the way to the heights of 1080p. Again, once this is connected through the HDMI output to a Hi-Def screen this is going to look stunning. Black levels are excellent and contrast levels look very natural. It can also handle Divx playback.

A comprehensive array of sockets including DV and USB inputs are present at the front of the recorder behind a drop down panel.
If you're wondering what you could do with a USB input, there's a pleasant surprise. It lets you instantly rip music from a USB device onto the hard-disk using the music jukebox feature. The sound quality from the USB drive was as good as playback from an actual disc.

You can also transfer images to the hard drive from a digital camera from the USB input. As an added bonus you can then print images on your hard drive by connecting a compatible pictbridge printer to the USB input on the recorder.

Overall this is a feature packed Dvd Recorder that does everything you would need a Dvd recorder to do, and at a very competitive price. For these reasons i would give this a highly recommended rating.

When I purchased a Sony TV this came as a free offer.

Its great, the DVD player is very good, quality is excellent, I can't say I can notice a massive improvement via the HDMI (HD cable) upscaling, but its still a lot better than my old Sony DVD.

What make's this special is the Freeview tuner and built in Hard drive, I have had a couple of the Thomson Freeview boxes with hard drives which were good, but the Sony is so much better, the picture used to always drop out with the Thomson, It's a rare thing with the Sony, which means It has a better tuner.

It's also got a large storage capacity, where as I was always deleting on the Thomson to make more space.
Very easy to use, all you do is select the menu, (which is like the teletext menu), select the program you want to record, press the red button and that's it, It will start recording when the program starts, how I ever managed with a video recorder?

It's not the cheapest DVD player, but would give it a consideration, If I need to buy another I would not hesitate.

I have bought this recently and I have to say the upscaling on this is superb even at 1080i. Looks great sitting next to my ps3. However to get the full potential you will need a tv that has 1080p! great dvd recorder.