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Sony RDR-HX900 DVD Recorder with 160 GB Hard Disk Recorder
Submitted by Reviewer (not verified) on 3 October, 2005 - 05:22.
| Sony RDR-HX900 DVD Recorder with 160 GB Hard Disk Recorder |
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| Model | RDRHX900 | | Made | Sony | | Media | Electronics | | Catalog | CE | | Sales Rank | 25785 |
Goto Amazon.com
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Reviews:| Rating 3.5/5 from 24 reviews | | This unit falls short | | Rating: 1/5 (15 out of 20 think this is helpful) 2006-08-01 | Looking to get another unit to go with my Toshiba RD-SX32, I went for the HX-900. This unit falls incredibly short in comparison and has me scratching my head, why did I get this unit! I have a great basis for comparison as the Toshiba does so many things that the SONY either cannot or does much worse.
I keep scouring the manual thinking I'm missing something, but I will just have to deal.
If you like your sports, sorry, this is where the separation starts to happen, the slow motion stinks, you have to press 2 buttons, pause and then slow forward / back, it is seriously to slow, one speed! You have to be kidding SONY. The Toshiba has variable slow motion speeds all using one button - slow to a speedy slow motion. Fantastic for sports, the commercial skip is even worse, fast 1, 2 and 3 doesn't skip past it runs through the commercials the Toshiba truly skips past instantly at totally programmable intervals.
I find its better using the fast forward 2 to get past the commercials as opposed to the not so) instant skip, problems are forward one and 2 are too slow, for some unknown reason Sony figured if you keep forward 3 depressed it rips past everything progressively faster leaving you with no control over where you are going to stop like the movie the time machine, making forward 3 useless for fast forwarding past commercials.
So, in other words after 2 years with the Toshiba, I can get through the commercials in about 5-8 seconds, with the Sony its about 15-20 seconds having to watch the stupid things on fast forward.
No playlists on the hard drive, if this is your first DVD HD you may not know how valuable they are for sorting the shows and editing them, I am kicking myself for buying this unit. Playlists on the HD are used everyday, playlists on the DVD are not. You can only use playlists on one type of disc and that disc is -RWvr and it's not usable on all DVD players after finalizing. Editing and dubbing large lists /scrolling through each show separately without grouping them in playlists, I am not even going to get started on that, its futile and in in the stoneage of editors.
But one of the biggest things (how the heck did I miss this in the specs) no picture in picture. AAAAHHHH. It's a must for watching recordings while watching live tv, so you know exactly when the commercials are over.
Like I said, if you have not owned a DVD with these other goodies, you may not know what your missing until you read this.
We all know about this but I feel its worth mentioning one more time, the on screen guide is useless, you have the option to program the channels manually, as I did you will too, painstakingly moving the channels to the correct position and channel number, only see your 1 hour of work disappear with the next tv guide download.
SONY, I am surprised, but moreso mad at myself for after owning a superior in features DVD player, (and much less expensive unit) I should have known better.
On the positive side, I normally upgrade every couple of years and until then I will make sure not to record my sports on this stinker. If you're a movie file and don't care about these type things this may be a good unit for you as the picture quality is very good in HQ, not on SLP however, so forget the 200+ hours on the HD if you want a good picture.
I see these glowing reviews except regarding the guide and I am stunned. This unit needs lots of work what ever the price you pay.
| | great machine but TVGOS is terrible | | Rating: 4/5 (18 out of 21 think this is helpful) 2006-02-26 | 5 months later: TVGOS is getting more stable but still fails once a month or every other month. I advise using a little UPS with this recorder because all your TVGOS gets lost if the power blinks. The DVR is still working perfectly.
What else can I tell you? Ok, the clock is really accurate. Also it's best to not schedule one show immediately after another - say 9-10 then 10-11 because you'll lose the ending of the first show if the 2nd one is on a different channel. HQ+ mode is fantastic but you can only fit about 40 minutes onto a DVD. Standard SP mode is all you really need for a regular TV. Keep the user manual handy; there are lots of little features you'll want to look up. I think the user manual was really rushed. You have to cross reference lots of stuff, always jumping 50 pages back and forth. TVGOS doesn't sort the channels by number, and this is a huge pain to do manually. Don't bother, just jump to the channel you want in the TVGOS listings. I only notice the fan noise when its super quiet in the room. Its not an issue. You can't do high speed HD-DVD dubbing in HQ+ mode ... stick with SP!
Bottom line after nearly 10 months of ownership: still very happy with the unit, picture quality is great, use a UPS with it, it takes some effort to learn how to do everything. HD capacity is great: I recorded the entire season of Lost in HQ+ and still had room for a couple of other shows. In SP mode the HD wouldn't even be half full yet.
DVR Nits to pick: I wish the Start/End X minutes early feature would let me start/end early or late. When editing out the commercials using the A-B Erase feature, it's hard to find the exact instant the recording starts. Some sort of frame counter would be helpful there. The F3 super fast forward jumps longer and longer the longer you leave it on. I'd prefer it to go 6 minutes a jump, which is about how long the typical commercial block runs. F2 is a bit too slow a jump as well. Adding titles is a bit cumbersome; each number on the keypad is 3 letters from the alphabet and the number. That's a lot of buttons to press, but I think all DVRs are like this?
TVGOS Nits: TVGOS must send out some kind of Show Is Over signal which ends the recording. Sometimes this isn't until several minutes after the show is actually over. Some kind of look ahead feature would be nice too: if you've scheduled your show to record weekly but it isn't on this week you have to reschedule it. This shouldn't be this way; if the show IS on this week you can access its schedule data and it will show you when its on next time. So why lose the schedule if its off a week, why not just set the next date to 2 weeks from now? Last TVGOS nit: it sure would be nice if updates were done at a known time, and a whole lot faster. Getting the full schedule takes days, and this stinks when you've had a blip and are trying to reschedule all your shows.
end update
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Original Review:
I've had this unit for 4+ months. Works great, records great, super quality picture.
You are pretty much forced to use the TV Guide Online Service (TVGOS) feature, which is easy ... except it is very undependable. Every so often - once a month, or week, or day (seems to be random) the schedule will dissappear and it will take all your scheduled programs with it. Oh, the recorded shows will still be on the HD, but the scheduling will be gone. And you will NEVER know when, or how often, this will occur. Wait a couple days and most of the TVGOS will be back, and you can reprogram all your stuff ... until the next time. And there WILL be a next time. I've read several message boards online, and I gather all DVRs that use TVGOS do this. Oh, and forget about the "I'll just do manual recordings like on a VCR" solution. When TVGOS forces a reset you lose those too.
TVGOS is faulty. Do not buy anything that uses it until they work out the bugs. | | Steep learning curve - program guide confusing..... | | Rating: 2/5 (11 out of 13 think this is helpful) 2006-02-07 | Unfortunately - in the 8 months I have had the HX-900 it has never worked
with my Motorola digi cable box - making the TV-Guide funtion useless. It works
well when manually programmed to record a specific program at a specific time on
a specific channel but requires your cable box to be left on at all times. Also - I find myself disconnecting the DVR and running my cable around it so I can see HD channels - which will not go through the DVR. The hard disk has many nice options for quality and has 160G of storage. The dubbing feature (to the built-in DVD recorder) is pretty easy - and tells you how much space you need, how big the program is, etc. The title keyboard is ridiculous. You have to scroll everywhich way to name the program
on your DVD (a function of the TV Guide info not getting through).
Disappointing considering the unit cost over $1000 - and I only hook it up when I need to record a show. Get a TiVo and a DVDR!!! | | This product has a fatal, fatal design flaw | | Rating: 1/5 (24 out of 26 think this is helpful) 2006-02-03 | The Sony RDR HX900 is a truly great product, except for one problem. Unfortunately, that one problem is a fatal design flaw that renders the product unreliable.
The HX 900 downloads the TV Guide OnScreen (TVGOS) television listings that orignate from GemStar. Based on message board postings, owners all over the country experience the same thing: every once in a while, the unit loses all of the program listing information, the channel lineup, and -- worst of all -- your scheduled recordings. Now, anything that you have previously recorded is still there on the hard drive, but your entire upcoming schedule is gone. You leave for work in the morning and things look great; you think that you will record some shows while you are gone. When you come home, no program listings, no more recording schedule, and the shows that you thought would record, well, they did not record. It is so unreliable that I have a VCR sitting right there next to the DVR to serve as a backup -- the VCR records everything that the DVR does, because I know, without a doubt, that at some seemingly random point, the DVR will fail to do its job.
I have spent hours on the phone and on the internet researching this problem. You have to go through at least three people at Sony before you can even get anyone to admit that they have ever heard of the problem. Some of the customer service people are so clueless that they actually believe that the problem is with your outgoing connection to the television; obviously the problem comes in through the input, not the output.
People all over the country have the same problem. And, it is with all brands of DVRs. The only commonality is the TVGOS. Read more about this at:
http://forum.ecoustics.com/bbs/messages/2/139837.html
I believe that GemStar periodically sends some sort of reset signal down the line. This signal is delivered to you via your PBS station. If your unit is not downloading at the moment that the reset comes across the line, you're ok; but if you are downloading, your DVR resets. Thus the apparent randomness of it all.
I finally got a technician at Sony to tell me that he would check to see if anyone was communicating with GemStar about this (GemStar's support number tells you that they communicate only with manufacturers, not consumers). Until the manufacturers and GemStar solve this reset problem, you should not buy any product which relies on TVGOS data. | | RDR-HX900 plus HV-670 combination will give everything you ever dream of | | Rating: 5/5 (4 out of 7 think this is helpful) 2006-01-24 | Strengths: This is a great DVD recorder, easy to edit and program, really sharp DVD's, the best electronic equipment I ever had (I did not try a progressive mode, because I have a regular TV).
Weaknesses: TV Programming Guide does not work for digital cable boxes (but I don't really need it). There is a half of sec. delay between chapters, when you copy directly to DVDs (you will not have it if you turn off Auto Chapter). There are no digital audio input ports.
(...)So, now I can play all my video files from the HV-670 removable hard drive (or from the RDR-HX900) on my TV. I can also record TV programs on the RDR-HX900 hard drive and copy them on DVDs (and from these DVDs to the HV-670 hard drive). From the HV-670 hard drive I can copy files to/from my computer.
If I need to copy anything from the HV-670 hard drive to the RDR-HX900, I just play the file on the HV-670 and record it on the RDR-HX900 hard drive. I think this is a perfect combination of all options, you ever dream of. |
Editorials:Product Description2/8/200615-19-32...
Amazon.com Product Description The ultimate digital audio/video recording device, Sony's versatile RDR-HX900 lets you record to a choice of formats (DVD-R/-RW, DVD+R/+RW) and even stores audio/video programming--everything from television shows to camcorder footage--on its internal 160 GB hard drive. Now you can record your TV programs to the hard drive using an advanced onscreen program guide and archive your favorite shows or movies to long-lasting DVD, dubbing at up to 24x normal speed (depending on your recordable media and your recording mode). There's even an IR blaster for satellite and cable-box control. The RDR-HX900's compatibility with DVD+RW/+R and DVD-RW/-R discs gives you the widest selection of recording and viewing choices available. The recorder also incorporates several picture-improvement technologies, which you'll benefit from whether you're viewing from the HDD or creating enhanced DVD recordings. An easy-to-use graphical user interface (GUI) grants easy recording from broadcast programs via off-air antenna, cable, or satellite receivers. When recording to the built-in hard-disk drive (HDD), you'll be able to record and store up to 204 hours--that's more than 8 straight days, mind you--of your favorite TV shows and movies. The RDR-HX900 can record at HQ+ mode in the hard disk drive, which offers approximately 1.5 times greater resolution than the highest possible bit-rate recording on DVD. The HQ+ mode, along with Dynamic Variable Bit Rate, provide outstanding picture quality. It's especially beneficial when recording quick and complex-motion images or playback from the HDD. The RDR-HX900 also provides hassle-free connection with compatible camcorders through its front panel i.Link interface (for DV/D8 connection and easy tape-to-disc content transfers). In addition to granting simple camcorder hook-ups, the i.Link (DV/D8) interface gives you operational control over the connected camcorder via the supplied Remote Commander remote control. You can even copy the entire contents of your DV or D8 tape by selecting the convenient 1-touch dubbing feature. The recorder offers advanced editing features for content originating on camcorder tapes. The 2 basic options consist of either downloading the entire contents to a DVD disc and then editing the content in non-linear fashion right on the disc, or more traditional linear editing directly from tape. The RDR-HX900 also features Time Base Correction, pre-frame noise reduction, and pre-video equalizer technologies that rebalance and equalize video content before it's recorded onto a DVD, improving the original source content even before the encoding process begins. In the output phase, the RDR-HX900 recorder combines frame noise reduction, block noise reduction, and video equalizer technologies to produce a rich and textured visual with minimal picture interference from background artifacts or distortion. Finally, the recorder offers proprietary DVD playback technology called Precision Cinema Progressive, which incorporates Pixel-by-Pixel I/P Conversion technology to augment and balance DVD-video elements. You'll need a high-definition or HD-ready television to appreciate this process. A 12-bit/108 MHz video D/A converter ensures exceptional picture quality for an unforgettable viewing experience, while audio decoding occurs at an amazing 192 kHz/24-bits. What's in the Box
DVD recorder/player, remote control, remote batteries, a user's manual, stereo analog audio interconnect/composite-video cable, and an RF coaxial video cable.
Features:- Universal DVD-R/DVD-RW, DVD+R/+RW recorder and player with built-in 160 GB hard-disk drive
- Record up to 5 hours of audio/video content per single-sided 4.7 GB DVD; record and store up to 204 hours/8.5 days of AV content on the HDD
- High-speed dubbing from HDD to DVD (up to 24x)
- Front-panel i.Link digital interface (DV/D8) provides simple, high-quality connection to camcorders
- Timer recording with advanced electronic program guide
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