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Sony RDRHXD560S 80GB HDD DVD Recorder with Freeview | 
| Brand: Sony
Category: CE
Buy New: £299.99
Rating:  22 reviews
Sales Rank: 21256
Media: Electronics
Shipping Weight (lbs): 9.7
Dimensions (in): 21.5 x 19.3 x 7
MPN: RDRHXD560S.CEK
Model: RDRHXD560S.CEK
EAN: 4905524353891
ASIN: B000H5U3U0
Release Date: July 31, 2006
Availability: Usually dispatched within 1-2 business days
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Product Description
80GB Hard Drive DVD Recorder model with Digital Tuner.
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| Customer Reviews: Read 17 more reviews...
Super piece of kit but slow menu system. November 27, 2007
Blackadr (South East, UK)
2 out of 2 found this review helpful
Having previously owned the excellent non-freeview forerunner to this model I didn't hesitiate in choosing this freeview model so as to cut down on the number of remotes confusing my wife! Absolutely no problems with setup. Made a positive choice for 80GB rather than 160GB - you're not going to leave stuff you want to keep on the hard drive - you'll want that on DVD so having more disk just delays that initial cleanup you have to do when the disk is full and you want to record something. 80GB gives plenty of HQ recording time IMO.
My only disappointment is with the speed of response when starting up and from the remote. When in standby, pressing any function will wake it but takes about 30 seconds. Operating the menu system is inexplicably slow when compared to the previous model - e.g. each down-scroll through the title list takes a second or two whereas the non-freeview version was pretty much instantaneous. This is true of any command issued from the remote so can become tedious.
Other than that it is an excellent machine:
- Superb EPG, weeks in advance.
- Series timer that works properly.
- Well designed menu system.
- High speed dubbing and automatic re-formatting if the source is too big for the DVD capacity (4.6GB = 1.5hrs in high quality).
- Low/no noise.
- Separate TV controls on remote.
- Even my wife can program it (no offence ladies) - just make sure you're clear which device is the target i.e. hard drive or DVD!
Well-featured. Well designed. Good manual. Only 1 "nice-to-have" feature malfunctions. May 28, 2007
R. Stansfield (London, England)
37 out of 41 found this review helpful
I have bought a Nikon still camera, a Panasonic camcorder, a Sony DVD player, a Philips DVD/VCR recorder, & lastly this Sony DVD recorder. With the exception of the last all have major faults, not so much in design as that they don't work properly. The last, the Sony RDR-HXD560, has only one fault revealed in 3 months of heavy use : see #7 below. My point here is that the whole modern electronics industry is flogging a load of malfunctioning junk to us. If you find a product that works 99%, hang flags in the street. On this basis the Sony under review gets SIX stars ; realistically I give it 4 since no product that fails to work 100% should get 5.
A few tips to the those unversed in DVD lore, based on bitter experience :
Trying to record decently to DVD on any product without a hard disc (HDD) is fraught : broadcast programmes stick neither to the advertized schedule nor to the now-common Electronic Programme Guide (EPG) feature. Recording manually without the EPG is more reliable, but horsework. I challenge anyone to record a SERIES of TV programmes, in correct sequence, to DVD R discs, without finding "tops or tails" chopped off & without cockups. Instead, record to HDD ; look at each record & check it ; erase the "top & tail" and the ads if you want (very time-consuming) ; copy ("dub") it to a DVD. CHECK the result is correct, & that you can play it !
You will probably try to use DVD R as they are half the price of DVD RW, but mistakes (so easy to make) can't be rectified, so wastage is high, & anger higher ...
Use DVD blanks manufactured by the same as the recorder : helps pin down faults, & leave the manufacturer less room to wriggle out of responsibility.
In fact avoid "cheap" DVD blanks altogether, unless you want expensive beermats. Be paranoid about dust, smears & scratches on discs ; they are unreliable enough without help from you. I remember when PCs first had "floppy" discs. They weren't nearly as unreliable as DVD is today. I have floppies literally from the last Century, that work perfectly. If today's industry can't make DVDs that are more robust & reliable than the present design, why on earth don't they encase them in a permanent protective sleeve like floppies ? ! Will these DVDs you & I are recording today be readable in a year's time, let alone 10 or 20 ? Think about that before you copy your VCR tapes to DVD and scrap the tapes.
Am I exaggerating ? My Philips can't read some DVDs it recorded ITSELF after a few weeks ! They replayed OK at first. Then it starts to reject 'em as "unrecognised disc". Sometimes it relents & accepts them OK after I make persistent attempts with the same disc ! Not all though. The Sony PLAYER (not this recorder) plays some of the Philips-recorded DVDs that the Philips won't play ! I bought a load of BenQ DVD-R from Amazon, along with the Philips player, & now most of the BenQs are readable by neither. Joyously pleasing after hours of work. Amazingly, this new Sony recoder has no problem playing them ! Equally surprisingly my 3-yr-old Sony player often jerks & frezes whiloe playing DVD+Rs written on the new Sony recorder ! That's a Sony player having problems with Sony DVDs new out of the box & written on a Sony recorder. Hmm. I mention these facts to demonstrate to readers the chaos that is this industry. So my best advice is : buy all your kit, and the discs, from the same manufacturer. Avoid "cheap" competitors. 30% "cheaper" isn't cheap if it doesn't work. I have no connection with Sony at all, but based on experience I'd say stick to Sony for everything. Buy from Amazon, who have been a solidly reliable supplier to me. Wish I could say the same for the products. I suggest Amazon start to kick the delinquent manufacturers - hard. As a consumer, vote with your credit card : shun manufacturers & vendors after they let you down. I won't buy another Philips. But I doubt whether a truly reliable product set exists on this earth.
If you find an item that works, treasure it, don't "upgrade" it. I have a Sony "Black Trinitron" TV I bought in 1985, plus a Sony TV of 1997 -- both still work 100%, with excellent quality.
Good features of the Sony RDRHXD560S DVD recorder not mentioned in the advertized blurb :
1 You can play & watch an existing either HDD- or DVD-recording even while recording a live programme. Likewise you can "dub" (copy) an existing recording from HDD to DVD, or v v, while recording a live programme. Note you need a separate DVD recorder to record directly from a DVD to a 2nd DVD. In particular, note that it has only 1 TV tuner. So if you want to RECORD a live TV programme while WATCHING another LIVE one, you must have a 2nd tuner. If your TV is new it will likely have this digital tuner built in ; if it's old you will have to buy a separate "Set Top Box" (STB), & probably extra SCARTs too, for it. This gives you all the Freeserve channels free too.
2 You can select a list of existing records ("titles") on DVD or HDD, and "dub" them -- in sequence chosen by you -- to the other drive (HDD->DVD or DVD->HDD) without further intervention.
3 You can DIVIDE a record into separate records on the HDD. You can ERASE lengths of a record (start, within, or end) on the HDD, but it IS rather time consuming. My Philips will do these tricks on a DVD+RW, but this Sony won't.
4 The Philips will allow you manually to insert "Chapter" markers (useful for "hopping" over adverts when replaying) and to choose a frame as a "Thumbnail" to display in the list of records, directly on a DVD+R or +RW. But this Sony won't : it only allows this on the HDD. Worse, any Chapter-marks or Thumbnails you set on the HDD do NOT copy over to the DVD (or v v even if they've been set on a separate recorder) when you copy the record. Heaven knows why the Sony lacks these valuable features. Thumbnails are very useful as you can often display titles on them, saving laboriously typing them in.
5 Which brings me to the text entry on this Sony. The on-screen keyboard is poorly designed & slow. I suggest Sony look at the Philips, which is much slicker. However, why oh why don't manufacturers fit a USB socket & let us plug in a decent PC keyboard ? These on-screen KBs are dreadfully cumbersome.
6 You cannot combine 2 records, ie make them into 1 continuous record. However, there is a technique of "playlists" which allows simulation of this. The Philips can't do it at all.
7 This Sony will record to DVD+R, DVD+RW, DVD-R, DVD-RW. (The Philips will only record to +R & +RW.) It ALSO allows use of the pecialized "VR" standard but only on DVD-R & -RW. This DOES allow you to create Chapter-marks & Thumbnails manually on the DVD. But DVD- recorded to the VR standard can ONLY be replayed on players also having the VR capability -- not many.
8 The fan & the disc drives are much quieter than most recorders ; my Philips is very noisy. You can switch the machine on & off while it is recording or dubbing without upsetting the process. This means that you can record or dub for hours in your bedroom with it switched to "standby", without needing earplugs to sleep. You can even make it dub several records in either direction, AND set it to record from the EPG, so long as the dubbing ends before the live recording begins. It tells you if there'd be a clash. Handy when setting up lots of dubbed copies during the night & setting recording of an early-morning programme or 2.
9 The one fault with the Sony is that a wonderful feature not generally advertized is "Fast Dubbing". This Sony is supposed to be able to copy ("dub") from HDD to DVD at high speed -- a 1-hr record will copy to a 16x DVD in 2 mins ! Terrific ! The minor downer is that often programmes recorded to HDD seemingly don't allow you to select "Fast Dubbing". Especially if you have Erased bits to tidy them up. The bigger downer really is a disaster : IT DOESN'T ALWAYS WORK !! Ie, it copies the programme OK in 2 mins to your DVD+R, on which it consumes 1 hour of space, but this copy often turns out unreadable, thus wasting that part of your DVD. Clearly copying multiple records from HDD, which should be OK per the manual, will produce many duff DVDs. Grrrh. The workaround, though 2nd class and only if saving time is more important than cost of discs, is to use DVD RW, & Fast Dub 1 record at a time, Erasing any bad copies, & redoing them at normal speed.
10 I have read much criticism of the users' manual. I disagree : it's well designed -- & written in decent English, for once. This Sony has lots of useful features, only 1 of which doesn't work, see #9. It's probably more complex than a 1970s car. No one expects to learn to drive a car after reading a 1-page manual. Buyers who can't handle anything more complex than a microwave oven must expect to have difficulty with this or any other richly featured product. And should buy a simpler one, of which there are many. In fact it's one of the best electronic-product manuals I've read, & if you study it sensibly it is very clear, & explains much more than most. It avoids much of the guesswork enforced by poorer manuals.
11 In short, this is a damn' good product for the non-professional like me. Pity about the only fault -- the Fast Dub thing. But till I bought it I didn't know it had that, anyway. Excellent value especially compared with stuff that doesn't work properly -- most recorders.
Hope this blather of mine helps you save many of the hours I've wasted learning it.
RJ Stansfield
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