A quality digital TV recorder. (Sony RDR-HXD790B)

Member Name: coco360

Product:	Sony RDR-HXD790B
Date:	11/07/09 (156 review reads)
Rating:

Advantages: Many, many features.

Disadvantages: Poorly designed remote, brightly lit display panel.

The digital switch over made my trusty video tape recorder defunct, so I bought a RDR-HXD790B a couple of months ago.

Like its name, the instruction manual is far from user-friendly (it's a weighty 167 page tome.) I think this is because it can offer a massive amount of features and is compatible with a wide variety of hardware.

Unlike its operating manual, the recorder itself is very user-friendly and has a good selection of useful features. It offers the facility to record a whole season in one go and to pause live TV. The 120 GB hard-drive allows you to record about 20 hours of HQ TV. (You can water down the quality of the recording to extend this time.)

Whilst the recorder has many excellent points, it also has some drawbacks. Here are a couple of them:

When viewing the 'guide' dialogue box, the volume and picture are lost.

You are unable to scroll down page by page when viewing the 'guide' facility.

There is a distracting bright blue or bright yellow button on the front of the recorder, which stays on all the time.

The remote control's design is far from ergonomic - The channel up/down buttons are placed at the very top of the remote - not thought out at all.
There is only one tiny exit button (I don't think it will last!) There is no "swap" button to flick between 2 channels.

Despite these relatively minor problems, this is a fantastic bit of kit. I would certainly buy it again.

Summary: An impressive piece of kit. Well worth the money.

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