'Sony' A Set Top Box! Oh No It Isn't! (Sony RDR-HXD870B)

Member Name: Nibelung

Product:	Sony RDR-HXD870B
Date:	10/12/07 (1556 review reads)
Rating:

Advantages: Very versatile, as long as you know about the 'single-tuner thing'.

Disadvantages: Anything else you master is despite the manual, not because of it

Like it or not, Freeview TV is coming - that's the over-the-air digital TV that bit by bit will see off analogue TV, and in fact the process has started, with the whole country slated to be 'cut over' by 2012.

Just being able to watch it, assuming you can (I'm conveniently forgetting any aerial upgrades that may be needed), merely
requires either a set-top box or a TV with the digital tuner built in.

Try recording it though and your options get slimmer.

You can either buy a set-top box that also contains a hard disk drive and two tuners, (aka Personal Video Recorder or PVR), or buy a machine like the Sony RDR-HXD870 which can not only receive Freeview, but record to a hard drive, and thence to a built-in DVD recorder if the need to archive anything should crop up. This also means that it doubles as a DVD and CD player.
So a 'no-brainer' contest there, you might think - the Sony wins hands down as it does everything I could currently wish for.

Well yes and no really.

Yes, it's got some means to make permanent DVDs of TV programmes, so, unlike a PVR, you won't have to delete recordings for ever once the hard disk is full, but NO, it won't let you record one channel and watch another since it only has one digital tuner.

Sony's own advertising tells of 'dual tuners' which struck me as an odd phrase when PVR makers usually boast of 'twin tuners'. There's a reason for this ambivalence - it has ONE digital and ONE analogue tuner, the latter of which will have the same purpose in life as a chocolate tea-pot come 2012, at least in Britain it will, but this unit, which is made in Hungary is made for use in several European countries, some of which will retain analog cable and set top boxes like Canal+.

Unfortunately, it seems on reading the reviews on Amazon.co.uk that not many people realised this, using such phrases as 'unfit for purpose' or 'they lied'.

Incidentally, those that DID know what they were buying are largely pleased with it, as am I.

To save you the trouble, you will NOT find any Freeview twin-tuner boxes WITH a DVD recorder built in, but it seems to me that like any other nascent technology, the makers are loath to put it all out there on the market at first attempt, for fear of making a really good one with nothing to upgrade to.

Me, I'm not too worried. After all, I've not only already got an integrated digital TV, but also a Topfield 5800 twin-tuner PVR, which should be enough tuners for any techno-glutton, but the means to archive programmes simply to DVD still eludes me. Even with a twin tuner PVR under my belt, I still find recording clashes since I've found it's always prudent to 'pad out' a recording by three minutes at the end. This then leads to what were merely going to be back-to-back recordings to start using two tuners as for 3 minutes, they are running in parallel.

The fun starts when you don't want to watch either of what's being recorded.

WHY THIS ONE?

This was always going to be a two-horse race between the Sony and the equivalent Panasonic, also an excellent machine. However, the Panasonic required to be fully powered up to watch any set-top boxes or PVRs that might be 'plugged through' it to the TV, whereas the Sony only required being on stand-by. As I'll be doing a lot of this, the Sony emerged as the overall winner. A further feather in the Sony's cap, through being a newer model and therefore closer to the latest Freeview parameters, is that the timer can be set to monitor a series of episodes and cancel the reservation once they finish.

Good job I downloaded both manuals as PDF files, otherwise, I could have been caught out on the toss of a coin.

Both machines are only a tad over £200 if you shop around, and with more or less the same features all bar the last two. It also helped that my DVD player is now on the blink, and I'd just received an unexpected windfall in the form of a small inheritance.
Combine this with the fact that I haven't bought a decent gadget for months, and the fate of £209 including free delivery from Amazon.co.uk was sealed!

OUT OF THE BOX - IT'S SPAGHETTI TIME!

Setting up is much like you would for a VCR (only "on STERoids" as Clarkson would have it).

Your aerial cable should be diverted here first and extended on to the TV. If you think you'll ever have a use for the analogue tuner between here and 2012, you can also 'daisy-chain' this into the process with more short aerial cables.

Outputs are a slightly more dazzling array than the humble VCR could ever boast. You've got a coaxial digital link to feed a home cinema decoder, so that 5-channel sound can be heard when playing a shop-bought DVD - it works for TV recordings and audio CDs too but only in stereo. This was a nuisance, because I had to go out and buy a coaxial lead, its predecessor having been a fibre-optic one.

As well as the now-familiar SCART* leads, you have separate S-Video connections and three individual phono sockets feeding 'Red-Green-Blue' to any monitor capable of 'component input'. Basically, you pick the best that your TV can stand and use that.

*(Syndicat des Constructeurs d'Appareils Radiorécepteurs et Téléviseurs - so now you know)

Notably, this box has sprouted something else - an HDMI output, this being the 'latest thing' feeding a digital sound and vision signal straight to any TV willing to talk to it, the idea being that this enhances picture quality by cutting down on losses in analogue conversion. The Sony also does something called 'up-scaling' to partly take advantage of so-called 'HD-Ready' TVs, although you can't make an HD picture out of something that isn't HD already. However, there is a visible improvement I'm told. A new HD TV isn't a step I've taken (yet) but when I do, I'll make sure that it can resolve 1080 lines with progressive scan. All I know at present is that 1080p is better than 1080i, and the Sony talks to the former. Note: Even when (or if) Freeview gets real Hi-Definition transmissions, this box will NOT be ready for them.

GETTING TO GRIPS - The Bad News

Wait for it - the instruction manual has 172 (!) A5 pages, all in English, before anyone asks.

GETTING TO GRIPS - The Good News

Fortunately, getting started doesn't require a working knowledge of the whole tome - just the bits on how to connect it, tune it and set up TV recordings. You can always grow into the other bits, like finding out how you play them back, or copying and editing camcorder tapes later.

To a certain extent, the size of the book reflects the sheer amount of everything that you can do with this machine - not only is it also a DVD movie and CD-Audio player, but it can also be used as a juke box for up to 99 albums-worth of CDs, and can store jpegs for later use as slide shows. It can handle DivX format movie files through its front USB port or on disk, and can 'suck' pictures straight from a USB-compatible digital camera.

Of course, if you start on these mini-projects in earnest you'll wish you'd bought a version with a bigger hard drive than the 160 gigabytes supplied in this one. There are 4 machines in this series, all basically the same except for disk size, the 770, 870 (mine), 970 an 1070. The B or S suffix merely tells you whether it's a black or silver one. As for myself, this isn't my only hard-disk recorder so I was more swayed by price.

Setting up was easy - almost 'plug and play' really. All I had to do was confirm which country I was in and then let it loose finding digital channels. You CAN also get it to find analogue channels but unless it's to let you get both S4C AND Channel 4, I can't really see much point, unless you've bought it now in a region where Freeview can't be supplied until the analogue switch-off - at least you can pause live TV, record and make DVDs of analogue programmes in the mean time.

From my location, 15 miles from Crystal Palace, my digital reception is excellent and the picture from the digital tuner is vice free even in bad weather and with jumbo jets flying through my line of sight with the mast. If you have a problem, the setup menu lets you monitor signal strength and quality.

The set-up menu is, how can I put it, a trifle 'busy', especially if like me, you're routing something else through it and onwards to the TV, but it all comes right in the end. I've now got both the SCART-IN and SCART-OUT sockets set to RedGreenBlue to make maximum advantage of not only my PVR, but also this machine and the TV.

SETTING UP A RECORDING

Easy - press Guide, and up comes the electronic programme guide (EPG). Pick the programmes by scrolling down and across the listings. Each one that's selected takes you through to another screen where you can either just press OK again or make adjustments. The only one I'd bother with is to check the 'Series Link' box if it's available, thereby ensuring that any further episodes are catered for. Unlike the 'Every Week' option in previous PVRs and set top boxes, this one cancels itself once the series ends. This is a new feature to Freeview although not to Sky and it narrows the gap between terrestrial PVRs and the Sky+ box. You can also set the machine to 'EPG Link' which ensures that the latest timings are used shortly before the next recording.

Recording quality is user-selectable although the default of 'SP' - standard play, yielding 70 hours of recording seems fine. I've also set the machine to lessen the quality automatically as the disk fills, which in past experience it won't.

PLAYBACK

Even easier - press the Title List button and you're presented with a list of either the last four or last eight recordings, which be scrolled down further. The four-title option is great since it shows four thumbnail movie screens, one for each programme, and plays short snatches of them from strategic points in the programme to help you confirm your selection. Like most things 'digital', the playback is indistinguishable from the original; well at standard record quality it is. Some of the more 'economic' quality settings start to get a bit grainy. I'd say that if you've any inkling to archive programmes to DVD you shouldn't venture below standard quality. In any case, you've still got 70 hours of capacity before you have to start getting rids of titles.

OTHER STUFF WOT I DUN

Since my other PVR routes through this box, I can also copy over recordings from the former's hard drive to the latter's. "Why?" I hear you ask. So I can edit out the adverts and other undesirables, and then commit it (and maybe several other episodes) to DVD, that's why.

I've plugged my digital camera in and copied over 286 jpeg files, and then run a slide show. There doesn't seem any way to rotate certain photos through 90 degrees, so make sure they are all landscapes!

I've created a back up of certain recorded programmes onto a DVD-R, the end result having equal quality to the original.

I've played and copied a CD to hard drive. Annoyingly, this does NOT 'rip' the files into mp3 format, so an 80 minute CD can use about 1/200th of my disk space just for the privilege of laying my hands on its tracks quickly. You can of course download whole CD-ROMs of mp3 files, and at least this way, the track names aid navigation unlike 'track 1 of disk 1' as you'd get with a real copy of a CD.

I've transferred mp3 files from my Zen to the Sony via the USB lead.

I can't yet dub from my camcorder - stuck at first base by having the right kind of kit but the wrong lead!

FLEXIBILITY

This machine accepts all manner of recorded video media, including the popular DivX format.

The actual recording media list has now been tweaked to accept 'dual layer' DVD+ and DVD-R disks, and their rewritable equivalents.

Even the rare DVD-RAM can be played back but not recorded.

Those in possession of some other decoder box (mainly in places where Canal Plus is available) can use a different EPG called Guide+ to programme the other box's recordings to the Sony's hard drive. They give you an infra-red adapter which you place strategically over the decoder's front panel, so that starting it, selecting its channel and stopping it can be done by the Sony coinciding with its setting its own hard drive to record from the SCART lead (i.e what's on the decoder).

It's at times like this you realise why it needs a 172-page manual!

As with most other hard-drive solutions for Freeview, you can 'Pause Live TV'. You can also watch a previous recording whilst recording something else - you just can't watch something else live, that's all.

LIMITATIONS & OTHER FRUSTRATIONS

Most notably there's that 'single tuner' thing. Under no circumstances should anyone with only an analogue TV regard this as their introduction to Freeview, without perhaps buying another (cheap) set top box too.

Despite the HDMI output, it's not HD and never will be. There are faint whisperings that this MAY be on its way via Freeview, but if you waited for what's just round the corner every time, you'd still be listening to London 2LO through a crystal set.

Out of the box, it's a Region 2 DVD player only, but I'm working on it! (There is a very complicated key sequence that you can try to input, or you can rent a special remote for £20, but I'd be loath to do this whilst it's under warranty)

If you've a poor Freeview reception, don't expect this to cure it - Sony digital tuners have a good reputation, but they can't work miracles; sort your aerial out first before committing to spending 200 smackers.

It's a trifle noisier than I'm used to - maybe nowhere near as much as a desk-top PC but comparisons to my Topfield PVR show it up a bit. It's not helped by the fact that hard drive noise is added to by that of a cooling fan.

It has no slot for a subscription card, so TopUpTV et al can go whistle. Maybe this should be filed under 'Advantages'.

172 pages of instructions - need I say more?

BRIEF SUMMARY OF SPECIFICATION

1 Freeview tuner, one analogue tuner

160 gigabyte hard drive (approx 70 hours at Standard, but up to 455 hours are possible if you don't mind looking at grainy pictures!).

DVD Recorder/Region 2 Player, accepts DVD- and +R disks including dual layered.

Front panel has connections for USB devices (Jpeg files on a stick, mp3 players), iLink camcorders, and Pictbridge printers. A third AV (line 3) connection can be used for analogue connections (from a non-iLink camcorder or VCR maybe).

Rear connections include a SCART-IN, a SCART-OUT, S-Video socket, stereo phono plugs, an HDMI socket, two aerial-in and two aerial-out sockets, separate red green and blue phono sockets for progressive scan TV output and a coaxial digital output for both Dolby Digital and DTS sound.

Most importantly, it carries the official 'Digital Tick' mark of approval. Pity is doesn't carry an 'analogue cross' too, so they'd have room (given the inclination) to put that second tuner in it


CONCLUSION

For something that's also going to replace my errant DVD player, what it does sounds good value at £200 (Tescos are asking £249, phnaaaah, phnaaah!)

I can at last make DVDs of not only TV programmes that are worth keeping, but I can dust off my camcorder and edit those bloody MiniDV tapes to DVDs finally!

Who knows, I may start taking it on holiday again? Oh nooooo!!!!

p.s I've given this an excellent rating, but only because I knew the limitations in advance.

Summary: Freeview/Analog Set top box combo with Hard Drive and DVD recorder

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