Impossible Instruction Book

I am sure that this is a very good machine if only you can understand the instruction book and the machines own set up program. I have found it next to impossible to tune it into my NTL set top cable box, and have so far only succeded in being able to record the program selected on NTL. I cannot record from the terrestrial service whilst watching NTL.
Disapointing-not recommended unless you have a degree in DVD recording.

NOT MULTIREGION

Having read previous reviews, I was disappointed to find that my player wouldn't play multi-region DVDs. I will return it for a refund.

Superb New Kit or Upgrade

I upgraded to this unit to replace my old Sony SAV unit of 6 years old and have not been at all dissapointed in the performance.
The only main reason for upgrade was to have the upscale functionality and previous to this purchase I had gone for the Panasonic range but returned as there is a constant low level hiss from the speakers when no sound is coming from the system. After checking alocal retailer for all models in the Panasonic range I realised this is by design.
The Sony however is quiet unless you are obviously playing something (as I would have expected).

Picture qaulity with the upscaling is fantastic on the 32" 1080i setting and the sound is awesome.
This unit also comes with a mic to use to auto calibrate the speakers which works really well.

A must buy item and it makes me realise that I should have not strayed away from Sony in the first place.

Pretty darn good

This is a great blue-ray player for the money!!!!

Ignore the people thet are saying it's not upgradable....it's fully upgradable via Sony's website...just download the update to cdr and pop it in....and lets face it, everybody has or knows someone with a pc...if you got a mac...serves you right lol!

Start up time is a little enoying...but is much quicker after the update.

Great picture and great sound!!!

Marvellous - don't hesitate

Looks great - plays great - records brilliantly.

Bought this to replace a Philips - and it's perfect. Records onto any old DVD+ or DVD- (even cheapo ones from Lidl!), replays at fantastic quality AND upscales to 1080p! Not listed as multiregion, but still seems to play my few US discs quite happily. Also plays discs made on my PC without complaint. Looks the business, too, in moody black!

Even broadcast output from a digibox looks better played through this machine. However, the Sony wants to be the last thing in the chain - ie plug the digibox (or whatever) into the Sony, and then the Sony into the TV. (My chain goes VCR > digibox 1 > digibox 2 > Sony GX350 > telly - and works a treat.)

At this price you're not going to get a digital tuner. (Even if you did you'd still only be able to record one thing - a twin tuner PVR would be better.) But recording quality on the Sony GX350 is indistinguishable from the original - even at 2.5 hour length. In fact, recording and playback quality are both absolutely marvellous.

Complaints? Well, the manual seems a little over-complicated (110 pages!). And as someone has said before, the on-screen instructions are in a tiny font. Editing functions are limited to DVD- discs. But for 99 quid, who's quibbling?

First class.


EDIT: One more thing. On DVD+ disks it records the usual .VOB files. On DVD- disks it records the less compatible .VRO files. For maximum compatibility you may be best off sticking to DVD+.

Good unit with one irritating flaw in the firmware.

On the whole I am very pleased with this unit.

Good points:
Mostly does what it says on the tin. It has more features than I will ever use. The USB port on the front will even accept a keyboard for text entry when labelling titles and discs. This feature in NOT mentioned in the manual.

When not fast copying the HDD and DVD drives are quiet.

If you are copying stuff to keep, then you can record it to HDD, edit out the adverts and the start/finish announcements before burning it to DVD.

Bad points:
If you are using the remote control to enter text, the manual says that you can either select the letters on the screen or repeatedly press the number keys SMS style. It would be helpful to have the letters included in the legends on the remote control.

I have my sky + box connected upstream of the recorder to the Line 1 input so that if I want to copy stuff across it makes use of the RGB output from the Sky box. Unfortunately this means that you cant watch the Sky box whilst recording from the built in Freeview tuner. It would be good if the Line 1 input could be passed through even when recording Freeview. (I don't have an HDMI input on my telly). I have found a `plug around' around solution to this problem, but it involved me having to purchase a SCART distribution amplifier (£30) and use 2 SCART inputs on my telly.

If you want to record stuff using the AV inputs on the front then you can have any format as long as it is 4:3. A means of selecting 16:9 would be helpful.

The Manual is appalling. It is so bad that even Sony miss understood one section when talking to me an the phone - more of which later. I am fortunate to have relevant engineering experience and background to assist me with setting up and using the kit, but I don't know how the average non techie who just wants to `plug and use' would cope.

There appears to be a serous bug in the firmware. Fast dubbing between the HDD and DVD is fine. However, if the material on the HDD has been recorded at SP and you wish to copy more than 2 hours worth to a 4.7Gb DVD, then there is a problem with 16:9 material. 4:3 material copies across just fine but 16:9 material is copied across squashed into 4:3 format. To give Sony their due, they did respond to my message on their web site with a phone call to try and help. However the chap I spoke to told me that the it was due to `having to compress the material to make room on the disk'. I know for a fact that this is wrong particularly as I can work around the problem by loading the files from the DVD to my PC, modifying the WSS flags and then copying them back to DVD-r. I have tried further communication with Sony, but they seem reluctant to talk to me any more. I get the impression that they think I don't know what I am talking about. I am convinced that a modification to the firmware would sort the problem. You could argue that all I need to do is force my widescreen telly to display 16:9. However if you are replaying the discs on a 4:3 set then you don't have that option.

I find the menus a bit clunky to use however I can put up with that.

I see from the above that I have written more about the bad than the good. Will I be sending the unit back? No. Would I buy it again? If the Aspect ratio problem was sorted then defiantly yes. If not then I would certainly look elsewhere first.

Returned 3 units under warranty in one month - now on number 4

The 3 returned units either did not record on a DVD+R or did not play a VCR properly: the VCR picture kept breaking up.

The unit I have now seems to work. However I cannot recommend this model for obvious reasons.

Sony DVPFX850B Portable DVD Player

This unit has the build quality you would expect from Sony, and it feels like a serious piece of kit. The screen is one of the best available with its 800 x 480 pixel resolution. I would estimate the useful viewing angle to be around 90 degrees. The battery clips on at the bottom of the player, and is not required if plugged in via the mains adapter or via the car plug. It also has a"video in" socket so you can use it as a monitor. The USB connection can be used to access thumb drives, but only JPG and MP3 files can be played from it. It will not play movie files from the USB port. There is an optical-out audio link, but Sony did not provide the cable for that. The accessories that are included: Remote control, AC power adaptor, 12 V car cigarette lighter adaptor, and stereo audio and composite video cable, and carry bag. Sadly, there is no s-video or component video output on the player. A waste of the 12 bit video DAC in my opinion. The sound from the inbuilt speakers is barely acceptable, and you will need to provide and use your own headphones or external speakers. There are 2 headphone sockets so you can listen with someone else. The carry bag feels cheap and tacky. It almost feels wrong to put such a nice player in it! Mine was a tight fit. They should have made a better felt-lined bag.
Even with it's faults, this is still one of the best disk spinners out there, primarily thanks to its awesome screen.

PROS: Swivel screen transforms from"laptop" mode to"tablet" mode.
800 x 480 screen is amazingly clear.
Good build quality.

CONS: As with most portable DVD players, not all content is presented in full screen. Unless it is 16:9, it will display in"black box" with black bars all around. 4:3 content displays with black bars on either side. High price.

region free

i would just like to say that i thought this machine was region 2 only, until i bought the shawshank redempton region 1, it worked straight away no problems.

Stunning

I have had this surround sound system for approx. 1 week and I am extremely impressed with the sound quality. The base speaker produces really deep reverberating, spine tingling, sounds. Explosions can be felt physically. At the same time the centre speaker reproduces spoken words that are distinct and clearly audible no matter how much background noise there is. The other four speakers produce the surround sound effect and these also do the job admirably.

At the centre of the system is the up-scaling DVD player. This seems to work very well also (though I have rarely used this as most things I have watched have been played through a Play Station 3).

The system was very easy to set up and comes with a calibration microphone. For me this was essential as my room layout is not square and the rear left speaker is much closer than the rear right speaker. The setup facility worked flawlessly and adjusted the relative volumes of the speakers perfectly.

There are only two very minor criticisms' I could make. 1) I don't really like the layout of the remote control which seems cluttered. 2) the different input sources are given names that are not always accurate for instance my Play Station is connected via a digital optical cable which this system calls the TV for some reason.

Don't let these minor criticisms put you off though. I think the sound quality is just as good as being at the cinema hence why I am giving this product 5 stars.

Excellent System

Wanted to match my new Sony W3000 40' with another nice new piece of kit so decided to go for the DAV-IS10. Set up was easy and the speakers are really just incrediable to look at nevermind the sound that comes out of them. Even if you read all the reviews on this system and all of them telling you how small these speakers are, you will still be gobsmacked at how tiny these things really are. As usual, Sony are pretty generous with the speaker cable for all of the speakers and to connect them to the sub is as easy as 1-2-3. The control unit is lovely to look at and use. I agree with one of the other reviews about the volume control having to be above at least halfway to get any sort of decent sound out of the system. I thought it was a fault with mine at first but I suppose it must have something to do with power delivery to speakers etc. I have my volume usuallly set at at least 50 but the higher the better I suppose if your neighbours (and g/friend...) don't mind! The only thing that took me by suprise (and it shouldn't have if I had read the dimensions correctly) was the size of the sub. It is a big boy! Great system though and I'm glad I bought it&would definitely recommend it with a nice HDTV. Got it for under £350 aswell!! I done some serious research on the internet first:)

could be better

good picture quality and reasonable sound on dvd but messy sound quality when playing audio cds.why do we have to have fussy audio setup menus with default settings just put a bass,treble and balance knobs on the damn thing and let me choose the sound i want.

Well-featured. Well designed. Good manual. Only 1"nice-to-have" feature malfunctions.

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

Cheap but flawed product

Similar story here as others who have been disappointed by this unit.

Bought a Sony Bravia (from John Lewis) and it came bundled with this DVD recorder.

The lack of in-built digital tuner is infuriating as, even when you do figure out how to record digital signals from the TV, you can't record a digital channel and watch another. The only time you can record one channel and watch another is when recording using the in-built analogue tuner (so just the old 5 analogue channels) and watch another channel on the TV's digital tuner.

For those confused about recording digital shows from the Sony Bravia TV to the RDR-GX120, you connect from AV2 on the Bravia to AV1 (I think it's that one) on the RDR-GX120. Then when recording, tell the RDR-GX120 to use L1 as the source. To select the digital channel simply use the normal TV guide via the Bravia remote (can initiate timer recordings this way) or the prog up/down buttons on the DVDR remote and select the show to tape. It squirts the signal out via AV2 to the RDR-GX120. It's not intuitive but once you've done it a few times you'll remember.

It's potentially a great system but falls down flat by preventing you from changing channel. You have to record what you watch, when usually you'll want to record a show and watch something else. Oh, and when timer recording a digital channel the TV must be switched ON. That means either leaving the TV on all night when recording things late night / when you're away from home or else delving into the manual to suss out the TV's on/off timer options.

Unless you have an additional Freeview box you can hook up somehow, you'll soon be pretty fed up with the limitations and flaws of this DVD recorder.

As others have mentioned, it can be infuriatingly slow to access discs. Browsing and renaming recorded titles on a DVDRW disc is woefully slow. I fail to understand why it takes so long to translate my button presses to action on-screen. The Bravia's on-screen menus are really nippy and responsive, the juxtaposition damning the RDR-GX120 all the more.

In its favour, I was able to make the unit multi-region with a remote hack. This didn't go particularly smoothly but was eventually successful and I can now throw in any Region disc without thought and it'll play fine.

It's not enough to justify purchasing this product though. £150 or so can get you a DVD recorder from another manufacturer that features a Freeview tuner, DVD-RAM support, plus DVD upscaling to 1080p and HDMI output for those wanting to benefit from their HDTVs.

Don't even consider this product.

Great product - highly recommended

I installed this yesterday mornining, and after one day of use I'm here writing this review. It's easy to set up and so easy to use it's unreal. My wife was a bit hesitant about using it to record stuff, but programming via the electronic programme guide is a sinch, after about 5secs she had the idea.

It's important to ensure that you get a NEW model, don't buy secondhand or you could end up with having to run a firmware upgrade to make the EPG programming work properly- visit sonyeurope.com to download the firmware upgrade if you have made that mistake.

Upscaling to 1080p is superb, I tried it out with Casino Royale and A Scanner Darkly. I had my neighbour round as I was trying it out, she was so gobsmacked by the quality that she decide to stay and watch for a while!

This little box is a winner. The only downside is that for DATA DVDs you are limited to the DivX codec, whereas most internet downloaded TV stuff is XViD, hopefully there's a way round that. But hey I've only had it a day.