Sony RDR-GX120 Duel Format/Dual Layer DVD Recorder

This a good product, but the instructions for setting it up were not clear at all. I went on a few forums to get advice, but while I had lots of people answering, none of them really made sense. Therefore, we ended up paying £35 to a local company to come and fix it all up. It now works fine and the quality of the DVDs recorded is fine. We originally bought it so we could download saved programmes from our Sky plus box, which it does well, but we can also copy our old VHS videos onto DVD (hopefully).

Brilliant and simple!

I brought this hoping that it would play copies, be reliable and be good quality. It has certainly met my expectations so far. Ive had this now 3 months and it plays brillianty, good picture although im not an expert on dvd players, for anyone wanting good value for money and reliability then this is the product.Also simple to work, good remote, dont really need instructions to work it and it looks and act like a good quality product too. All round worth the money!

Superb DVD/CD/SACD Player with great looks to boot!!

This unit was an upgrade from a unit that was only 2 years old so I wasn't expecting much of an improvement.... however the first DVD that I played soon changed my expectations for this mid priced unit.. it has now completely replaced my DVD & CD player in one single unit....

The picture qulity is as sharp or soft as you want it and the sound can be modified to make superb noises even on the most basic of televisions. As soon as my STR-DB870R amp arrived along with my sub-woofer the world never quite sounded the same again... to improve on this quality audio and visual reproduction you need to jump up to the £1000 mark so it's also great VFM for what it offers..

Downside [as with most Sony products] the manuals are somewhat ropey and disjointed when it comes to the complex setup for sound fields, and the on-screen display options are endless!!.... but this doesn't mean you need a degree in rocket science to set it up... even the most ludite of users will have it working less than 10 minutes after opening the box.

The SACD feature is a nice touch and will become extremely desirable as titles become available by mainstream artistes... at the moment it is a bit limited to Sony music with most SACD's being of the classical persuasion!!

Excellent sounds, great imaging, SACD compatable and looks beautiful in brushed aluminium finish.. about as far as you can go before you start to spend 'silly money'!!!

Fantastic Sound: It Will Melt Your Ears

This equipment's resonably priced and produces excellant sound. When playing DVD's it upscales beautifully and the picture quality is suberb (use a HDMI cable for the best picture as this made a big difference to my set-up). I was also impressed that the DVD unit's flat and compact, just like an LCD TV and can be screwed to the wall below your television negating the need for a horrible rack to house a conventionally shaped DVD player (It looks excellant). The sound is crisp and the bass unit rumbles brillantly. This was particularly cool when watching Saving Private Ryan. It's like the tanks are driving through your living room.

Brilliant, and when vertical, ohh cover your eyes

Alright, this DVD player is super! It is wonderfully small, excellent features, and the wires are incased within the player. The virtual surround is good, and with a Digital Surround setup this baby is awsome. Incredibly, while it looks good from the front, it looks best when it is vertical, with a brilliant glass top that lets yo see the disk playing. And there is no drive to brake, merly put the disk against the slot and wheels rool in to pull the disk in. V.Cool to watch. And it offers alternate viewing angels. Go for It

Very good picture quality on 'ordinary' telly.

I found one of these cheap elsewhere described as"As New" but it arrived tatty, so I decided to return it but I thought I'd try it out first briefly..

Freeview picture quality was, well, stunning. This is on my old 28" cheapo Thomson CRT telly. I've previously used Digihome and Grundig DVB boxes and the picture improvement on the Sony was immediately obvious.

I didn't like the menus & EPG on the Sony though. The guide squashes all the text to fit in to timeslots and cuts off too much text. And menus sometimes appear using Windows-like 'Transitions' where instead of simply flashing-up, they curtain-out onto the screen. Smooth maybe but annoying after a while I expect (if you're in a hurry).

Also, timer selections only display the channel of what you're going to record, not the program title. That's a bit lame. When using the EPG, every time I clicked OK on my choice to watch, I'd be asked whether I was selecting it to watch or record. I trust these options can be removed. If they can't, imagine how annoying the 'view or record' message would be when channel-surfing.

Also, the text design and format of screen messages is not consistent. A bar appears at the top of the current channel, white on a black background telling you what you are watching with a big channel number next to it but this is of a completely different style to the EPG which appears blocky and white on blue (if I remember correctly) and then the slidey-out menu options are black on grey. it should all be of the same design format IMHO.

I currently use a rock-bottom-budget Digihome PVR and on paper the Sony would be a massive step-up, but I don't reckon I would use half the functions as I'd become allergic to the menu system on the Sony.

Great picture, menu & EPG would take some getting used-to.

Paul

Not as good as it looks

The sound might be quite loud, but I found a lot of detail to be lost. I could maybe live with this for films, but for music, it's pretty poor. I was disappointed as after reading HiFi magazines raving about this, I had high hopes. On the plus side, it looks fantastic, and the speakers are tiny. It is quite cheap, but maybe not for you if you want to listen to music.

will play anything you ask it to

This is the best DVD player I have ever owned. I am a great fan of Sony products; a little dearer but you always get more than you paid for with Sony.

Falling Asleep

I fell asleep reading the previous review......just want the bottom line on performance not the rocket science bit !