Sony SVR-S500 Reviews

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Sony SVR-S500
1.5 stars
Average rating for this product is: 1.5 out of 5

From 6 ratings and 26 reviews

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Average Ratings for Sony SVR-S500

  • Features2.5 stars
  • Ease of Use2.1 stars
  • Value for Money1.2 stars
  • Reviewer Ratings1.4 stars
  • Overall Rating1.5 stars

26 Reviews For Sony SVR-S500

  • PhilDavidson Rank: Lance Corporal 22nd Oct 2008

    Reviewer rating: 1 stars


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    Good Points: OK, they've sorted out the EPG and now you have 8 days worth


    Bad Points: BUT
    There is something wrong with the tuners on this product I feel.
    Quite often one programme will record fine, but if you are recording 2 programs at the same time, more often than not the second program has the dreaded green digital interference and picture lock up.


    General comments: Believe me.. I've tried VERY hard with this machine but after recording a programme I really wanted to see and then having the joy of watching 2 hours of interrupted, green digital interference, sound drop out and the like
    I've personally had it with this Sony SVR-S500 Recorder!
    My £12 freeview receiver from Wollies shows a better picture than this product in my opinion. Not recommended!

  • demver 8th Sep 2008

    Reviewer rating: 5 stars


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    I paid £60 off ebay for my Sony SVR-S500 a year ago as a refurbished unit and never had one problem with it, infact i would say i got a bargain, epg works fine , and can record 2 channels at once no problem, can rewind (30 mins) and pause no problem, picture quality on my 40" lcd is great (much better than my panasonic dvd recorder with in built freeview picture) , recording anything is easy as 123, if you can get this cheap with a warranty i would say go for it !!

  • Guest 24th Aug 2008

    Reviewer rating: 0 stars


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    The Sony SVR-S500 is one that should never have got out the design house. It's slow, it's noisy and the general design of the software is very very poor. Regularly crashes overnight dusing EPG download, requiring a power cycle to recover. We have just had it format the disk twice in a week. Taken back to John Lewis (thankfully have a 2-year warranty) who have reformatted the disk (eh, thanks for that!) and upgraded the software.Awaiting next format any day now...

  • Guest 19th Jul 2008

    Reviewer rating: 4 stars


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    When I received this product as a gift I was disappointed because the person at the sales desk had told my relative that the machine was a DVD recorder with built in freeview and a hard drive. When I was told this I was chuffed because it did everything, or so I thought. When I took it out of the box there was obviously no DVD slot so when I took it back to Argos they said that it was exempt from the 16 day money back guarantee and did they offer to swap it considering they sold us the wrong thi ...

  • Marky Mark 1964 Rank: Lance Corporal 6th Jun 2008

    Reviewer rating: 0.5 stars


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    Avoid the Sony SVR-S500- this is probably the poorest piece of electronic equipment I have ever purchased. Very unreliable, very slow to react to any command and very very very very very noisy!!

  • barfgwyn 23rd May 2008

    Reviewer rating: 1 stars


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    Noisy, especially at first. The EPG took a few days to appear. If you use the EPG to record a named programme, it cuts the programme off one minute from the end.
    As soon as the warranty expired, it claimed to have forgotten everything on its hard disk and then stopped working altogether.
    A big disappointment from Sony.

  • aocgem 6th May 2008

    Reviewer rating: 0.5 stars


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    I bought the SVR-S500 from a eBay dealer for £80. It has worked brilliantly for the last 5 month, then all of a sudden it delayed changing channel for a few days before it finally packed in for good. I contacted the dealer I bought it off who told me to format the machine and if it still occurs basicallly to get in touch with Sony. Sony dont want to seem to direct me to the right place by giving me numbers for different places. Wish I'd read your guys reviews before buying, I thought sony ...

  • lindylou04 19th Apr 2008

    Reviewer rating: 0.5 stars


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    I got the Sony SVR-S500 of my son he mislaid the power supply leads no problem i thought, tried maplins no avail not a standard part tried partsmasters they gave me a price for one part the figure of 8 lead but when i double checked it was for the complete set (including the ac/dc part ) no that came separately yes can get no problem - except the price £135 thanks but no thanks i could go and buy a new machine for that. Anyone knows differently i be interested thanks.

  • moccyfondoo 5th Mar 2008

    Reviewer rating: 3.5 stars


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    I was taken aback when I saw all the negative comments about the Sony SVR-S500 recorder, are they all genuine ?
    I took away 1 point for remote, 2 away for price.
    I paid more for less, with Sony because of sonys reputation,
    My first dvd recorder was a Toshiba, which never worked properly, and packed in completely just after the warranty expired, (it cost a lot more than the Sony too)
    I'm v. happy with my Sony at the moment .

  • Guest 13th Feb 2008

    Reviewer rating: 1 stars


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    I think the Sony SVR-S500 is a poor item and noisy. The machine worked well for five months now its endless problems it is crash after crash. I picked this up from argos and will be returning asap.What a shame I have never been so disappointed with a sony

  • Guest 23rd Jan 2008

    Reviewer rating: 0.5 stars


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    The Sony SVR-S500 can be recycled. It fails to tell you that you need an almost 100% signal from local mast ,or you are wasting your money.

  • Guest 3rd Jan 2008

    Reviewer rating: 0 stars


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    This was the worse piece of kit I have ever purchased. All the problems I descibed were present to 2 replacement machnes. And the after sales service from the Sony repair centre was in my opinion very poor.
    I would recommend to stay well clear.

  • stevewinning 30th Sep 2007

    Reviewer rating: 0.5 stars


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    The t.v guide on the Sony SVR-S500 has rarely worked and so there has been little chance to record programmes. The machine overheats and constantly crashes. There have been a number of small problems and the latest is that the recorder cannot recognise there is an aerial plugged in. I bought this product because of the Sony name but never again. This has been a thoroughly disappointing piece of equipment that promised so much.

  • homsey 7th Sep 2007

    Reviewer rating: 5 stars


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    I have owned this (refurbished by Sony UK) machine for a few months now. It does all it is supposed to. I don't know why the previous reviewer complains about no EPG, If it is left on "standby" overnight like it states in the manual it downloads off air the next 7 days electronic program guide, so I don't know what he is beefing about.

  • stephenpros 23rd Jul 2007

    Reviewer rating: 0 stars


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    I bought from a Sony centre for £250. It broke and no one was interested as I had mislaid my receipt, funny when I bought it they could go 7 years back in their records. Better off buying from Tesco or ASDA, no prob with returns... rubbish, stay away.

  • jamesgaffory 10th Jul 2007

    Reviewer rating: 0.5 stars


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    After a couple of returned purchases of Grundig PVRs due to lock up, I decided to play safe and pay more for less but with the Sony brand name. My mistake. The SVR-S500 is overpriced, poorly designed and will make me think twice before buying anything with Sony on it again.

  • burridgeg 28th Jun 2007

    Reviewer rating: 0.5 stars


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    I purchased the SVR-S500 purely because of the brand name and the assumption that in the event of problems I could expect a good aftersale service. How wrong can you be? It has cost me handling charges, a 60 mile round trip and even though I explained that just reformatting the hard drive would not fix the problem (tried that a few times as a temporary fix) guess what? they formatted the disc and then charged me a handling charge and ignored my protest. It has now crashed again.
    Would I by fro ...

  • Fendeal 17th Mar 2007

    Reviewer rating: 4.5 stars


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    Contrary to all the other reviews I've seen, the EPG works with no problems found at all.
    The supposed fan noise is not obtrusive as I have it enclosed in the Sony system cabinet.
    I found no more of a controller delay than on any other system I have used or tested.
    Overall I'm well satisfied as it takes the place of 3 Recorders/Players.
    I haven't used my VCR's for some time now and hope it continues that way.

  • PhilDavidson Rank: Lance Corporal 27th Feb 2007

    Reviewer rating: 0.5 stars


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    This Sony SVR-S500 PVR is a complete waste of money.
    WIth no EPG the features on the machine are useless.
    Considering this is a flagship product from Sony .. my guess is that they tried it, got burned and won't be returning to this market soon.
    Don't bother with this machine unless you need something to prop the door open with.

  • J McClelland 21st Feb 2007

    Reviewer rating: 0.5 stars


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    Total waste of space. EPG does not work at all, well not unless you only want to record one programme at a time, one day at a time!!!!! You can only record in advance using timer which then doesn`t label recording, you have to input manually, so if you go on holiday you will need to spend a few hours inputting everything!! I BOUGHT ONE FROM JOHN LEWIS who acknowledged the fault and even contacted SONY, but their solution was I had to contact SONY and download info from them and eventually whe ...

Product details

Main characteristics: Functionalities: Digital TV Receiver Video Recorder Broadcast Type: Terrestrial Compatible Service: Freeview Recorder: HDD Recording Time: more details...