Sony RDR-HX525

this is aa well and truly pointless bit of kit.

it takes 10 mins just to turn on and when it does you have to wait for the disk to load until it will eject it. i have never got round to utilising the features because if it can work as a dvd player then its just not worth the hassle and a weeks wait just to watch a recorded show. maybe i got a duff one but this is pathetic. i use either my pacific dvd player which cost about £20 or my xbox as theyre 10 times easier and faster, what a waste of money...

This was bought new in October 2006, and I did not take an 'instore warranty' and we did not get an offer to extend the warranty at about 11 months as one does with many purchases - silly me because after 56 weeks the hard disc drive failed with HD ERROR and it does not respond to the 'trouble shooting' guide. It seems that in such a case 'you're on your own baby', because to get it repaired by Sony is extremely hard. The retail store was not an accredited repairer. We have had bad experiences of Sony products this year. A new Sony laptop was faulty and so were two subsequent replacements, so this DVD is only following the trend I suppose!

I bought this item from eBay six months ago for £150 as a refurbished item. It had only 30 days warranty. It haven't had any problem until the warranty expired. Now I don't know what to do. So I am leaving it on all times now. I don't know, may be it happens me only, because I didn't see another review like this.

I use mine on the HQ setting which does only give about 59 minutes recording at the highest (almost broadcast) quality - just to record programmes when I am out. It is still perfectly acceptable on the lower settings - the lowest is still as good as VHS. The dubbing function is really useful - haven't used it much but it only takes about 10 minutes to write out to DVD. There are lots of other functions such as pause live TV which I haven't been able to use as the DVD is on the same channel as my SKY box. This is more to do with the way I've got it set up rather than a fault. I've had this model for about 6 months now and it has not let me down. My previous recorder was only a cheap model that recorded straight to DVD - I lost several programmes on that one!

I bought this model in the sales for £199, which I reckon was a good deal. While some of the features are not immediately obvious, I'm very pleased with it and it does everything I've asked of it.

I've found the quality of the (stereo) sound and picture to be good on my common or garden CRT TV, arguably better than before!

The only cables supplied were the power cord, the "G-link" and a co-ax cable for the UHF link to the TV. In my case, I had all the SCART leads I needed as the DVD recorder was replacing an ancient VHS VCR.

The initial setup took longer than I expected, mostly because of the unclear terminology. The text of user guide ("operating instructions") has a lot of Sony-specific jargon at times, though the diagrams are good. Without the guide, I would have really struggled. If you are considering buying this DVD Recorder (or another Sony), the "operating instructions" can be downloaded from www.Sony.co.uk in Adobe PDF format, about 4Mb.

There is also a small remote detector (G-link) which is required to ensure the link between the recorder and a digital Freeview tuner. I have the TV screen set to 4:3 Stretch to fit rather than letter box, and there are times when I prefer it the other way round. It seems it can't be changed while playing a DVD, which has to stopped before the appropriate "system menu" will be activated.

There is no Freeview digital tuner incorporated in this model. So when recording using an external Freeview STB, only the 5 analogue channels are available as the channel on the Freeview STB cannot be changed. However if you have a TV with an inbuilt digital Freeview tuner, this won't be an issue.

About 32 hours of TV can be recorded on the 80Gb HDD - which is 16 episodes of Morse!

Transfer ("dubbing") to DVD disc is straightforward, and there are basic editing, titling and playlist creation facilities. DVDs need to be "finalised" before they can played on other players.

There are S-video and RGB and stereo outputs, as well inputs for cameras and satellite decoders.

As is now fairly common, the remote can be set to change the volume and channel of a range of common TVs.

Remembering to switch the recorder off at night to ensure the TV Guide is fully refreshed is a nuisance, but I have discovered that the always ready EPG of my excellent but now obsolete Sony VTX-D800U can be used to programme the recorder up to a fortnight in advance at the press of a button. The HX525 can also be programmed using VideoPlus, and the VideoPlus numbers can be found on the Radio Time Website.

It is possible to pause live TV and resume it later, but the time between pausing and then restarting the action is at least a minute. So don't expect too much of this - it's really a facility to ensure you miss nothing while completing an errand. It does work OK though.

Once every thing is connected and setup, and the programme guide downloaded, it's straightforward. The title list feature is really good, keeping track of your recordings and enabling you to edit and transfer then to DVD.

Pre-recorded DVDs seem to take a long to "load" on insertion, but after that, the recorder responds quickly when a button on the remote is pressed.

I read elsewhere that the HDD can noisy, but I can't say I've noticed.