Thinking of getting a freeview dvd/hdd recorder.

Sony HXD890 gets some good write ups. Anyone got experience of one of these (good/bad points). Looking to have one box under tv.

ian

They have been excellent, really reliable - we've sold lots, and only had one faulty one - that was the other week, and it was just a duff (Samsung) HDD.

I take it you're aware it's only single tuner, and analogue/digital as well?.

Assuming you can get Freeview?, I would suggest you choose the Freeview EPG rather than the rather bizzarre (and less reliable) GuidePlus one.

Bear in mind, I think it's probably been discontinued now though, and replaced by a later model.

I bought one not so long ago, as an upgrade from a GXD500 which was starting to play up.

The only things I don't like about it, are that it switches on for timer recording, the display isn't terribly clear as to what is the channel number, track number, chapter number, timer (and there is no easy way of showing time remaining on the current track) - all the numbers blend in! Left/right on the EPG works like the Sky EPG rather than how I'd expect it to work (and how the GXD500 one worked), which takes a bit of getting used to.

These are all minor niggles, and I probably wouldn't have paid them any attention had I not owned the GXD500 previously (the HXD890 also can't do chasing playback when recording to DVD, which isn't a feature you generally need, but something I noticed because the GXD500 could do it)

It's a great little unit for the price - go buy one!

Had one for a while now, and find it excellent.

The "A-B Delete" editing is so much easier than the "Divide and Merge" method on my previous recorder.

The only niggle I have (and it may be the same with other HDD recorders) is that if I'm editing previously recorded programmes while recording, every time I call up the list of recordings, it's highlighting the one being recorded, which is at the bottom of the list, requiring me to scroll to the one I'm editing.

It's only a minor point.