Notice that Sony have some new Freeview+ DVD hard drive recorders on their site. The 500GB is priced at about 400 to 450.

RDR-DC505 500GB
RDR-DC305 320GB
RDR-DC205 250GB

http://www.sony.co.uk/product/dvd-recorder

Wander how they compare to my old 710?

Not sure what the differences are in that product range, on the link you gave you can get it to compare the 505 and 90 side-by-side, apart from the HDD size, the features are the same.

Must be missing something ...

One new feature appears to be 'Direct Recording'. I take this to mean that the bit-stream is recorded without first being transcoded to DVD format. This would account for the fact that high-speed dubbing is not available - the data has to be transcoded during the dub.

Direct Recording would also mean that more hours of HQ recording would be available. I can get approx 33 hours of HQ on my HXD870's 160GB disc; with Direct Recording, I could get approx 80 hours.

No you're not missing anything, the HDD size was the only difference for the previous range as well.

Folly to buy something so near to Freeview HD recorders coming on stream (but not so helpful if you're not in a Freeview HD area).


Clem