There are several recommendations earlier on in this thread re online purchase of the 710, though availability does vary. If you want the best price, it would seem online is the way to go - and I had superb service plus free next working day delivery from a company I had not previously encountered.

A High Street store like John Lewis might give you peace of mind if you're worried about the 710 going wrong and want to physically take it back. But I wouldn't be afraid of buying via a UK company on the web.

By the way, one feature of the 710 I hadn't really thought about but which has proved very useful is the "pause live TV" option, which works when you're simply watching a programme and not recording it. No more rushing to finish a meal to see something or having to record it and then wait until it's finished. And, as confirmed above, you also have the option of recording and then viewing from the start while the rest of the prog continues to be captured.

I find I'm actually watching more TV now than before, simply because I can watch what I want when I want to watch it. Finding a prog in the schedules and recording it to the hard drive is a piece of cake and light years faster than the old video timer nonsense plus hours of re-winding and winding tapes to find what you want, if you can find the right tape in the first place. Dubbing to DVD-R (for viewing elsewhere on a laptop) is also simple - and you can create and edit your own playlist on the hard drive before transferring stuff on to DVD, so the adverts etc can be ditched and it's child's play to make up compilations of two or three progs for transfer.

Have also now hooked up my old Sony VHS player and dubbed material from video to hard drive, which will later be edited before transfer to DVD. Simply a matter of connecting the video recorder Scart lead to the spare Scart socket on the back of the 710. Very impressed with the quality and ease of transfer.

It would be helpful to those reading posts if the nomenclatures 710 (signifiying analogue tuner) or D710 (signifiying digital tuner) were used.

I was, of course, referring to the RDR - HXD 710, as I have done in all previous posts.

Hello

My partner and me are looking for a good DVD recorder to compliment sky+ which we already have. Whilst I have skimmed through the pages of information here, it would be useful to hear from anyone who's used this to answer my (relatively easy) questions; I'm referring to the RDR-HXD710 model.

1 - Is this a multi region player (I'm from the UK but would like to play region 1 DVD's)? I read somewhere that the video output is NTSC (not PAL - which I thought was better quality).
2 - It seems to record in both + and - formats, but only play in - format - I don't get this?! So if i record a dvd in +RW, it won't play it back?!
3 - Would you recommend it? I saw this in Curry's for £399 but searching on the web, it's much cheaper - anyone else get a really good deal?

Would appreciate any comments you guys have,

Cheers!

1. When choosing a supplier find one that offers a multi-region version. It doesn't seem to affect the price greatly.

2. The -R type disks will correctly record programmes in 16:9 format whereas the +R disks record only in 4:3 format. There has been some very detailed coverage of this issue earlier in this thread and I would refer you to that for more information.

It records in PAL format and plays back in PAL and NTSC (see spec page at rear of user guide).

"3 - Would you recommend it? I saw this in Curry's for £399 but searching on the web, it's much cheaper - anyone else get a really good deal?"

The new Curry's catalogue lists the 710 at £399 but doesn't appear to offer the more expensive HXD 710 model. You can get the HXD 710 for just under £400 online but, typically, it costs more on the High Street. I stand to be corrected, but if you've found a deal "much cheaper" than £399 on the web, I suspect it refers to the 710 and not the HXD 710

The Currys price for the HXD 710 is £499:

http://************/7phhn

...which is at least £100 more than you should be paying if you go via a more competitive online retailer.

Actually the price has crept up since launch from a low of £386 to around £406 now. See Pricerunner.

So much for my plan of waiting until the price came down!

Does the HXD710/910 suffer from the same problem of recording freeview timeshare channels as the vtx-d800u stb ?

On the news this morning.
Sony charging more to internet dealers
Called dual pricing. Whats that all about then?
I guess I was lucky getting mine from RGB before this happened.
I smell a bit of a row brewing up

philip ashley

It's the front page lead in today's Times.

For those able to access, the story is at:

http://www.timesonline.co.uk/article...872549,00.html

A short extract, though there's much more detail in the full story:

MILLIONS of internet shoppers face a “rip-off” Christmas after a decision by leading electronics companies to force up online prices for DVD players, hi-fis and similar products to high street levels.
Manufacturers, including Sony, are charging shopping websites wholesale prices between 10 and 15 per cent higher than their prices to high street stores, the trade group that represents online sellers says.
The rises mean that e-retailers will find it difficult to carry on undercutting prices in the high street. Manufacturers prefer traditional retail outlets because it allows them to “showcase” their goods.
Sony denies penalising internet shopping sites, arguing that it is rewarding stores that can demonstrate its products.

I can understand that high street outlets have greater overheads than on-line retailers and so can’t price their product so competitively. Some might say that this gives the on-line retailer an unfair advantage and may, in the long term, seriously damage the future of, “real shopping”. But I think things are evened out by the fact that if you go into a shop, you can get hold of the product you are buying and talk to a sales person. Some people find this re-assuring and will only shop on the high street because of this. Thus the fact that you have a shop, gives you an advantage over the on-line retailer.
When all things are considered, there are two different ways of selling a product, on-line or from a shop. Both offer a different buying experience and appeal to different types of people and thank goodness we have a choice. What Sony is trying to do, is to take that choice away from its customers and force them into a high street outlet. Though I suspect the main motivation is probably greed. They have seen an increase in on-line sales and have their slanted eyes on a slice of the hundred quid customers are currently able to save.
Sony is only able to get away with this because we let them. We still buy their products regardless of how they treat us. If they asked us to grow a beard, dress up in women’s clothes, and crawl into one of their shops like a dog and bark, they would still sell to us.
I just can’t buy one of these things if Sony engages in this practice. And that is a real shame because I would love one.

This is not really 'news' but confirms what we already suspected. For example, have you noticed that the Sony PSP is £179 everywhere, from Argos (typically overpriced) to the (normally) cheapest e-tailer.

Sony are not alone though. The Microsoft Xbox is also £209 everywhere you look. Back to PVRs, the Panansonic DMR-EH50 show little price variation.

Exactly, I was looking into the price of the new ipods online yesterday, every site came out at £219 regardless of online or high street seller...it seems certain companies are getting away with some kind of price fixing to me!

Here we go again. The big companies endevour to maximise their profits by controling the retail price.
Once upon a time it was normal to have a fixed price, then Retail Price Maintenance was stopped. Now manufacturers have to find other ways to keep up the profit margin and what better than to ensure that goods are only supplied to those who will sell them at the price the manufacturer wants?
It's nothing new of course, manufacturers have always supplied different outlets with the same products but at different prices according to volume of orders etc. How many times do we hear the small/independent trader complaining that they have to pay more than the big boys?
The issue will not be resolved until our Government Watchdog takes action to stop price control by the Manufacturer. Here's what the Times article said -
"A spokesman for the OFT confirmed that a complaint about dual pricing had been received and was being considered. But he said that a formal investigation had not yet begun. "
Will an investigation take place? Not unless we, the consumers, complain I guess.
A free market of course would be effective if other manufacturers failed to follow Sony and dented Sony sales,
but will they?
We shall watch prices and see what happens. Don't hold your breath for the OFT though!!!!

OK, we're getting off-topic here. If anyone wants to complain (and I think I will) read the information here, and email them with a specific instance of what you feel to be price-fixing.

You're right stig. Thanks for the link. I'm about to send my complaint now.
I still want a 910!!!!!
Hows the best price looking at the moment anyone?

Nope - I got a multi-region 710HXD for much less than that early in October/late September. Prices are going up for the Christmas rush.

BTW - my machine is just fan-bloody-tastic even if I have done anything whizzy with it. Only record, watch and either dump to CD or delete or just keep. Once I get some time off from work I'll study the tecchie bits of this thread in more detail.

The £120 off is great but 12 days after order, gultronics have my money & I have no machine. They have failed to call me back on 3 occasions & have not been able to put me though to the correct dept because its always busy. Should I be worried - they are often mentioned in this thread & have been around a long time so I hope they can be relied on!

I'm thinking of getting one of these Sony RDR-HXD910 but can someone tell me what is the noise from the fan and HD like because i'm planning on placing the machine in the bed room....
I really dont want to be kept up every night with the noise. Another thing after the reshuffle of the channels last month as there been any problems with the tuner.

Put "noise" into the "Search this Thread" option at the top right-hand corner of this page for previous replies to this question. I can only speak for the HXD710, but would agree with others who have said it is "whisper quiet".

No problems with the tuner re the Freeview reshuffle. It, of course, uses three digits where necessary.

And at the risk of repeating myself, have to say the HXD710 is a truly fabulous machine - and so easy to use.

The only noise from my HDX710 comes from the fan, which is either quiet or off, depending on what you are doing. While recording to HDD, the D710 can be switched to standby without stopping the recording, so the fan is off - Manual page 48.

I agree it is easy to use, but finding something in the manual is certainly not easy. For example, with my SMARTLINK TV, "The recorder will turn off automatically if the recorder is not used after you turn off the TV." I read this to mean that when I go to bed with the TV off and the Timer set, the recorder will go to standby when the recording has finished. So far it has has switched off twice and stayed on till morning once. I do not have the answer to this yet.

I connected a VCR to the D710 according to the lower diagram on page 26 of the manual. I could play a tape, but could only record from the VCR to HDD if the TV was on. If I changed channels on the TV, the HDD recorded the TV and if I turned the TV off, the HDD recorded nothing.

I called the excellent Sony Help, who told me to remove the SCART between the TV and the VCR. All is fine now.

The D710 has made a huge improvement in my TV watching and recording.

I received my 910 from Gultronis within 48 hours, so I guess they might just be having a stock problem.

There is a small section in the manual stating that EPG recordings, will auto-adjust their start/stop times as long as the broadcaster send the change info - has anyone had any experience of this ?
Certainly my EPG of 'Have I got News for You' starting at 9:30 even though the program didn't start for another 4-5 minutes. I shouold have left it I suppose to see if it continued recording after the 30 minutes was up - but I did a manual extend instead.