I find the autochaptering useful but not 100% reliable at detecting the lead in and lead out of an advert break. How well it works depends on the splash screen and sounds that bracket the advert breaks, for some programmes I've had it work 100% perfectly but for others it works less well. It usually adds a chapter mark in the break somewhere, but doesn't always bracket it.

As for the EPG I've found it remarkably good with one exception. We had a free subscription to Top Up TV for our set top box over Xmas and I was trying to record the Dakar coverage from British Eurosport down a SCART to the Sony. There was massive drift on the advertised times for the programme and the recording always finished too early. I reckon their whole scheduling was suspect because at least once I got a different programme to what I was expecting., but it could have been me so wouldn't swear to it. If you only advance the start time by 2 mins, the title information will still be on the recorded programme but won't be displayed on the timer list, which I agree, can be confusing if it's a busy schedule.

Cheers

Bill

Macrovision copy protection is included on most pre-recorded video tapes. A 'disrupter' signal is included in the vertical sync pulse which prevents the video being recorded properly, but does not affect TV's. You can buy 'video conditioners' in places like Maplins that will remove this form of copy protection.

Can anybody help with advice about blank media ?

With TDK 8xDVD-R disks, when I try to burn to them, the drive and fan whirr up to maximum speed for a bit and then the 710 announces that "the disk is dirty" even though it isn't. Has anybody had a similar problem ?

- What is the safest "maximum speed" disks to buy ?
- What actual dub speeds is the 710 realistically capable of in practice ?
- What brand of DVD-R media is the 710 least likely to object to ?

Thanks in advance for any replies...

I have had no problem at all with Verbatim DVD-R disks at 16x or TDK DVD+RW at 4x (10 for the price of 5 at Maplins, last time I looked).

Another thumbs up for Verbatim disc's. I have had no problems at all with the 710 using both -R & -RW

1) As someone else said, navigation through the hard disk recordings is a bit clumsy, speeds 1 & 2 are quite slow but speed 3 is too fast so if I want to go forward say 5 minutes, I end up either taking ages, or over-shooting. Maybe I will get used to it.

2) As many have pointed out, chapters are not kept when recording from HDD to DVD-R.

3) I removed the advert breaks from an ITV recording on the HDD using A>B remove which worked well. However when I dubbed from HDD>DVD-R, the in-point of the various sections came about a half-second earlier than they did on the HDD. So although the edits looked perfect on the HDD with the ad-caps removed, on DVD-R playback, you see the last half-second or so of the captions! This is a real pain.

4) Is there any way to stop the on screen display (just a little box in the corner with the green "play arrow" appearing so often. It appears on layer changes on standard DVD playback, and it appears at all of the edit points in playback of my DVD-R recording from the HDD mentioned above - even though the machine is not able to recognize those as chapter points.

5) There seems to be no way to display the bit rate on screen.

Ditto here, being using them on my 710 since october, no bad discs yet, Using Verbatim 6x -RW's and 16x -R's gone through 25 -R's and 5 -RW's (reused these about 6/7 times each now) perfect everytime

Get some Verbatim 6x -RW's work great here no bad recordering or bad play backs using that brand on my sony 910.

Got Verbatim -RW's as well, they work perfectly on my 710 too.

Been using Memorex -R, absolutely fine.

Have you tried not using Fast Dub?

Re: 3) I believe the editing process on the HDD simply puts 'Flag' markers or around the areas you want deleting out of a recording, I don't think it actually splits the MPEG video stream removes the offending adverts and pieces it back together. Personally I've had no issues with edited elements showing up on the dubbed DVD, perhaps it is a Fast-Dub issue, can't remeber now what mode I used for my dubs.

Re 4) I believe their is an option in the setup menu for the 710/910 to remove the OSD when audio channels change on chapters and when the play icon appears. can't remember where it is right now, check the manual for the option in the setup menu, it's definatley there I've turned it off myself cos it was annoying me.

Hello everybody.

I have 2 quick questions about the Sony RDR HXD 710 :
- Can you perfom a recording while watching a DVD ?
- Can you begin to watch a recording before it is ended ?

Thank you for advance.

Frederic.

Put simply - Yes and Yes!

It doesn't matter what you are doing if you have recordings scheduled. They will still proceed.

If you go into the title list, it will show a recording that has started with a red circle denoting that it is still recording. You can then select to play that one. The only downside to that is that you will see a few seconds of the show that you are recording!

Jason

Thank you very much.

> The only downside to that is that you will see a few seconds of the show that you are recording

You mean, for example, that you can see the score of a football match ?

You could! It usually takes a few seconds for the playback to start while recording, so you can see whatever is being recorded at that point.

Jason

Hello everyone. This has been a fascinating thread, thanks for all the info and explanations. A couple of basic questions:

1. I would be unlikely to want to record two different programmes simultaneously, but I might well want to record one and watch another. Can I use my existing bog-standard sky box to give me dual tuners? Would this mean that one of my digital signals is via satellite, and therefore less prone to any reception problems of terrestrial digital?

2. As my sky box is big and ugly I might instead go for a smaller, neater cheapo freeview box. Do you get what you pay for or is cheap fine here?

3. BeDirect is offering brand new, Region 2 Sony RDRHXD710s at £398.00, incl. free delivery. Out of stock at the moment, but I can wait. Any feedback on this company?

Thanks for your thoughts.

I want to replace my Pioneer HDD/DVD with analogue tuner for a 710. Currently I record my satellite receiver on the Pioneer using a SCART input. I assume that it is possible to record from an external source in the same way on the 710

Peter,

Yes, there's a line3 SCART input to do just that.
I have "sky" Panasonic digibox that is connected in just that way.

Rgds.

Thanks for the confirmation grn.

[quote=AllyM]
3. BeDirect is offering brand new, Region 2 Sony RDRHXD710s at £398.00, incl. free delivery. Out of stock at the moment, but I can wait. Any feedback on this company? QUOTE]


And Pricerunner shows SuperFi offering a multiregion for £419.95. Might be worth it if you ever need to run Reg 1 DVD's

Apologies if his has been asked before - I have read the thread, but couldn't see it referred to.

I am looking at buying a 910, and would like to route my Pace STB through the Sony in order to watch cable TV with pause TV functionality. However, If I do this, will I be able to switch the Sony to output an AV channel (i.e. the Pace cable box) when recording from Freeview (I appreciate I wouldn't be able to pause live tv etc when recording)?

Many thanks,

I have a Pace Twin linked through the Sony using RGB. When the Sony 910 is in standby or currently recording it will be in pass through mode with no apparent loss of quality.

Many thanks for the prompt reply. Just to clarify, does this mean that you are able to view your Pace STB via the av input of the Sony whilst the Sony is recording from Freeview?

Sorry if I seem a bit dense!

Regards,

Yes, this is one of the pleasing things I discovered about the 710 when I got it.

I have another Freeview box, AND a norwegian Satellite box all going INTO my 710, and my concern was when the 710 was recording, it would stop any input signal from being shown. BUT, if you have the 710 in standby when your scheduled program comes on, it records the program WITHOUT ACTUALLY COMING ON! So If I record something with the 710 in standby, my wife can still see the Winter Olympics on Norwegian TV passing through.

I don't know if any other machines work like this, but Well done sony for implementing it!

Also, if you're recording something, and you want to go to bed, you can switch off the 710! It just carries on recording, even though the machine is 'off', and at the end of the recording, totally shuts down....another cracking feature!