crikey, what a palaver! I'll try SP and see if that helps at all...I see what you mean about the mied 4:3 & 16:9, but as you say, Saturday night BBC1 would all be 16:9 I guess. Its not too much of a pain to let it chug along at normal speed, but it would be nice if it worked at high speed!
Thanks for the help
Vince

I've been told by Sony that the 710 is the first of their recorders to include the necessary facility to update recording times when the broadcasters change/update the EPG.
Unfortuneately it needs the Triggers to be transmitted and the BBC is the only one doing this so far (see other postings I've made). So come on Commercial Companies. Let's see you catch up and start providing the service the BBC does!!

Does anybody know anything about the imminent Panasonic DMR-EX80V and DMR-EX95V machines ? From spec alone these look like they're designed to slaughter the Sony RDR HXD-710 and RDR HXD-910... if only for the fact that they have built-in VHS decks. Everybody I know still has at least some treasured VHS tapes they want to archive for posterity !

I've got a Sony RDR HXD-710 and have linked up my video to it and archived off old videos. It's not difficult, I just connected the video to the PVR with a scart cable.

I don't know whether those Panasonics can do it any better, if they have an integrated VHS deck, but it's easy enough to do with the HXD-710 too.

I don't know anything about the Panasonics you mention, so can't comment on whether they 'slaughter' the HXD-710 or not, but jut thought I'd point out that it's simple to connect up a video (which everybody already has) to the Sony so that's not a reason to say it's 'slaughtered' by the Panasonics.

Cheers Ishtar, and yep, I'm doing the same with my HXD-710, which is a great machine, even with all the little quirks and foibles we've been talking about here.

The equivalent new Pannys do have HDMI, an SD card slot, video upscaling and dual layer DVD recording for a similar price to the HXD-710, as well as a built-in VHS deck - which is the bit that interests me.

That's mainly because of picture and sound quality - my Sony VHS has a standard (non-RGB) SCART so picture quality suffers when passing between the two machines. The Panny - being an integrated unit - is specifically designed to convert VHS to digital at best possible quality. Since the original VHS image is already so rubbish, it'd be good not to lose any more than you have to.

But you're right. There's nothing wrong with the HXD-710 I've already got, and yes it's daft to start hankering to replace it again only a year later. There's always going to be something new and tempting around the corner... thanks for your reply.

Well after 8 months of faultless use, my 910 has died on me!!! A few weeks ago the playback of recordings on the HD started looking REALLY bad - pixelated isn't the word - the only word to describe it is AWFUL!!! Completely unwatchable!! So I tried the Recovery feature (which had worked a few times before) but to no avail. Then I tried a bought DVD - it was the same!!! So I tried a JPEG disc - PERFECT!!!! I was confused by this - so I decided to call Sony Customer Services. They went through all the obvious things to try, (different scart, different TV) which I had already done. So they gave me the number of my nearest Authorised Repairers.

Its been with them for 10 days now and they've only just looked at it and found a fault - saying it needs a circuit board and a cable. Now they 've got to order the parts from Sony (2 days) then it will be back in to their repair schedule.

I'll let you all know if its resolved adequately.

Cheers
Matt

A standard SCART will still give you the best VHS quality that you can get. The basic VHS process is the limiting factor. With S-VHS you'll get better quality from an S-Video connection, but nothing you can do to standard`VHS will help.

Well I got my 910 back after 12 days away. They had to replace a board and a cable and updated the firmware. Excellent news, I thought!! No Hard Disk problem so all my recorded stuff will still be there ready to watch..................eeerrrrrr NO!!! Its all gone!!! Why they had to wipe it is beyond me - when it wasn't a Hard Disk problem!! Maybe a phone call to them will answer my question.

Updated the firmware? I wasn't aware that any update had been released for these models and I usually keep a close eye on the DTT downloads website.

I notice that there is news of a possible new Sony update from 7th August - wonder if it could be for this series of models?

I've got the RDR-HXD710 model and both the software and loader versions are 1.00.00

Does anyone else know of a firmware update and how to get it?

I was told that the update was for the Sony Freeview Boxes.

I've recently been in contact with Sony and they confirm that there's no update.

Unfortunately I wasn't knowlegeable enough about the firmware to dispute what I was told. Maybe that was just an excuse for format my hard drive, when I wouldn't have expected them to need to do that.

But surely they'll be invoicing Sony for these repairs, including firmware update, and Sony will pull them up on it??

I think I'll give them a ring and run that one by them.

Sony have provisionally scheduled a software update from 09/02/07 to 11/02/07 for models RDR-HXD710 & RDR-HXD910.

The updated version is listed as v1.00.02 - does anyone know what the changes may be (assuming the update isn't pulled at the last minute)?

Does anyone know if you need to leave it powered on (BBC) overnight, or whether it just needs to be left in standby?

I wonder weather this could be the Divx update i was told would happen shortly by the Sony centre 15 months ago
Alan

I would say yes (leave it on) because that's what I've done in the past for my Sony Freeview Box.

If i havent got it sat morning i will check for updates

Thanks for the information OrmeMac, I'm glad to see they are supporting these machines.
Does anyone know what the update includes?

I think you've got two hopes of that. No hope and Bob Hope. And Bob Hope's DEAD.

The update has now changed from 'provisional' to 'new' which means it should be going ahead - unless it's pulled at the last minute.

Update there this morning. Can't see anything new yet, maybe a slightly quicker response? I havent got time to do full check until later.

Just checked and automatic software update worked with my 710 left in standby last night.
Can't see anything different in functions as yet though.
Be interesting to see if we can spot what's changed or what bug(s) have gone.

Just for the record, mine was left switched on last night, and tuned to E4, and I got the upgrade.

Has anyone got any ideas on how I resolve problem of high speed dub using DVD+RWs on the Sony RDR-HXD710. I usually dub in ep mode and only get real time dub mode. I have copied old videos to HDD drive and they are able to be dubbed in Fast Mode. I also have a panasonic Dvd recorder which I use for recording programmes for the childen & I find that if I copy from the panasonic to the Sony HDD it will then also fast dub to DVD+RW discs

I just don't understand then why it will not record direct from The HDD to DVD+RW discs. I would appreciate any assistance

This has been discussed before, I think. The usual reason suggested is that the source material contains some 4:3 programmes and some 16:9. Even one commercial-break switch between aspect ratios can do it. Perhaps the copy from the Panasonic loses the aspect ratio flag first?