1. I'm not using a Scart between DVDR & TV , it's HDMI. Autoswitching will be possible in a few months with new HDMI 1.3 equipment, but not on this DVDR and this TV AFAIK.

2. (a) There's no pass-through between the Humax-->DVDR Scart and the DVDR -->TV HDMI when the Sony is in standby; a possible solution is to use a '1-2' Scart between Humax TV, TV and DVDR in, but I don't fancy expending around £15 to find out.

2. (b) Sony advise against using both Scart & HDMI outs. At best the TV would autoswitch to the Scart needing a manual re-switch anyway.

3. VCR - having watched a few bits of tape to check things work, I honestly can't see us copying much tape to DVD, I'd rather keep an eye out for bargain DVD versions of the good stuff, just as I replaced my vinyl favourites with CDs. Or ever wanting to tape anything ever again. The VCR will fade away, yesterday's technology.

Can someone help me please - and quickly!

I have one of these machines on order but I have just realised that it only has one SCART connection. I am buying it just to replace my old Panasonic, which is playing up.

My equipment is an old Sony 32" TV and a Sky+ box. Not a hint of HD anywhere! My Panasonic DVD recorder has 2 SCARTs and I can connect my TV, Sky+ box & DVD recorder with no problems.

Any advice on how I connect my kit with the new Sony DVD recorder? Will I need new leads of some sort or am I just buying the wrong piece of kit? I have no plans to upgrade my TV or Sky+ box.

Quick responses much appreciated as I am keeping my supplier on hold until I am sure I want to buy this DVD recorder. Thanks.

No, there's the usual 2 scarts on the Sony DVDR (in & out) + HDMI out + Component video out + Composite video out + some more behind the front panel door flap. More options than you'll need . The manual's linked in an earlier post.

A straight swap for the Panasonic DVDR, just check both ends of each lead are on the same video setting (RGB or S-Video).

Panic over. Thanks for responding so quickly. I had just found the manual but not had chance to look through it when you responded.

For anyone that is interested - Digital Direct had this at £69 but appear to be out of stock. I ordered from Priceless Electronics for £75 but they are now out of stock. More stock expected in 2 weeks. They have offered me the multi-region version for £85, which I will probably go for.

Digital Direct do have a £9.99 P&P charge so the RDR GX350 was never really £69 in total. Sound & Vision are owned by the same company as Digital Direct but with prices that inc vat & delivery. DD went out of stock when they further reduced their price to £74.44 inc vat & del.

Priceless Electronics now have RDR GX350s back in stock but have increased the price which is currently at £79 inc vat & del, due to higher demand. This is very annoying and common amongst many retailers.

I bought this DVD player a couple of weeks ago. Unfortunately, after finalising the disc it appears not to playback on a PC. The files can be found on the disc but will not perform a standard playback. If anyone knows the reason for this I would appreciate some feedback. I have run many tests on the machine such as VR and Video mode, different DVD-R stock etc, but no luck?!

Recording a Maxell DVD-RW formatted in VR mode, not finalised, WinXP Explorer can't see any files (it says it's a blank writeable CD) but my PC software (Intervideo WinDVD, came free with my video card) has no problem playing them. I have to open the software first, then it automatically checks the DVD drive and starts playback.

With a commercial DVD it's different, WinXP sees it and 'Play DVD with WinDVD' is one of the options.

Only suggestion is to try your discs on a different PC.

I have just bought a RDR-GX350, which I have connected to a Sony KDL-26P2530 TV using a fully-wired SCART lead from the Line 3 - TV SCART output on the GX350 to the AV2 SCART input on the TV.

When I switch the GX350 out of standby, I was expecting the TV to auto detect & switch straight from Freeview to the AV2 input. But it doesn't do this, and I have to select it manually using the TV remote. I've played arounds with the menu settings of both units, but can't find a combination that works.

Also, I'm looking for a quick and cheap way of converting it to multi-region.

Can anyone help on either question?

All sorted now.

Does this dvd player work well with Sky+?

yes it does.
i have this dvd recorder connect to my pvr 2 and its a great picture.
just set both sky+ and dvd recorder to output rgb and you will not go wrong

Thanks, and do you know if it will record on to DVD-RAM discs?

How did you do the multi-region??

Buy one of THESE.

No, it won't, but it will play them.

Damn. DVD-RAM discs are supposed to be the best

Yeah I got one of these just over a week ago; I want it for pretty much the same purposes as you (ie for recording/digitising old VHS tapes and for archiving my favourite PVR recordings, as well as for recording from my VM cable box).

I got mine for £89.99 on sale at Comet (which I thought was a good price for a Sony branded recorder, considering the spec and I didn't need a digital tuner anyway), it was in stock at my local store last Friday, I used the click and collect on the Thursday late afternoon and picked it up first thing on Friday and im quite chuffed with it it seems to work well, the setup was a bit confusing and arduous but I managed to get it all set up well in the end! and it does pretty much just what I want, so im happy the upscaling isn't too bad either...

I know this is an old topic but incase the original poster or anyone else is interested, I post many reviews on Ciao! and have just posted quite a detailed review about it there yesterday, so if anyone is still interested in reading reviews, you can find mine here:- http://www.ciao.co.uk/Sony_RDR_GX_350B__Review_5727969

I'm not a real techy but the review covers what I understand of the machine and what I've encountered as an intermediate DVD user at best I'd say! hope that helps...

A decent price at the moment is £79.99 delivered, Laskys. Place I got mine was a tad cheaper but they aren't showing it ATM.

One tip is to always use DVD-R (or -RW) discs and pre-format them to 'VR' mode - that allows a decent range of editing options afterwards. The automatic 'Video' mode formatting that takes place when a blank is inserted only allows title and the thumbnail to be changed; you can't trim off the end bit (in my "learning experience" case, after the transfer from Humax HDD has finished and the DVDR carries on recording the menu screen showing the list of recorded programmes on the Humax HDD ).

I think your review's a bit unfair as most of the problems you hit were your own making and would probably have occurred on any model recorder you tried to set up; the Sony's scart sockets, etc, are clearly marked and the manual well-written and well-illustrated. I bet your Dad would have had no problems.

No, he tried to set it up but we couldn't get any picture to show up with it set up according to what the manual said, he had to swap the scart sockets around I think... it took a good couple of hours to get it to show up properly and he installed his VCR/DVD Recorder combi in the past... it is complicated to get these things set up to start with I feel, I mean we're no real professional experts but can follow instructions and it doesn't always work properly but anyway we get there in the end which is all that matters really... I did say that I thought the manual was clear and well laid out.

I don't think it is unfair really, I simply say what my experiences are having used it and that its my first recorder, I have read the manual but im no expert so if I overlooked the VR formatting option you mention then ok I'll bare that in mind for the future but I don't remember mentioning any criticisms about not being able to cut off the end of recordings or anything, so that shouldn't really apply to the review...

Okay if I made any mistakes then please let me know what I can do to improve any of the negative points I make in the review and ill try and edit it and include that info... thanks

I just got this machine from Amazon for £79.99, and it's quite a nice buy. Picture quality is excellent, and despite its fan, it's quiet. It's fussy about which DivX files it'll play, but that's probably because of the different types of DivX files I've got. Still, the fact that it plays some DivX files is still a bonus and not something I really care about or bought it for. Ordered it at 2:30am on Wednesday morning, and it came around midday the next day. Good service, considering I only used the free Supersaver delivery.

I might just go ahead and order it even though it can't record on to dvd-ram disks. Has anyone used it for 24 hour recording? If so what is the quality like?

Obviously 24 hour recording quality will be pathetic!.

Why this love of DVD-RAM?, they aren't anything particularly good or useful - the only 'advantage' is that you can use them like a very tiny HDD.

Essentially it was a Panasonic idea which pretty well flopped?.

I've heard about this 24 hour recording mode being possible but, I apologise if this is a stupid question being somewhat amateur when it comes to DVD Recorders and all, I don't know how you even use that... considering the only recording modes that are listed in the manual give a maximum of 17 hour 57 minutes, thats on double layer disks using SEP mode. Unless they mean if you just use the one touch recording and don't stop it for 24 hours then maybe it somehow fits it all onto the disk but yes, I'd imagine the quality would be pretty dire...

Hey, the first three hard drives I owned were smaller capacity than a DVD. And at the time of purchase I thought each had enormous capacity...

Not that, it's only with timed recordings and with 'Rec Mode Adjust = on' that the machine sets a speed to suit the length if it's over your default mode. So maybe setting the timer to a 24 hour length? It's not something I'm ever likely to want to use.

Only the first three?