Sony DVD/HD combos
It’s a question that keeps us up at night here at Tech Digest mansion. What will be the dominant video recording medium in the next few years? (yes we really are that sad). Will it be a recordable DVD format or will we all be recording programmes on hard drive-based recorders.
So far neither has made a massive impression on the mainstream, but we have to say the future looks brighter for HD (only 240,000 DVD Recorders have been sold worldwide, about half the number of HD-based Sky+ boxes in the UK).
Seems Sony is hedging its bets though. Its latest line up includes several products combining both hard drive and DVD recorder in one. Flagship of the range is the RDR-HX1000 which combines a whopping 250Gb hard drive with a multi-format DVD Recorder (DVD+R, DVD+RW, DVD-RW, DVD-R). However with a retail price of £899 it’s firmly aimed at Home Cinema Choice readers who want to archive all their material. (A cheaper £699 version with 160Gb hard drive, called the RDR-HX900, is also available).
Potentially more interesting is the RDR-GXD500 which combines a digital terrestrial (Freeview) tuner with 8 day Electronic Programme Guide and a multi-format DVD recorder (sadly no hard drive). But again with a price tag of £500 it seems well over-priced to us. A far better bet is surely to buy a hard drive based product from Fusion or Pace for around half the price.
RDR-HX1000 specs – £899
240Gb hard drive
Six recording modes
Up to 325 hours recording in SLP mode (34 hours in HQ mode)
DVD+R/RW, DVD-R/RW recording
High speed dubbing to any format
Chasing play
iLink connectivity
RGB input
RDR-GXD500 specs – £499
Digital terrestrial tuner
8 day EPG
DVD+R/RW, DVD-R/RW recording
Simultaneous record and playback
Chasing play
