Sony RDR-HXD995 Freeview Recorder
The RDR-HXD is one of Sony’s finest machines to-date, incoporating not only a digital tv hard drive recorder (Freeview Plus) as well as a DVD player and recorder.
Sony RDRHXD995 Best Price
Sony RDR-HXD995 Review
This unit from Sony builds on the success of the Sony RDR-HXD890 by replacing the hard drive for a larger 250Gb model (giving up to 710 hours of recording time!!) and also boasts a Common Interface card-slot which allows you to subscribe to addition subscription channels such as Top Up TV and formerly Setanta Sports.
More realistically, the 250Gb hard drive would be used not only for storing recorded TV programs, but also to store your collection of music and digital photos from other devices. You will see later in the review that this model boasts much more than simply a DVD/Freeview Recorder.
With regard to the Freeview functionality, it has all the features you would expect, with the exception of only having a single tuner. This means that you can only watch and record one channel simultaneously – other models that have twin digital tuners allow you to record one channel while watching another. However, as with the HXD890, if you already have a TV with built in digital Freeview tuner you can happily record one channel on the HXD995 and then watch the other using your TV’s tuner. Apart from this, 8-day on-screen electronic programme guide (EPG), Series Link, accurate recording, pause live tv etc are all there in typical Sony smugness.
The DVD recorder has very few surprises. As you would expect from Sony, excellent quality play back and recording facilities enhanced by the 1080p upscaling feature. While this doesn’t give you true HD quality (you qould need a Blu-Ray DVD player/recorder like the LG HR400 for that) it does do a decent job of improving the picture to make the most of your 1080p LCD TV.
As with many Sony appliances, you get a whole host of extras that you wouldn’t expect to find. USB ports for connecting a PictBridge printer, digital camera or other USB storage device makes it very easy to transfer media stored on the integral hard drive on to another device. It also allows you to print images and video stills from the RDR-HXD995 to a compatible PictBridge printer.
Making the most of the 250Gb hard drive, this model also has Juke Box and Photo Album functions. Transfer photos and music mp3s from your PC via a USB memory stick or similar, and this software turns the RDR-HXD995 in to a fully fledged entertainment centre.
Sony RDR-HXD995 Specifications
- 250Gb Hard Drive (max 710 hours, min 36 hours at high quality)
- HD upscaling to 1080p and HDMI output socket (although HDMI cable not included)
- 8-day EPG for Freeview
- Series Link
- Chase Play (start watching a program before it has finished recording)
- Region 2 DVD Player
- DVD Recorder
- Sony Bravia Sync to control other Sony devices from one controller
- 2 x USB ports to connect digital cameras, PictBridge Printers and external USB storage devices
- Digital Music Jukebox and Digital Photo Album for viewing and listening to images and songs stored on the hard drive
- Dimensions: 43cm wide x 7.65cm heigh x 28.8cm deep
Sony RDRHXD995 Best Price
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i have a Sony RDRHXD995 and was wondering if i could watch a dvd while recording a tv programme. because at the moment it says “unable to perform this operation at the moment” very anoying.
if you anyone could help i’ll be very greatful.
tom
It doesn’t play divx avi movies etc from the usb connections!