SONY RDRHX900 REVIEW

There are two main problems with this recorder...
1) The timer-record feature only lets you record 8 different programs at any one time during a monthly period although hopefully Sony will rectify this in a future firmware upgrade. 2) While it does have Variable Bit Rate recording (the recorder automatically assigns higher quality to action scenes and lesser quality to less demanding pictures) it doesn't allow you to record in a flexible bit-rate. For example, if you have a film that lasts 1 hour 35 minutes then you will have to record it onto a DVD in the 2 hour mode, hence 25 minutes of disc space is wasted. However, as a counter to this the quality of the picture even in the 3 hour mode is excellent so this shouldn't really be a problem to most people, unless the wasted space would bug you.

On the positive side the recording quality is the best I have seen from a DVD recorder with a crisp and vibrant picture being produced even on the 3 and 4 hour recording modes (anyone who has regularly despaired at the poor quality of their VHS recordings will be amazed with what this machine does). Additionally to this, features such as 'Precision Cinema Scan' give the HX900 DVD movie playback quality that is better than all but the best standalone DVD players can achieve.

Perhaps the biggest benefit of this recorder though is the built-in hard drive which gives you a variety of playback, recording and editing options. On the recording front it allows you to record programmes without having to find spare or blank discs and will then store them away in date or alphabetical order. You can simultaneously record onto the hard drive and to a DVD disc and it also allows you to chase playback (that is to start recording something at 8pm and start watching the film from the start at 8.15pm while the rest of the film is still recording). On the editing side it lets you delete scenes, add chapters, create thumbnails, copy protect and name your recordings in a frame by frame manner where appropriate, which allows you to rid your recordings of adverts or unwanted sections etc. The menu system is also very intuitive and easy to use with nice finishing touches such as animations and screen fades and the ability to still watch the TV picture in a split screen fashion while you change settings.

On top of all this there is a myriad of connection options including a DV-in option that will allow you to instantly dub or edit any footage from your digital camcorder onto either the hard drive for editing or a DVD to keep. The Sony's 24x high speed dubbing option works well here allowing you to put an hour's footage onto DVD in less than 5 minutes, albeit in a reduced quality level.

In my opinion this recorder is an excellent piece of equipment that is well worth the money, after all even the cheapest hard drive recorders are around £350 and they don't have the options and features that this recorder has nor the quality that you can expect from Sony. I would have given this recorder 4.5/5 if the site had allowed me to, with the non-perfect score being due to the problems I outlined at the start. If you think that the problems I mentioned above are ones that wouldn't bother you too much then this recorder is for you. It is stunning.