Product reviewsSony RDR-HX525 DVD Recorder

Fist class dvd recorder

Love this recorder, best one I have ever owned. Others have bitten the dust after only short time, returned to the supplyer and got the money back on all occasions.
Not wanting to be in that situation again decided to buy on off e-bay (best choice without a doubt), the Sony one is still going strong and was excellent value for the price I paid from a great e-bayer.
Would recomend this type if you have to do a lot of woprk with it.Read full review...

Had one for many years, never had a problem

Until recently when every time I tried to record it just said the disc was dirty even after formatting so bought this one to replace ,which works but found out by experimenting that our one still works better than ever after replacing sata cable. so all well now.Read full review...

Verified purchase:  Yes | Condition: pre-owned | Sold by: nairb_1

remote control replacement

this was a good looking unit but unfortunately it would not work my machine so I have written it off but they did offer to replace it but another one for a different machine wouldn't work either.

Verified purchase:  Yes | Condition: new | Sold by: highstreet1955

dvd recorder

the dvd recorder ias been Excellent i like it a lot thank you

Verified purchase:  Yes | Condition: pre-owned | Sold by: brilliant_kb

sony rdr-hx525

I had a similar sony unit and always found them to be reliable and well built.
Disappointed it does'nt have freeview or facility to record more than one programme at a time.Guideplus does not work v.well and can't be linked to virgin cable services so you do not have programme guides on hand.
Recording on a time frame is ok but a bit tedious to achieve.Picture quality on replay is v.good.Slow to boot up.My older unit had a delete chapter function which enabled easier editing of saved recordings.Was reasonably straightforward to set up but guideplus was a waste of my time and utimately of no use.
Would like to have been able to copy hard drive in case it fails..no usb.
Excellent value when item is as new. Frustrating that companies can't design products that can do complicated things in an easy way.
My humax unit enables two recordings at anytime and playback/view another.
Also pick from schedule to record or simple timer.
I still think Sony stands out as a product but could go further!Read full review...

Sony RDR-HX525 (80 GB) DVD Recorder / HDD Recorder

The recorder exterior is very well designed.
Operationally, It's very slow to start-up.
The hard drive quality is very poor.
It's very disappointing to have the system always
displaying HD error.
At the end, I returned the device and choose another brand.Read full review...

Excellent Sony HDD DVD Recorder

This is the first time I have had a hard drive recorder. I am absolutely stunned by it. The ease of use, the quality, the looks, in fact everything about it is excellent..... so much better than my previous foray into the DVD recorder market with Sony (I had the RDR GX210, and it was hopeless). The range of quality settings is superb - though I find the real top quality completely unnecessary (and the very lowest settings probably not usable). It is a multi dvd format recorder, so you are not stuck with any wrong format dvd's.

It's sooo easy to record onto the hard drive - and once it is there, if you want to keep it, simply transfer it to a DVD (often at superspeed).

You can pick these up for really keen prices on eBay now.... even though they still sell at nearly £300 in the shops. I paid £54 inc delivery, and it's been worth every penny.Read full review...

Sony RDR-HX525 (80GB) DVD Recorder/HDD Recorder

I really wanted a recorder that had a hard drive to record onto. I wanted to do away with tiresome DVD and have programs that I love ready and available. I purchased this recorder as I had done quite a lot of searching for a good recorder at a good price. I was very pleased to come across this one. The system was fairly easy to set up, especially for a numb skull technophobic female. I took me a little time to work out how to use it, how to set programs to record but I got the hang of it. I love it when I have recorded the evenings soaps and I look for what I am in the mood to watch...and there at my finger tips is the program and a little picture of the first scene that is recorded. So i can just view and see the easty enders theme picture...simple. You can even edit programs if you have recorded too long and want to chop some off. So I love it...and can't imagine life without my recorder. I used to get really agitated when people called or came round during soap time...but now a flick of the switch and I am more social.

My one and only hate is the the guide-plus. I got it up and running and it was great...one click on the program and it set it ready to record...one touch that is fabaroonie!!! But I had to disconnect everything to move my TV on one occasion and since then I have not been able to get guide-plus back. I have tried everything a numb skull technophobic can think of but nothing. I even looked up the web site... very good info...followed the instructions. But alas tis not to be...unless anyone out there has any ideas. Anyway this piece of technology is fab and despite lack of Guide-plus I love it, love it, love it... Although I am thinking of giving up the soaps!!!!!Read full review...

Powerful and flexible - great machine !

This machine reads/writes a very wide range of DVD formats.
The HDD recording and playback are very easy to use.
Setup needs thought as to what you plug to what so you can ..
e.g record from the Wii ( iPlayer ) ,
view a HDD recording upstairs ( co-ax link ) etc etc...
A setup hint on the internet was to plug Sky box to line 3 and TV to line 1, and do NOT use the "decoder" option as that means Canal Plus NOT Sky.
Like this, the Glink cable sends remote control signals to the Sky box to change channels to the appropriate one for recording future programs.
The Guideplus system takes some understanding to get working, but when working you can simply record any program in the guide screen just by clicking on it ( like SkyPlus units ). Guideplus has to get its info from somewhere, and until terrestrial signals are turned off in 2011/2012, its easiest to plug an aerial into the unit, and let it get its guide info from ITV channel. I have successfully set up the alternative which is to get it from Sky channel 410 ( Eurosport ), but some Skyboxes dont permit this as they strip teletext signals from the stream. Look around the Guideplus web pages for info on this.
(You dont need a subscription to Sky for the guide data to work off Eurosport ).
As a DVD player, the quality is very very good !Read full review...

DVD/HDD product review

It's a step ahead of standard DVD players and some people don't even know it's out in the market. Ebay gave me the opportunity to buy it at a competitive price. Very pleased with product