Quote:
Originally Posted by John Martin 
On a different tack, I am beginning to wonder about the Sony DVD recorders' decoding software. I have noticed both with the 710 and 860 (and to a lesser extent with the 870 IIRC). This is that when I record off-air material (doesn't matter which aspect ratio)and play it back on the Sony from either the HDD or a DVD-R copy, some strange artefacts occasionally appear on the recording, e.g. sometimes parts of faces seem to remain immobile, while the rest of the picture moves, or perhaps vertical lines in the background may gently move from side to side (I mean compressing in and out, rather than just lateral shift). If I record an offending item onto DVD-R, finalise it, and play it back on the Naim, no such effect is seen, so it must be something in the Sonys' playback decoding which is producing it. I don't know whether this applies to pre-recorded DVDs on the 710 and 860 in my study as I never use the Sonys for that kind of playback, but I have noticed it on pre-recorded commercial DVDs when using the 710 in the living room. It's not a very obvious thing, but like many other minor problems, once you're aware of it, it can become very annoying. I suspect that this is one part of 'getting what you pay for', and is really a minor thing in the context of the price of the 870  |
After having the 710 for a good 18 months + I believe I can comment on the above:
Remote's are very personal, what one person likes another person doesnt, I have found the 710 a particularly nice one to use but am happy to accept others dislike it
As to your strange decoding problem, I can happily state that the 710 I had didnt once do this in everyday use on pre-recorded dvd's (I seldom archive, just use the hdd for something I want to keep) or recordings from the hdd. This was also a multi-region version so I was using R1 and R2 discs frequently and never had a single problem that was noticable
Im not saying the 710 was a pefect device by any means but considering the opposition at the time and even whats available now it was for me a decent purchase.