Hi,

After reading some great Best Buy reviews I decided to go for a Sony RDR-HX510S.
The high street price seems to be around £400, with the cheapest on-line coming in at just under £300 from some dodgy sounding companies around Birmingham.
Dixons on-line (www.dixons.co.uk) have it listed @ £314 + £6 delivery, so I didn't mind paying a bit extra for a reputable name.
At the checkout I was prompted for a Promotion Code, and a quick search on Google gave me the code DISCOUNT25 which knocked £25 off the price!
I ordered on Monday evening and it arrived via DHL (with on-line tracking reference) on Wednesday afternoon - all for £296, you can't beat it.

I'm very impressed with the machine, it does everything it says on the box and oozes quality.
I tried to record a Blockbusters DVD and it politely declined because it was copy protected.
However, I put the DVD into my portable Goodmans player and connected it to the Sony's front AV input (Line 2) and hey presto - it recorded straight to DVD-R with no problems.

I think this could be the start of a beautiful relationship!

Eddie

(I'd be interetsed if anyone can recommend a good universal remote control, as the Sony's doesn't work my LG TV, as I hoped it would, and I'm now drowning in a sea of remotes!)

[pjskel]

Harmony 688 - £100 ish, but very nice. Tendancy to eat batteries every 10-21 weeks with typical use, so you may want to consider the 850 with its colour display (touch) and recharging station for £125 ish.

[denbighG]

Originally Posted by ejay26

Hi,

After reading some great Best Buy reviews I decided to go for a Sony RDR-HX510S.
The high street price seems to be around £400, with the cheapest on-line coming in at just under £300 from some dodgy sounding companies around Birmingham.
Dixons on-line (www.dixons.co.uk) have it listed @ £314 + £6 delivery, so I didn't mind paying a bit extra for a reputable name.
At the checkout I was prompted for a Promotion Code, and a quick search on Google gave me the code DISCOUNT25 which knocked £25 off the price!
I ordered on Monday evening and it arrived via DHL (with on-line tracking reference) on Wednesday afternoon - all for £296, you can't beat it.

I'm very impressed with the machine, it does everything it says on the box and oozes quality.
I tried to record a Blockbusters DVD and it politely declined because it was copy protected.
However, I put the DVD into my portable Goodmans player and connected it to the Sony's front AV input (Line 2) and hey presto - it recorded straight to DVD-R with no problems.

I think this could be the start of a beautiful relationship!

Eddie

(I'd be interetsed if anyone can recommend a good universal remote control, as the Sony's doesn't work my LG TV, as I hoped it would, and I'm now drowning in a sea of remotes!)

Forgive my ignorance, but isnt copy protection a DIGITAL thing? I think you are connecting an analogue signal to the AV input, or am I wrong about that?

It probably is an analogue signal going back in.
I'm no purist - but the quality of the copy is very good.
The other benefit is that it's a disc to disc copy, so it saves time over dumping to HDD then dubbing back to DVD.

Eddie

[denbighG]

Originally Posted by ejay26

It probably is an analogue signal going back in.
I'm no purist - but the quality of the copy is very good.
The other benefit is that it's a disc to disc copy, so it saves time over dumping to HDD then dubbing back to DVD.

Eddie

Yes.. digital signals are put in/out over an optical link, exclusively, I think.

I used to get almost digital quality reception of terrestrial TV, and now do in France, which went onto my high-cost-quality VHS recorder. I can easily compare the two: digital source vs analogue source, and I cant see that much in it. I repeat, I use(d) high quality stuff, not the cheapo rubbishy VHS recorders which flooded the market in the last 8-10years.

So, it is consistent that the recordings via analogue should be pretty damn good.