Product Description

SONY DualLAYER DVD recorder recording on a 160Gb hard drive The RDR-HX725S features a 160 GB hard drive so you can record andenjoy all of your favorite TV programs on your schedule.

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #49989 in Consumer Electronics
• Brand: Sony
• Model: RDRHX725S.CEK
• Released on: 2006-03-24
• Dimensions: 9.26 pounds

Manufacturer's Description
Featuring IQ Recording, the RDR-HX725 expands the range of DVD/HDD Recorders from Sony and is the ideal entry-level product for those wanting to improve their home entertainment experience. The I refers to the range's intelligent, easy to use controls and the Q stands for high quality DVD/HDD Recording.

The RDR-HX725 boasts 160GB HDD capability. For quality, the HQ+ recording realises the original video source signals as accurately as possible by recording onto the hard disk at 15Mbps; a higher bit rate than the DVD-Video standard bit rate.

In addition the RDR-HX725 has a newly developed D-Matrix Noise Reduction feature that diminishes 'digital noise' using three different noise reduction technologies simultaneously, depending on the characteristic of the picture.

In addition the DVD recorder includes the new feature 'Pause Live TV' which allows the user to pause a live programme via the remote control. This feature means users can view their programmes with a delay or simply fast forward to catch up with the real time broadcast, thus giving consumers control over how they wish to view their programmes.

All Sony DVD Recorders continue to support the Dual RW format for the best compatibility with DVD media. They are also compatible with the new DVD+R Double-Layer format offering double the capacity of regular DVD+R dics to enable you to put over 10 hours of recording onto one DVD.

Other features of the RDR-HX725 include DVD RAM playback, Intelligent Chaptering, D-Matrix Noise Reduction, 7-Day EPG, one touch timer recording, chasing playback and subtitle recording.

Box Contents

Customer Reviews

RDR-HX725 review
The recorder was fairly simple to set up, although the manual is a bit unclear in places, particularly in showing how you should connect the recorder with your other equipment. It's important to note that (like a lot of recorders these days) a scart cable (or any cable to connect it) isn't included. So i had to go out and buy 2 scart cables (one to connect the recorder to my Sky box, the other to the TV). Also worth noting is that the recorder does NOT have a freeview tuner built in. Sony recorders with a D in the model number (e.g. RDR-HXD710) do have freeview built in. Lastly, the item description on Amazon says that it has a HDMI output but this is NOT true.

The interface of the machine is fairly simple, although this is the first recorder i have used so i have nothing to compare it with. I do think that moving between menus is a bit sluggish. The recorder offers a variety of recording options of varying quality. Given the ample space of the hard drive, i usually go for one of the higher quality record modes, and the picture from these is very impressive.
I have recorded onto DVD-RW's and DVD+RW's and have experienced no problems whatsoever as of yet. The editing facilities of the recorder are very useful, say for removing ad breaks, and the function is easy to use.
One concern i would raise is that the fan of the recorder is quite loud, and it turns on periodically. This isnt noticeable while watching films, but I have the recorder in my bedroom, and it's particularly noticeable when i'm trying to get to sleep!
However the main disappointment for me was to find that the recorder (despite what Sony say) does not record in RGB, which I would much prefer to record in, as it delivers a much better picture quality.
The recorder incorporates Guide + and after some initial trouble setting it up (the host channel needs to be Eurosport if you just have a Sky connection or ITV if you have a terrestrial connection as well) i have found it to be quite useful as an EPG, although its weaknesses are exposed when there is a change in the viewing schedule, particularly now with Wimbledon and the World Cup on.
The pause live TV and chasing playback function work reasonably well, although anyone that has seen how well these features have been incorporated in Sky + will probably be disappointed.

In conclusion this is a well equipped player, and is good value for money given the size of the hard drive and the recorders features, but the lack of RGB recording is a major issue for me, and one that led me to the conclusion that i probably should have paid a bit extra for one of the new Panasonic or Pioneer models, especially the Panasonic models which seem to incorporate just about every feature that one could possibly need. But on the whole i am pleased with the general functions of the player - it's easy to use and has a lot of useful features. I think i would probably give this recorder 3.5/5 overall but you can only rate items in whole integers, so i've rounded it up to 4/5.

Good but not for technophobes
I agree with the first review of this item. I am not an expert in AV though have kept reasonably up to date. This is a preliminary view having had the recorder for a few days now. It took about half an hour to get it fitted up and recording. That seems fine to me. The 119 page handbook (all in English) is I am sure accurate but is not presented as a teacher might write one. For example, copying a programme from your hard disk to a removable DVD is called 'dubbing'. May be this is a writing/marketing opportunity for someone much as other authors have written software guides.

May be an important question is why would you want to buy this kind of equipment as it does not have a built-in tuner? If you have access to Freeview you'd probably do better with one of the new generation PVRs as recommended by Which? magazine. By all accounts they are much easier to operate, particularly the recording process.

I bought this HD/DVD recorder without a tuner because our Freeview signal is so poor at times and I don't pay for any Sky channels but get freeview channels via sattelite using the Freesat arrangement. If you subscribe to Sky already and are prepared to pay the extra, you'd probably do better with the SkyBox.

So to record an off-air programme, I have to programme the Sony recorder appropriately and then remember to select the right Sky channel separately and change it back when I want to watch another channel in the interim! Also you can't watch one channel live while recording another. Nor can you instruct it to change channel between one recording and another (at least I dont think you can). So it's not very flexible though the recording quality is very good indeed.

There are also a lot of options for recording quality onto the hard disk. The higher the quality the more the hard disk is taken up. I suspect I wont use more than about two of these. But for this reason I think the 160GB model is better value than the 80GB model. In this repect the Amazon price at the time I bought it was very competitive.

So overall I think an HD/DVD recorder without a tuner has its uses but perhaps they are rather limited to those of us with 'special needs'.

constant HDD Error
I bought this in Jan 07 and after setting it up, started to test it and was happy with it, however three weeks in a HDD error message appeared on the display. Looked in the manual and followed the advice, but still HDD error appeared. Only way i coudl get it to go was to turn the unit off at the mains and leave it for a few hours and turn it back on. Then it worked occassionally for a while only for the HDD error to flash back up again.
Have searched the net for help but to no avail, although other people are having the same problem with this recorder and Sony offer no help at all except what is says in the book.
Bought an identical Hard drive and fit that but still HDD error appears. Having paid £200+ for it, its the one thing that really annoys me, as I was hoping to start transfering my old VHS onto DVD's, as well as recording programmes etc.
Its a shame as I had read all the reviews before hand and was impressed. If you can offer any help to this HDD error let me know!