Multi Region Sony RDR-DC90 (RDRDC90) Freeview+ DVD Recorder 120Gb Hard Disc Drive

Review by RoseRodent for Multi Region Sony RDR-DC90 (RDRDC90) Freeview+ DVD Recorder 120Gb Hard Disc Drive
Rating:
If you are considering this item then I advise you to do plenty of research before proceeding. I read many review sites and even downloaded and studied the instruction manual for this before buying it, and there were still some surprises.

First, this is clear from most other reviews but not explicit on this website, it’s an HDD with DVD player, but you CANNOT record directly onto DVD, you must put it onto your HDD, do any editing you wish to do, then dub it to DVD. The manual refers to the ability to use “high speed dub” to transfer your recordings to DVD at acclerated speed, but this is not actually possible with most recordings. In fact, it is restricted to analogue recordings (not relevant in “switched over” areas) and material recorded from outside sources such as camcorders. So to record a 1-hour program onto a DVD is going to take you 2 hours.

There is no facility to set up automatic record padding, if you want an 8-9 program to record from 7.59 to 9.02 then you have to put that in each and every time. You cannot use series record and padding, it automatically switches off series linking if you alter the start or end time. Whoops.

Here’s the big one for me, this product is really, really loud. I was unable to return it because I bought it from another supplier who would not let me review it because I didn’t have a positive review – it seems they only accept good reviews! Don’t underestimate how loud I mean, sometimes picky review sites talk about loud hard disk spin but it’s just a bit of a niggly noise – oh no, this one is a house-shaker. The first time it received an automatic update we went hunting around the house to find out what the terrible noise was, and tracked it to this HDD recorder – in the upstairs room above the one we were in, it was loud enough to interfere with watching TV. We turned off automatic updates but that didn’t help, it still does it at 4am every day, waking us up. Wouldn’t recommend it for a bedroom.

There are far FAR too many buttons on the remote, it really doesn’t need to be as complex as that, I’ve had similar machines that got by on half as many buttons. There is an eclectic selection of buttons for controlling your TV – always annoying space wastage if your TV is not supported – but strangely it doesn’t include “mute” which strikes me as a core button choice.

Don’t be misled by the instruction manual saying if you want to watch another channel while recording then press this button – the button it is referring to is the one to change to watching your TV!! If you are using this as your only Freeview box expecting that you can watch another channel while you record, you cannot.

The very weirdest thing is that you can watch a DVD while recording, you can watch back a pre-recorded program when recording, but you cannot watch from your USB stick, nor can you watch programs you can copied into the internal HDD from the USB stick. Goodness knows why, the programs have been imported into the internal memory but you are unable to watch them if you are recording. You also cannot turn the box onto standby while recording, even though it will record from standby.

All in all, it’s a nice product and it does do a lot of things, but you really don’t want this in your bedroom, and don’t take the instruction manual at face value, there is no high speed dub and no facility to watch your USB when recording.