Typical price: £320
What is it: DVD/hard-drive recorder with dual-layer disc compatibility
What we think: A small hard drive size limits its use, but this offers DVD+R DL recording at only a small premium
Compare the Sony RDR-HX510
Sony RDR-HX510 compared to other DVD/hard drive recorders
 Sony RDR-HX510 |
 Panasonic DMR-BS750 |
 Panasonic DMR-EX85 |
 Toshiba RD-XS34 |
|
| Review date | 1 Nov 05 | 19 May 09 | 20 Nov 06 | 14 May 05 |
| Editor's rating |
7.0
|
9.0
|
8.6
|
8.3
|
| Price range | £320 | |||
| Review summary | If you like to retain quality when recording to DVD, then the RDR-HX510 is for you, because you can now record that 2-hour movie in the highest quality to a dual-layer DVD. This extra functionality doesn't cost too much over Sony's previous recorders, but to make a perfect model Sony needs to add Freeview and a larger hard drive over this model's 80GB Read full review |
We've given this excellent machine a score of 9, but it comes with the obvious 'but', which is simply that it's far too expensive. £900 is more than enough to buy a £300 freesat PVR and a £200 Blu-ray player and still have pots of cash left over. Sure, the Blu-ray recording is unique, but is it really that valuable to you? Read full review |
Panasonic's DMR-EX85 is crammed with more recording and playback features than you can imagine, including an enormous 250GB hard drive, universal disc compatibility and integrated video scaling. The impressive on-paper specification is supported by quality performance in practice Read full review |
Toshiba's previous model, the RD-XS32, set the template for the combined DVD/HDD recorder. Now, with a bigger hard drive and enhanced editing facilities, the RD-XS34 is the power user's recorder of choice. If it had Freeview integrated into the box it would be approaching perfection, but the hard drive size, ease of editing/recording, and image quality mean this should be at the centre of your AV setup Read full review |
| User rating | ||||
| Full specification | Full specification | Full specification | Full specification |
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