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Sony SVR-S500 - Digital TV Recorder (DVR) with 80GB Hard Drive and Freeview Best Buy
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Popularity - 2446. The lower the number the more popular.
Price - £234.34 Correct as of 27/09/07
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5 Reviews for Sony SVR-S500 - Digital TV Recorder (DVR) with 80GB Hard Drive and Freeview
Regrettably, it's going back! - 22 Aug 2007
6 out of 8 found this review helpful.
My first digital recorder and I am impressed by the functionallity of recording, pausing live TV etc. But this "Sony" PVR is now re-boxed for return. (apparently it's actually a Digifusion badged for Sony)
Main issues for me were:
1. Lack of volume control! Basic essential feature and it's not there! Couldn't believe it. I connect audio direct to sound system, so it's got to have this. (my old cheapo Hauppauge digibox box has it).
2. Channel 5 is unwatchable! Odd! Other channels seem fine, and CH5 is fine on my old digibox. Maybe it's a fault?
3. Audio quality is disappointing. Made a number of comparisons and it's not as clear as my old digibox. Particularly noticeable on the radio channels.
Fan noise seemed OK to me, but then I only had it running for an hour or so.
Now looking for other model, not "Sony"(Digifusion)
Great piece of kit - 12 Aug 2007
8 out of 8 found this review helpful.
We bought a Panasonic DVD-RAM recorder when they first became available, and it's OK. It has various drawbacks which this box completely fixes.
1. this box has 2 digital tuners. You can record 2 digital programmes simultaneously, whilst watching a previously recorded programme. That's very good.
2. The EPG is dead handy, I sit for 20 minutes once a week and set a few recordings. I rarely 'see what's on telly' these days - I've got the week's choice to hand all the time.
3. The 'pause live telly' thing is fantastic for the kids during the day and for us in the evening.
4. The menu of recorded programmes is very useful too.
There are some irritations - the menus are a bit slow, after you've set a recording from the EPG it returns to the current channel & date so you have to re-adjust, and it has 'frozen' once - I unplugged for 10 secs and all was well. I don't find the fan annoying at all (those people must live alone in cotton-wool lined flats) and all in all this is the best £80 I've ever spent.
Two things to note - the picture quality was initially poor, then I changed the 'SCART type' menu setting to RGB and the picture's perfect. Second, we are in a poor digital reception area and have a booster for the television digital tuner. This box didn't like that, it gave us erratic picture quality and often dropped the signal completely. I removed the booster and with a just length of coax the signal's good enough for the tuners in this box to work perfectly all the time - of course we can't use the telly tuner any more, but we don't anyway because we use this all the time instead because it's so good.
Highly recommended. It immediately becomes natural and what a relief to be in control of our TV viewing.
Works perfectly - 03 Jul 2007
12 out of 12 found this review helpful.
I can not understand the negative comments in some of the reviews for this product. I have had mine for a month and so far it has worked perfectly.
Other reviewers have made the following points which I disagree with:-
1. "The fan never goes off and is very noisy" - The fan does make a noise but you don't notice it while the TV is on and it switches off within two minutes of the unit being put on standby.
2. "The EPG only gives titles, not programme info" - EPG functions fine on all channels with info available by pressing one button. This is stored along with titles on all recordings.
3. "If you change the time of a recording from that published in the EPG you have to enter title manually" - This is not the case. I have even started to record halfway through a programme and still got title and info.
The two freeview are tuners are invaluable as once the analogue signal is switched off it will be one of the only ways to record something other than what you're watching.
In short, I would recommend it to anybody who wants to throw their old VHS tapes away!
No Problems! - 07 Jun 2007
8 out of 8 found this review helpful.
I nearly didn't buy this machine because of some of the reviews but I am so glad I did! You can't hear it and there are absolutely no problems with anything. It is very easy to use and love being able to record two programs whilst watching another. I really can't understand the negative reviews as they do not relate to my experience at all.
How loud can a little box be???? - 11 May 2007
10 out of 12 found this review helpful.
The answer is too loud. I got the unit home and it looks great, set it up ok but as soon as it was plugged into the mains the fan started up and this doesn't stop unless you unplug it. I live in a small flat with an open shelf arrangement and I could hear it in my bedroom. As you have to leave it in standby to pick the EPG it's not like you can turn it off at night. It is quite slow to change channels as well but I could have put up with that if it wasn't for the noise.
Sadly, it was re-packaged within a few hours when I just couldn't stand it anymore.