Granted,
Sony's RDR-HXD870 will attract the most attention in
Freeview-capable territories, but this fairly well-spec'd digital recorder managed to lure the reviewers at
TrustedReviews over to give it a whirl. Packing a 160GB HDD,
HDMI output, 1080p
upscaling capability, a digital TV tuner, Electronic Program Guide, FireWire, and the ability to burn content to just about every standard DVD format known to man (save for DVD-RAM), this stylish machine managed to impress with its Series Recording function, vast amount of connections, "staggering array of recording and editing features," and the "intelligently designed user interface and remote." Potentially more important, onlookers were "blown away" by the image quality when hooked up to a 1080p-capable
Hitachi plasma, and while we're always a bit skeptical when there's literally no major quibbles, it sounds like Sony has a real winner on its hands with the reasonably priced HXD870.
Rekindling the 1080i vs. 720p HD debate, Dutch pubcaster NPO is offering an HD version of Nederland 1 HD in 1080i as opposed to 720p because of complaints about picture quality. Apparently many of the complaints stemmed from the Euro 2008 matches after the native feed was made to do the 1080i/720p switch by technical partner Technicolor, and resulted in many complaints. The 1080i feed is in testing now on several broadcasters, so any of our Dutch readers give it a shot and see if you notice the difference. As ignorant Americans we generally avoid such issues by simply ignoring sports outside our borders, but highlights of Euro 2008 looked pretty good on ESPN HD's 720p feed, so we're leaning more towards equipment or compression problems as being behind the gripes until proven otherwise.
