Sony DHG-HDD250 30-Hour High-Definition Digital Video Recorder (250 GB)

• High-definition-capable digital video recorder with 250 GB storage: 30 hours of HD programming or up to 200 hours of standard content
• Includes NTSC and ATSC tuners; a perfect match for bringing off-air HDTV reception to HD-ready televisions and monitors
• Pause, rewind, and record live high-definition TV; record one program while watching another; HDMI/component-video outputs
• CableCARD slot accommodates digital cable decoder cards; Memory Stick PRO media slot lets you enjoy digital photos and MP3 music
• Measures 16.9 x 3.3 x 14 inches (W x H x D)

[This review is based on experiences with the DHG-HDD250; the DHG-HDD500 is identical, except that it is $150-$200 more expensive and has two 250GB hard disks instead of just one.]

If you're anything like me, you're likely looking at this Sony unit because TiVo doesn't make DVR that can receive high-definition (HD) broadcasts. (And the fact that TiVo has been dragging its feet on HD is one of many reasons that the company is not long for this world.) I bought the Sony DHG-HDD250 to replace my old TiVo box, and although there a few small things I gave up in the process, I'm mostly happy with my new Sony.

First and foremost: QUALITY. Watching live TV on the Sony unit is *almost* as good as watching TV with my TV's built-in ATSC tuner. The colors are slightly less-vibrant and there are a few more compression artifacts, but this is to be expected, and not terribly noticeable. Recordings are first-rate, and infinitely better than any low-def DVR, VCR, or even DVD recorder. And with the HDMI output, you can have a pure digital connection from the DVR to your TV. Probably the only quality issue is the confusing "Format" button on the remote, which allows you to stretch or shrink the video to display correctly on a 16:9 widescreen TV. It works, but it responds very slowly, is inconsistent, incomplete, and hard to figure out. Why they didn't include a simple "zoom" feature (like every TV on the planet) is beyond me.

THE INTERFACE. The menu system is not complicated, although not as friendly and cheerful as TiVo (it's faster and sharper-looking than TiVo, though). The Sony unit is much, much more configurable than any TiVo, and that configurability comes at a bit of a cost. Be prepared to read the manual to figure out how to record programs and set up the channel list, for instance. Thereafter, many things (like recording shows) are actually easier to accomplish (albeit more difficult to learn) than on a TiVo. Example: in the Guide, press and hold the Record button for one second to record a show. Press Record again to record it repeatedly (same time, same channel). That's it no wading through multiple screens, like on TiVo, to set up a simple recording.

THE GUIDE. The Sony uses the free TV Guide on-screen system (what used to be called GemStar, I believe) to get program data (off the air!) and display TV listings on the screen. This means you don't have to extend a phone cord or network cable to your DVR; just plug it in to your wall outlet, attach your antenna or plug in your cable card, and leave the unit powered off overnight. Each night, the DVR gets program data for the current day and the same day next week, which means it'll take six days after you take it out of the box before the listings will be fully populated. (Tip: listings come from an analog station in your area, so make sure not to exclude your analog stations from the listings until you find out which one is broadcasting!)

The guide not bad, but not great, either. It's pretty easy to use, but suffers from a few really idiotic design decisions. For instance, there's no direct way (on-screen) to show the listings for a different day (e.g., Tomorrow, next Wednesday, etc.), except for holding the "right" arrow button on the remote to cycle slowly through each hour of listings until you eventually end up on the correct day. The only shortcut is to press some numbers on the remote (e.g., 2 and then 4) and then select "hours ahead" from the menu that appears to jump 24 hours into the future. In other words, there's no "Tomorrow" or "Yesterday" buttons on the remote or on the screen. And there are many little annoyances like this, although it works okay once you get used to it.

But the DHG's guide also has some really nice features, such as the grid (which TiVo never could manage to include on their units), and even a keyword search; you can even save your searches! You can also get alphabetical listings to find the show(s) you want, and you can even filter the list to show only HD content, only movies, only comedies, etc. Also, recordings can be grouped by show, so you don't have to wade through a long list of recordings to find the recorded show you want to watch.

SEASON PASS. One of TiVo's best (and simplest) features was the Season Pass; I could tell it to record West Wing, and no matter what time and on what channel it appeared, TiVo would record it. Alas, the Sony unit DOES NOT HAVE A SEASON PASS feature; I don't know why the folks at TV Guide couldn't get this simple feature to work. You can have the DHG record multiple episodes of a show, but ONLY if they're broadcast at exactly the same time and on the same channel. If West Wing is an hour later one week, or if it's syndicated on another station, the DHG will miss it unless you manually ask it to record those episodes, too.

There are some other TiVo features absent from the DHG that I don't miss at all, such as "Recommendations" (a feature that fills up your hard disk with junk you don't want), and the "Thumbs Up" and "Thumbs Down" buttons that are supposed to influence the aforementioned recommendations (almost as effectively as TiVo's marketing partners).

OVERALL. The DHG-HDDxxx is the only DVR on the market that doesn't require an expensive digital cable subscription or satellite dish; since I get all my HD broadcasts for free with a $20 rooftop antenna, this was a must. It's also quite a nice unit; well made, attractive, and it works well. If you want an HD DVR, you'll probably be very happy with the Sony DHG-HDDxxx once you get used to it's quirks.

Buy Sony DHG-HDD250 30-Hour High-Definition Digital Video Recorder (250 GB) Now

I've owned and used the RCA Scenium DVR for several years so switching to the Sony was a bit of an adjustment.

The Sony is not quite as intuitive and takes a while to learn how it works. So far the Sony hasn't "glitched" on me (which is my only disappointment with the RCA Scenium which has malfunctioned every once in a while ever since we first bought it).

Channel management is "poor" and slightly confusing with the Sony (an issue I didn't have with the RCA because it didn't pick up HD / Antenna channels in addition to our cable channels).

The Sony is harder to "one touch" record whatever you happen to be watching. Otherwise, once you get used to using the "TV Guide" system it works well and in many respects is a *lot* easier to use.

The layout of the buttons on the remote is poor. With the RCA all the time I'd be hitting "Fast Forward" and then "Play". The button layout of the Sony remote makes this a bit tricky. Reaching the pause, play and fast forward buttons and then going to the channel up down buttons requires moving your hand (clumsy).

Give the Sony a bit of time and you'll fall in love with it. Once familiar with how it works you'll grow to appreciate the intelligent design Sony has built in. (odd quirks like Fast Forward at 30x speed and then hitting play results in an intelligent "rewind" to compensate for slow human reaction times)

I still find the "TV Guide" system very clumsy. In many respects it's great but it takes "learning" to effectively use it and checking "tomorrow" is difficult/clumsy.

Also Sony's tech support is clueless! Online support did not know ANYTHING about the device and gave incorrect advice and suggestions. E-mail support only said "use online support or call our phone support". Terrible!

If you accidentally enter the wrong cable service (poorly identified by numbers) do NOT follow tech support's advice to unplug it and wait over night to start from scratch. If you are clever you can find the place in the (poorly worded) menus to select different cable listings.

It's quite annoying that upon first plugging it in or unplugging (to move and change your physical setup) results in the Sony going "stupid" and a potentially *long* wait until it receives the correct time (and starts getting the programming info downloaded).

Probably the only real feature I miss from the RCA Scenium is the ability to just press a single button to start recording (which fails often on the RCA) and then hitting "stop" when you are done recording. The Sony wants to do it far more "intelligently" (and sometimes I don't like my electronics trying to outguess what I want to do).

This review may sound negative overall, but really the Sony is a great device. And having a DVR is wonderful. A DVR is the single greatest and most appreciated device in our entire house.

Read Best Reviews of Sony DHG-HDD250 30-Hour High-Definition Digital Video Recorder (250 GB) Here

I am very happy with this DVR after 3-days of ownership. While it is expensive, it really does deliver as both an HD tuner and 30-hour DVR. I am using this for OTA and basic cable reception, and it is giving me perfect high-def without paying for an expensive cable box

The big knock on this unit is that some people are unhappy with the free "TV Guide" software which gives the unit it's TiVo like capabilities. There is a massive thread over on the AVS forum detailing all of the pros, cons and possible problems with this unit, and pretty much all the problems stem from TV guide software or the local cable company flagging some high-def channels to prevent recording. I am pretty sure most the problems posted here on the HD500 thread are due to ignorance on the owner's part. You have to be especially careful that you let the unit turn off every night AND you have enabled an analog PBS station or you will not load your guide information.

I am quite familiar with the idiosyncracies of the TV Guide software since I already have a Panasonic DMR-E85HS that uses it.

Another point to consider is whether or not you need the 500GB or 250GB. The two DVR's are otherwise identical.

Since I do not want to pay for the upgraded service (I am paying $13/month for Basic service), buying this DVR was a more attractive choice then renting from my cable companies DVR.

Want Sony DHG-HDD250 30-Hour High-Definition Digital Video Recorder (250 GB) Discount?

I've been running one for a few weeks now and here's the problem I found with the device:

The channels that you watch by using the channel up and down button on the remote are unique and distinct from the channels you can record. Most of the folks on here having problems getting it to record are probably stumbling in to this.

I connected the unit to an antenna and my cable and had it scan for channels. This populates the list of channels you can watch. You can then press the menu key at a blank screen to enter the device menu, edit your channel list, etc.

The channels you can record are dependent on the TV-Guide Channel. You have to program this list completely separately from the main list of watchable channels.

Once you get both lists to co-incide with the best quality channels it works perfectly. Getting to that point takes time and lots of fiddling.

I am generally very happy with this DVR. The picture quality is excellent. Analog cable channels look much better than they did on the cable co's own Motorola DVR. It is nice to be able to combine antenna reception with cable reception since most cable co's don't carry all local HD channels. Most complaints with this unit come from the TV Guide On Screen software. I haven't had any major issues with that aspect. I do wish it was a little more like a Tivo so that it would skip reruns and grab the same show from multiple channels at multiple times. The software is also not very intelligent about resolving recording conflicts. There is no way to give one show a higher priority if two scheduled shows come on at the same time. But TV Guide On Screen doesn't cost 13 bucks a month like Tivo does. It also would have been nice if Sony had included dual tuners as the cable co's Motorola box has. Overall, this is a very nice product if you want to record HD programs without paying a monthly fee to the cable co.

If it had dual tuners, the ability to skip reruns, and didn't cost so much, I would have given it 5 stars.

UPDATE: After owning this piece for a while longer, I have discovered that Sony is not the company they used to be. My DVR has already been in for service once (they told me there was nothing wrong). And the next call to Sony I was on hold for 2 hours!

UPDATE 2: Unit has been to Sony twice and is getting ready to go back again. These people are clueless. They don't even understand how the thing is supposed to work until I explain THEIR product to them. The last time the unit was in, they told me the problem is with the TV Guide software the unit runs and that they couldn't do anything about it. I told them that is BS. If that was the way things worked, GM wouldn't have to fix anything on their cars since many of the parts are outsourced. Sony's name and phone number are the ones on the warranty card. And, if you try to contact TV Guide, they tell you to contact the manufacturer.

UPDATE 3: Sony sent me a brand new unit. I was hoping this would resolve the issue since I really like the DVR when it works. However, this replacement unit has now behaved the exact same way twice dropping scheduled recordings of Law and Order. There is a software problem with this model and Sony apparently can't figure that out.

UPDATE 4: Sony has bought the DVR back from me.