LG RHT498H Digital TV Recorder with 250GB Hard Disc Drive & DVD Recorder

We just purchased an LG TV and as we were thoroughly impressed with it, I begged my wife for us to get this recorder unit. Well, I wanted to share my experience with you all. Here's the good the bad and the ugly.

The Good:
* It does what it's mainly meant to do - records to HDD or DVD fine. Plays DVDs fine. Can record to HDD and transfer to DVD. Can record a program and watch it as it records.
* There is no noise from the unit.
* There are no adverts like on Panasonic units.
* It's a very fair price!!!!!!!
* A reasonable hard drive space is great.

The Bad:
Does not come with hdmi cable. Most other units probably don't either and you can get one from the pound shop these days.

Can't record and watch a different channel. Having one freeview tuner (for me) really is not a problem, since a modern LG TV comes with one, but this means you can't record two programs at the same time either. I guess it's still a minor point as competition does not generally have twin tuners as yet either.

The set up could have been a bit quicker. Some other manufacturers can transfer available freeview channels to the HDD so there is no delay. However it's a very minor thing as it was easy anyway.

The remote control. It's light, which is fine. The buttons are much smaller than on LG TV, but that is still ok. But the idea of being able to use just one remote to operate both appliances does not work 100%. If you are using the TV's remote the return button does not work. And if you are using the HDD's remote - there is no mute button, which to me is a bit of an oversight. No matter though, I can live with that.

The LG television's menus have a better `feel' than those of the HDD unit. Just saying - manage your expectations if you have an LG TV...

The middle button on the actual unit feels rather flimsy. Fortunately I never have to touch it as always use the remote.

The Ugly:
The only acceptable recording mode is either SP or LP - any less than that and the picture is not really good enough. So 700 hours+ of recording time is really a marketing ploy, not sure they can justify that. Realistically you have 250 hours to play with. Well, that's still fine with me, but I wish I knew this beforehand.

Software upgrade does not appear to work; I am not sure how long it's supposed to take - I set it off manually it just gets half way and stops. After half an hour I generally give up. You can abort at this point. I think it's a tech support issue...

Some other manufacturers can cut out adverts by detecting them. There is no such thing here. You can EDIT the program - and to do that you have to find the start -stop points and delete them yourself. I'm sure you have better things to do so this is really rubbish. Don't like it one bit.

The auto chapters don't appear to work either. Don't know why.

If you quit watching a recorded program you return to the start. Unless you set a 'marker' you have to fast forward to the point you left it at. A bit annoying.

In conclusion, having looked around and despite the bad points, I believe this unit is still very good value for money. Especially having seen the reviews for other manufacturers. But there's one thing to consider - Freeview HD is coming out soon. You might want to wait until there is a new version of this unit. I don't know the time scales - just think it might be worth the wait. Hopefully it would have improved by then as well. But I still like the freedom of being able to record programs on schedule for a fair price. I love it regardless of it's faults.

Has anyone had a problem with recording? My recordings are suddenly playing back blurred yet the picture through the box is clear as a whistle so it is not aerial related.

I totally agree with Robin, this model is in the dark ages for today's technology and should not command the price that it is does. I just bought one two months ago for the digital switchover and I asked all the right questions about being able to record 1 channel whilst watching another and was very mislead, this model does not allow it and also displays subtitles when recording which cannot be switched off! Don't be mislead yourself make sure you buy a model with twin tuners.

Yes, it has only one digital tuner, but with all new TV sets being digital, this should not present a problem unless you've only got an analogue TV. If you must have twin digital tuners do not buy this.

If you simply want to replace your VHS recorder, then this machine will do everything you want. Picture quality is as good as the 26" LCD TV it is connected to can manage, so there is no perceptible difference between live and recorded - don't know how good the picture is with full HD TVs. The EPG is OK (not the slickest, but it works). The on-screen menus are not the best, but once set up, you don't need to fiddle much with them. The machine is very quiet, but does take quite a long time to wake up from off, though this is not too much of an issue.

I bought it for my mother (she's 90!) and she has managed to grasp the basics and now happily records/watches all the programmes she wants. Initially she was intimidated by all the apparent complexity (I bought it to replace her broken VCR without consulting her!), but after a few days practice she became totally competent at operating it in its basic record/replay mode using the HDD (using the DVD to record has proved too complex for her) and now loves it.

To sum up: a competent digital TV recorder with a single digital tuner and ample storage capacity for normal day-to-day use. I can't comment on its DVD recording capability, but it plays commercial DVDs and CDs without a stutter. I don't think it stands above the crowd, but you could do a lot worse. Don't forget to get an HDMI lead to get the best out of it - a cheap one will do fine for all but the most demanding of users.

February 2012 update: the recorder & owner are still doing very well - no reliabilty problems - the recorder has been very heavily used.