- Provides access for up to 30 digital TV channels, over 20 radio stations and all interactive services available through FREEVIEW
- 80 Gig hard disk drive with the ability to store up to 80 hours of programming
- Offers a choice of recording modes with Super Compression Technology, equivalent to VCR recording modes: SP (Short Play), LP (Long Play), EP (Extended Play)
- 14 day TV listings information available in the MultiGuide™ to plan recordings quickly and easily for the week ahead
- Watch one channel whilst recording another
- Record two channels simultaneously whilst watching a previously recorded programme
- Pause and rewind live TV
- Selective Recording Edit means you can crop a recording to remove unwanted sections from the beginning and the end
- Users can now keep personalised folders for all their favourite recordings
- The Retrospective Recording feature allows you to record the channel you have been watching, even if you only decide to record it anything up to 30 minutes into the programme
- Twin phono sockets to allow high quality audio to be fed to a home cinema system
- Twin SCART sockets to allow for easy connections to TV and VCR or DVD for programme archiving
- TV Calendar to allow fast access to advanced TV listings and to set personal reminders for anniversaries, birthdays, appointments
- Favourite channel facility
- Parental Lock
- TV Programme reminder service
- Meets current and future digital broadcasting standards (DVB-T compliant)
|
||||||||||||||||||||||||
|
||||||||||||||||||||||||
|
||||||||||||||||||||||||
Technical Details
Product details
|
Product Description
Manufacturer's Description
With a Twin Freeview tuner and the 80GB HDD, you will never miss a program with the SVRS500.
Box Contains:
- Sony SVR-S500 PVR/HDD 80GB
- Remote Control
- Batteries
- RF Cable
- AV Cable
- Instructions
- Warranty Information
Tags Customers Associate with This Product(What's this?)Click on a tag to find related items, discussions, and people.
|
Customer Reviews
Most Helpful Customer Reviews
234 of 235 people found the following review helpful
I've always bought Sony audio/visual products, I've found their TVs and DVD players to be good quality, and although you pay a bit more I've been inclined to think you get a kind of guarantee of quality and reliability. Well that is not the case with the SVR-S500. I've now had to re-think my brand loyalty.
I owned this product for 3 days before taking it back to the shop (not amazon) as it was pretty much unusable by design (the shop weren't that surprised to see me again, it seems others have returned theirs as well!). As you'll see from other reviews this product is allegedly a re-badged Fusion PVR, and aside from it's sleek Sony-esque chassis, nothing about it resembles the kind of quality that I would expect from a manufacturer like Sony, and at a price-point of £200+.
The fan is noisy, very noisy and the fan is on full-blast even when the unit is in stand-by, so it never stops. Unless you have a good sound-proofed cabinet in which to shut the unit away, I suggest you will find the noise very annoying when the TV is off, and barely tolerable with the TV at a good volume. But that is not the only gripe.
The machine is slow to respond to the remote control, and the Electronic Programme Guide is a joke - it only shows the title of each programme, you cannot access the description that accompanies each programme, unless you schedule that programme to record. Once the programme is in the scheduler you can then view the description. This is just lazy implementation of a very basic feature.
Also beware of the LongPlay and ExtendedPlay modes (which take up less storage space whilst compromising quality), I saw these demonstrated in the shop but all is not as it seems - when they recorded a programme in ExtendedPlay and replayed it for me I was impressed at how extended play seemed to have equally good quality to standard play. I have now found out that this is because the unit ALWAYS records in standard play first, and then batches up the programme to compress it to extended-play format once the machine is in stand-by. So, yep, even more HD noise in stand-by while the unit compresses any programmes - on top of the fan noise.
For anyone that's interested, I have since bought a Humax 9200T, it's too new to make comments on reliability etc, but on first impressions it completely outshines the Sony, with twice the Hard Disk, almost silent running, good EPG, responsive, well implemented, and cheaper than the Sony too. A sober lesson learned about blind brand loyalty.
I owned this product for 3 days before taking it back to the shop (not amazon) as it was pretty much unusable by design (the shop weren't that surprised to see me again, it seems others have returned theirs as well!). As you'll see from other reviews this product is allegedly a re-badged Fusion PVR, and aside from it's sleek Sony-esque chassis, nothing about it resembles the kind of quality that I would expect from a manufacturer like Sony, and at a price-point of £200+.
The fan is noisy, very noisy and the fan is on full-blast even when the unit is in stand-by, so it never stops. Unless you have a good sound-proofed cabinet in which to shut the unit away, I suggest you will find the noise very annoying when the TV is off, and barely tolerable with the TV at a good volume. But that is not the only gripe.
The machine is slow to respond to the remote control, and the Electronic Programme Guide is a joke - it only shows the title of each programme, you cannot access the description that accompanies each programme, unless you schedule that programme to record. Once the programme is in the scheduler you can then view the description. This is just lazy implementation of a very basic feature.
Also beware of the LongPlay and ExtendedPlay modes (which take up less storage space whilst compromising quality), I saw these demonstrated in the shop but all is not as it seems - when they recorded a programme in ExtendedPlay and replayed it for me I was impressed at how extended play seemed to have equally good quality to standard play. I have now found out that this is because the unit ALWAYS records in standard play first, and then batches up the programme to compress it to extended-play format once the machine is in stand-by. So, yep, even more HD noise in stand-by while the unit compresses any programmes - on top of the fan noise.
For anyone that's interested, I have since bought a Humax 9200T, it's too new to make comments on reliability etc, but on first impressions it completely outshines the Sony, with twice the Hard Disk, almost silent running, good EPG, responsive, well implemented, and cheaper than the Sony too. A sober lesson learned about blind brand loyalty.
100 of 101 people found the following review helpful
There are two things which really niggle about this machine. One, the appalling noise it makes (so loud that you have to turn the box off at the mains when you'e not using it), and the very poor EPG display. I'm keen on Sony, and bought this because of the design, and also because I expected it would offer the excellence that other Sony products offer. Not so. There is no multi-channel display feature, meaning that programming is laborious and time wasting, and the remote is unstable. One day it works, the next day it doesn't.
Don't buy this machine. Check out the Humax instead. I wish I had!
Don't buy this machine. Check out the Humax instead. I wish I had!
106 of 108 people found the following review helpful
Have just returned my second of these in 2 months. The product is incredibly noisy with an industrial strenght fan. However, the most serious drawback is that the product seems inherently unstable. My first machine was fine for about 3 weeks then started to seriously play up - freezing while changing channels and while watching recorded programs. When the machine did freeze, the standby button did not function so forcing me to resort to turning off and on electricity at the plug. Eventually after a few solid days of this behaviour, i returned the product which was replaced.
This second product behaved again for a few weeks before having the same problem as the first. I may have been unlucky and received a faulty batch but if my experience is anything to go by, you would be better buying a cheaper product from a less exalted manufacturer. Poor performance Sony
This second product behaved again for a few weeks before having the same problem as the first. I may have been unlucky and received a faulty batch but if my experience is anything to go by, you would be better buying a cheaper product from a less exalted manufacturer. Poor performance Sony
Most Recent Customer Reviews
Works great
Have had this item for couple of very trouble free years and it has always preformed perfectly.
BUT the EPG is no longer supported and is not likely to be. Read more
BUT the EPG is no longer supported and is not likely to be. Read more
Published 17 months ago by G. Wass
THIS SHOULD NOT BE SOLD - THE EPG HAS GONE
I am surprised that this unit is on sale - ESPECIALLY by Amazon. The description boasts "14 day TV listings information available in the MultiGuide(tm)" and yet the EPG NO LONGER... Read more
Published 22 months ago by H. BROWN
Completely unreliable
Ours has just packed up again. One replacement, one reconfigure and now broken completely. Unfortunately now out of guarantee. Will defintitely not buy a Sony one to replace. Read more
Published on 20 Sep 2009 by R. Dear
Sony
Great little system, the instructions are rather complex and seems to have lost a bit in translation, generaly a good little system. Read more
Published on 20 Nov 2008 by Craig K. S. Davidson
Mixed Bag
I've had this machine since it came out; lots of problems with the EPG in the early days and then all was fine for a year after an update. Read more
Published on 17 July 2008 by MSG72
Well, it did power up at least.
Anyone from Sony reading this should be ashamed to have been involved with this product, it's total rubbish.
How this got out the factory door, I'll never know. Read more
How this got out the factory door, I'll never know. Read more
Published on 13 Jun 2008 by Tamper-Proof Lid
Clearly the sony ugly duckling
As stated previously, the unit is ridiculously noisy, unresponsive, and not user friendly at all. Steer clear at all costs!
Published on 14 May 2008 by K. Elliott
Excellent!
No problems, great value, easy to use. If I had to pick out one thing that was wrong with it, it would be that the EPG (Electronic Programme Guide) is a bit slow. Read more
Published on 27 April 2008 by G. Potter
ABSOLUTELY EXCELLENT
CAN'T FAULT THIS RECORDER? SIMLE TO USE, GOOD VALUE, AND REALLY GOOD TO USR, EXCELLENT ALL ROUND USED FOR 10 WEEKS NO TROUBLE ATALL?
Published on 15 Nov 2007 by gereatricgeorge
Love it...
Many negative reviews below, BUT (fingers crossed) I've had mine up and running a week now and - well, yes, it's a bit slow, and no, it's not completely silent, but I still LOVE... Read more
Published on 7 Oct 2007 by pixie
Customer Discussions
|
This product's forum
Search Customer Discussions
|
Related forums
|
