Sony DHG-HDD250 30-Hour High-Definition Digital Video Recorder (250 GB)
Disappointment
I have purchased alot of Sony products. All my Hi-Fi and TV products are made by Sony, so I was excited to recieve the HDD250.  <br /> <br />The order and delivery were excellent. My disappointment is with the product. <br /> <br />On day one everything worked. After 24 hours, the \\"free\\" tv guide came up ok. The problem began when I hooked the DVR up to my Sony 27\\" HD monitor.  <br /> <br />The TV people and the DVR people at Sony do not talk to each other. The setup of the DVR to match the TV was tedious. The manual does not go into enough detail to guarantee a good setup particularly if something goes wrong, as it did about two weeks after I got the system up and running. <br /> <br />I was viewing the program guide when I experienced a 1 second power outage. The TV guide disappeared and the error message told me that it would be another 24 hours until the tv guide was restored in response to a change in setup I had made. (I had made none). <br /> <br />This message has greeted me every day since that power outage. <br /> <br />Well, I figured, the hardware still works and the TV guide wasn't the only reason I bought the gear. The gear does work, but it works poorly due to the software program. <br /> <br />When setting up the DVR to regularly record a program, because the TV guide is no longer there, every program is listed as \\"unknown\\". <br /> <br />Occaisionally I find that when I get up in the morning, the unit is still recording, having forgotten to turn itself off after last nights 1 hour recording session. <br /> <br />Many times I come up to the TV to find the DVR stuck in record mode, and it will not respond to any command either from the remote or from the front panel. Under these conditions, according to the website, you can press the \\"exit\\" and \\"TV guide\\" buttons simultaneously to reset the machine, but this doesn't even work. The only way to stop it and un-freeze it is to pull the plug for a minute then plug it in again.  <br /> <br />When the machineawakes, it remembers nothing about the previous session except for one thing; I get the \\"wait for 24 hours\\" message about the program guide, except it never comes! <br /> <br />I question whether this kind of performance rates even one star, but the review board won't let you give it zero stars! <br /> <br />All things considered, If I knew all this detail about the operation, I would not have bought the DVR. HP has a more expensive unit which purports to do all the same things and more things. <br /> <br />My advice: beware! Do not assume that because Sony has produced good gear in the past that they will always do it. That is what I did and I got disappointed.