Sony RDR-GX355 DVD Recorder

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Not up to my expectations
Reviewer: Mike from Columbus, OH on Jun 8, 2007
363 out of 389 found this review helpful

First, let me say that I love Sony's products. They're easy to set up, decent quality, and everything from my camcorder to my AV system carries the Sony name. So, when it came time to purchase a DVD recorder there was no question as to which brand I wouldpurchase.

Since this was a new product, I had to order it as it was not yet available in the stores. It arrived and I easily set it up, but I was surprised that the only input in the back was a composite RCA cable, which severely limits the quality of the incoming picture. It may upconvert the picture via HDMI, but if the initial picture quality isn't that great to begin with, why bother?

Also, the copy-protection is at full-force on this recorder. Don't try to record anything from Pay-per-view or HBO-you'll get a nice little blue screen telling you that you cannot. Best to stick to DVRs for recording your missed television programs, since most shows are also available on DVD, it's only a matter of time before they are also copy-protected, renderingthis product useless.

Playing store-bought DVD's looked great, but no better than my other Sony DVD player. Unfortunately, after two weeks, it would pause and skip nearly all my DVDs, sometimes taking several minutes before it would resume again. At thispoint I decided to take it back and exchange it for 2 Sony 5 disc carousel units.

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After only 1 1/2 years it is now useless to me
Reviewer: customer from Watertown, WI on Oct 24, 2008
3 out of 3 found this review helpful

We are also big Sony fans. But the RDRGX355 has basically stopped working for me now. I, as a rule, just utilize this unit to offload programs, mostly sporting events for longterm, portable use off of the DVR. Recently, after setting the recording time to3hrs for a NFL football game overnight I find that it only recorded about 35 minutes. Tried it again to no avail. Upon calling the Sony 800#(and, as it turns out given an erroneous ticket number) I reset the unit again and was asked to retry, which I didovernight. Again, no go. It will only record 35 minutes. After sifting through the wrong ticket number I was told I could send it in for a fee of $120. Sorry, but after one and a half years of occassional use that will not happen.
We will strongly reconsider purchasing another brand name of DVD Recorder now.

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Now for the truth. A fantastic product
Reviewer: Tom from Syracuse, NY on Aug 21, 2008
8 out of 11 found this review helpful

I read all the negative comments and, because I find user experiences to be unreliable because of user error, bias or whatever I bought this recorder because of previous good luck with Sony Products. Here's the truth. This product works flawlessly. It waseasier to set up and use than VCR's I have used. Of course it has no tuner but that should be no surprise since that fact is plastered all over the box. The upconvert feature is is available only through the HDMI cable, also well documented (the value ofthis feature is dubious at best BTW. It has little effect on playback quality). I took the recorder out of the box, plugged in all the cables (my cable DVR has outputs specifically designed for copying to a recorder) pushed the record button, recorded apreviously saved program from the DVR (although live recording is just as easy). Stopped the recorder at the end of the recording and, this is important, FINALIZED THE DISK! If you don't finalize it can't be played on anything else. It is not necessary tofinalize right away. You may choose to wait until the disk is full as once you finalize, it cannot be written to. That's all there is to it. The unit plays all disks flawlessly and disks it records will play on any player compatible with writable disks.Remember, older DVD's may not play writable disks of any kind. Picture quality of recordings is better than any VCR at higher speeds and playback is as good as any comparably priced unit. There you have it. A great value and highly recommended.

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