Hd Dvr / Dvd Recorder With Hd Digital Twin Tuner Review

Verdict

Key Specifications

• Review Cost: £899.99

With every consumer electronics manufacturer scrambling to cutting costs and drop prices, information technology makes a refreshing change to see Pioneer going in the reverse direction. We've already seen the visitor's 'no expense spared' ethos with its premium line of Kuro plasmas, but now Pioneer appears to be taking the same approach with its DVD/hard-disk recorders.

Have the DVR-LX70D for example. Pioneer's flagship digital recorder boasts a staggering feature list, faultless build quality and amazing versatility, just with a toll tag pushing a k it's only probable to concenter affluent digital recording devotees who want the very best performance.

But boy does it justify that price tag. At its heart is a jumbo 500GB difficult-deejay – currently the largest chapters available on a HDD/DVD recorder – and a DVB-T tuner, the combination of which makes this a highly versatile PVR with functions like pause live Goggle box and chase playback. But the deck tin also tape onto any type of recordable DVD, including DVD-RAM, DVD+RW/+R, DVD-RW/-R and dual-layer DVD+R and DVD-R discs.

On a more superficial notation, the DVR-LX70D is a real stunner, boasting a luxurious black finish to match Pioneer's plasma sets, alluring bluish lights and a flap that hides a plethora of goodies (more than on these subsequently).

The DVR-LX70D is far more just a digital recorder. Yous can use the unit of measurement equally a digital music jukebox by transferring MP3, WMA and JPEG files onto the hard disk in i of two ways: by copying the files from a disc, or plugging your PC (running Window Media Player) into ane of the two front-mounted USB ports.

You tin also play MP3 and WMA files from USB memory devices and portable media players, or DivX files from CD-R or CD-RW. And here's a peachy characteristic – when you load a CD, the deck's built-in Gracenote database automatically displays the artist and track names without an Internet connection in sight.

Also found on the front panel is a card module slot for adding pay Goggle box channels like Setanta Sports, an i.Link input for hooking upwardly a DV camcorder plus S-video, composite and stereo audio inputs. The back console features an HDMI v1.three output which offers 576i, 576p, 720p, 1080i and 1080p output, alongside component video, RGB SCART and coaxial digital audio outputs. If you lot're using an external digital TV receiver instead of the built-in Freeview tuner, the point tin can be fed into the SCART input and recorded in glorious RGB. One slight disappointment is the lack of proper network connectivity as plant on Pioneer's Blu-ray player, just peradventure that's request too much!

The hard-disk will concord upward to 1,422 hours of TV (roughly the same as a month's worth of Friends repeats on E4) but the amount of recording time depends on which recording mode y'all're using. In this respect the unit is very flexible – there are half-dozen preset recording modes (XP, SP, LP, EP, SLP, SEP) offering between 106 and 1,064 hours of recording time on the difficult-disk. But it also offers a manual recording arrangement, which features 32 steps covering the bitrates in between the presets, plus two college quality modes: a version of XP with LPCM audio encoding instead of ii-channel Dolby Digital, and XP+, which is only available for hard-disk recording and is all-time suited to DV camcorder footage.

Your recordings can be chopped and trimmed to perfection using the deck's vast assortment of editing features. You lot tin can erase a section (annoying adverts, for instance), divide a title, edit chapter points, modify the thumbnail on the Disc Navigator menu and rename recordings. There's even an automatic chapter mode that inserts chapters at natural breaks in the plan, which isn't fail safe simply works by and large well. All the same, you lot can't create Playlists as y'all can on most other HDD recorders, which may come up equally a disappointment to those hoping to piece together their own home movies from camcorder footage.

Recordings can likewise be copied from the hard-disk to DVD at high speed (even while recording something else), plus there'due south a back-up facility for duplicating abode-fabricated DVDs. Elsewhere, there's a superb range of Freeview-related features, including a wonderfully intuitive 7-day EPG, which lets you set timer recordings at the bear on of a push button – and considering start and cease times are tied to the actual circulate, you won't miss whatever of the program if the schedule slips.

Fifty-fifty more pleasing is the inclusion of Series Recording, which as the name suggests, automatically records every episode of a particular programme and volition recommend repeats in case of schedule clashes.

We're extremely impressed past how slick this recorder is to use. The onscreen menus are among the all-time nosotros've ever encountered, all of which use welcoming pastel shades, attractive icons and intelligent submenu arrangement. The Disc Navigator, in particular is a masterclass in onscreen design, using moving thumbnails and allowing you lot to grouping recordings past genre.

Ease of use is additional by a very well-designed remote, which feels weighty and looks unusually attractive. It hides bottom-used buttons under a flap at the lesser and uses a novel jog punch for scrolling through menu options and changing channels. This is by and large constructive, simply information technology's easy to plow it accidentally and select the incorrect selection.

Another aspects of the operating arrangement grate – yous can't access the EPG or switch to the analogue tuner when making a digital Television set recording, which makes the lack of a second digital tuner all the more restrictive. Also, the unit is equipped with Guide Plus+, the EPG that makes timer recordings from the analogue tuner and external satellite and cable boxes. A useful inclusion perhaps, but it'south cumbersome compared with the Freeview EPG and requires an inconvenient setup procedure that involves inbound your postcode and waiting for channels to download overnight.

There can exist no complaints with the unit of measurement's functioning. Alive TV pictures from the congenital-in Freeview tuner expect magnificent and the deck's competent MPEG-2 encoding ensures that they remain exactly the same when recorded on the hard deejay or DVD.

Using BBC News 24 every bit our test channel, recordings are dazzlingly crisp and bright in XP+ or XP mode. The aqueduct'southward bright red onscreen graphics await consistently bold without any trace of edge drain, while black objects await punchy but detailed – information technology was possible to make out the pinstripes on a weatherman's black arrange jacket, along with the creases, folds and shadows in the material. Scrolling text and moving objects expect smooth and skin tones are subtle and realistic.

Dropping to SP reveals only a slight fall in quality, but in LP mode the presenters' faces outset looking hazier, edges await jagged with a smudgy haze around them and particularly particular-packed or fast-moving scenes expect blocky and twitchy.

SLP and SEP announced even more gauzy and flickery, about to the point where prolonged viewing might bulldoze you mad, merely it could come up in handy for emergency use in the unlikely effect that the HDD is almost total.

The DVR-LX70D is also a fine DVD histrion. Our "Superman Returns" disc enjoyed a high level of detail when boosted to 1080p on a Total Hard disk TV, and colour saturation is loftier, as demonstrated by its treatment of Superman's iconic costume.

Running through our repertoire of digital media files reveals no glitches with any of the compatible file types, whether played from disc, USB or the hard deejay. And the extensive video wizardry on lath doesn't mean that Pioneer has forgotten about audio. The deck turns in a decent functioning with George Benson's "Breezin'" on CD via the analogue outputs, with the low-cal jazz-funk sounding tight and energetic. Movies also sound keen via the digital audio output, provided your movie house organisation is upward to scratch.

"'Verdict"'

Pioneer has come out with all guns blazing with the DVR-LX70D and really hits the target. The array of features on offer is mind-bravado, the superb user interface makes it a joy to utilize and the quality of recordings is second to none. In that location are a few minor grievances and omissions just nothing that stops us hailing this recorder as a complete triumph.

Penny-pinchers might moan almost the price tag, which is more than double that of rivals from the likes of Sony and Panasonic, but Pioneer isn't interested in competing with them. This high-terminate, high-performance deck is an unashamed slice of luxury – and on that basis we love it.

Trusted Score

Score in item

• Performance 9

• Features 9

• Value 7

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Source: https://www.trustedreviews.com/reviews/pioneer-dvr-lx70d-hdd-dvd-recorder

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