Rating: 
Summary: Excellent!
Review: I tried an RCA it was SH_T! But you cannot compare RCA to Sony!
But I was going to save money buying a cheaper brand. Don't! This Sony DVD recorder is easy to use and is solid and heavy...very well built. I love it! I spent a lot more than I wanted, but I feel I got my monies worth and that this product will last until the DVD's are replaced by the next technology. Hopefully that won't be for another 10 or 15 years.
Rating:
Summary: Don't use Amazon.com buy now for pickup option!!!!
Review: I used the Amazon.com buy now for pickup feature for this item. I was directed to buy the recorder from a local Circuit City Store. I purchased it through Amazon.com and received email immediately from Amazon to wait at least an hour for Circuit City to respond. They did so in about 20 minutes. Here is the email that Circuit City sent to me:City sent to me:
Dear xxxxx
Thank you for your order. We hope you will enjoy your product, as well as your shopping experience. Your Store Pickup item has been specifically reserved for you and is IMMEDIATELY available at your selected store. If you aren't planning on running to the store right now, that's okay. We will be happy to hold your order for the next 14 days, so you can pick it up when you are ready.
Note that your credit card has been processed and charged by Amazon.com Payments. You will see 'AMAZON.COM * PAYMENTS' on your next statement, reflecting this purchase. Your order information is: Authorized people to pick up order:
Order Number: xxxxxxx xxxxxxxxx
Order Date: 01/01/2004 Bill to: Pickup at Circuit City Store:
xxxxxxxxx Christiana #3157
xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx 700 CENTER BLVD
WILMINGTON, DE xxxxx NEWARK, DE 19702
302-xxxxxxxxx302 Payment Information:
Credit Card:
MasterCard **** **** **** Amount Charged: $629.87 Processed Order:
QTY PRODUCT TAX AMOUNT
1 SON RDRGX7 Sony Progressive-Scan DVD Recorder N $629.87
Subtotal $629.87 Shipping $0.00
Total Sales Tax $0.00
Total Current Purchase $629.87 I drove to the store, gave my ID and credit card to Service Desk. My card was charged and I was told the recorder would be available in just a few moments. I returned to the service desk in 10 minutes and was told the item was not in stock.
A complaint to the customer service manager went no where. I had to drive the distance to this store and have my credit card charged before I was told the item was not in stock!!!! I would certainly never shop circuit city again and would be very wary of Amazon.com offer to purchase an item to pick up.
Rating:
Summary: The New Cornerstone of My Home Theatre
Review: I've had my Sony RDR-GX7 recorder for two weeks now, as of the date of this review. I decided to buy it in part because of the raves it got from consumers here on the amazon.com website. Let me tell you, they didn't steer me wrong! This recorder has already become an indispensible asset to my home theatre system. As a devoted film fanatic, I've been wondering for years how I was ever going to replace some of the scarcer titles in my movie collection once my old hardware players die (I own movies in several now-defunct formats). It's no longer a worry - I'm transferring everything to DVD-R discs! And the new DVDs look incredible, even on my 57" widescreen TV ... the Sony DVD recorder is cleaning up some of the video "noise" on my old software, and the results are amazing. I also have an extensive library of home movies featuring loved ones who are no longer alive, and it's such a relief to be preserving my cherished - but fading - VHS tapes onto DVDs! I'm even doing some re-editing with my new Sony Recorder, and although I'm strictly an untalented amateur, I'm very happy with the results I've achieved so far. The RDR-GX7 has some very cool special features that I wanted, but didn't think it had when I bought it. You can set up the recorder to automatically make Chapter Stops on your DVDs, at either 6 minute or 15 minute intervals, making the discs easy to search. You can record several programs onto one DVD, and then create a menu - including the names of each separate title - using a simple feature on the remote control. There are six recording modes, allowing you to control the quality and total recording time of each disc you make. If you make a mistake while starting to copy something onto a disc, it's no big deal! Just "erase" the bad footage using your remote control, and start over - your mistake will still be on the disc, but it will be permanently "hidden" and unplayable, so no one will ever guess you're not the perfect DVD-masterer. If you want to record raw footage and then edit it later, you can do so by using a DVD-RW disc and recording in a special editing mode. The Sony RDR-GX7 is also very easy to set up ... I was afraid it might be a nightmare to integrate into my existing home theatre system, but the Quick Start Guide made it simple. I had never used a DVD-recorder before, but I had it hooked up to my DSS dish, AV receiver, TV, VCR, and LaserDisc player - and was creating my first disc - within an hour of unpacking the box! I'm admittedly not familiar with all the other DVD-recorders on the market, so I really can't compare them all. However, I can tell you that I debated making this purchase for about four months while I debated formats and features and prices, and that I have aboslutely no regrets about choosing the Sony RDR-GX7. It's everything I hoped it would be ... and much, much more. Good luck making your product decision, and I hope that whatever your choice, you end up being as completely satisfied as I. Happy DVD recording!
Rating: 
Summary: Good DVD Recorder for Dubbing
Review: I've had this recorder for a couple weeks now and I'm very satisfied with it. I bought it mainly for the capability of cleaning up the input signal. This generally works well except color modifications are slight. Despite the large instruction booklet I found it easy to use especially with the on-screen prompts. The joystick on the remote is a definite plus. The editing is limited to DVD-RW VR mode and there is no hard drive to edit on. To remove commercials, I have to record to this mode, remove the commercials with the A-B erase and record back to a S-VHS recorder, then record back to a DVD-R. The noise reduction keeps the loss of quality to a minimum and it's definitely superior to VHS to S-VHS recordings. It will not record tapes with copyguard and flashs an on-screen message to tell you so. It's looking for both macrovision and the old vertical-sync copyguard that the studios are apparently still using even with the macrovision. So macrovision killer won't be enough. One problem that I had with it is placement. It's considerably deeper than the average component. However, the all-metal enclosure allows for moderate stacking. While I generally record at 60 min, 90 min and 120 min, the 180 min is quite good.
Rating:
Summary: Works Great for S-VHS to DVD Copies
Review: I've had very good luck using a Sony GX7 DVD Recorder. I suggest using Philips DVD-R blanks - which have worked flawlessly so far (x20). I used only one no-name off-brand DVD-R and it would record 99% but 'freeze' for a second or two 4x and hour then continue, so I've stayed away from the junky disks and used the flawless Philips -R disks. A friend swears by the TDK -R DVD's for his Sony GX7. I've used only the 1 hour and 2 hours speeds on the Sony DVD-R which provide precise duplicates of live broadcasts or SVHS video. I have made copies of edited S-VHS video on DVD, and with the built-in Sony noise reduction, it is possible to make it look even better than the original (or worse if you over do it). You can also add titles, even to DVD-R's before you finalize them, but I could not read these titles back on a machine other than a Sony, athough all of the track and chapters sequenced properly and had no problems playing them. I've recorded TV shows - but don't forget, after you've set the timer you LEAVE the DVD Recorder Power ON! - different from a VCR in that respect. Fairly easy to setup using their menu - you just need to tell it if you want to use the composite video or S-Video input jack on the multiple inputs available. It's neat that there's two sets of inputs and two sets of output jacks, in addition to a single digital coax and optical digital SPDIF jack on the back of the unit; plus another set on the front of composite/SVideo and a Digital port. I have not used the front digital port yet, so I can't comment on it. It seems as well constructed as one of their $500 1990 editing VCR's which lasted me 10 years, so maybe this will last 5? Only one month of use thus far, and aside of waiting 20 seconds to read a disk after you turn it on, I have no complaints yet.
Rating:
Summary: very good recorder
Review: On my last review of the rdr-gx7 dvd recorder, i said i had it since 2/19/03----i should have said 1/19/04. i got my dates really mix up. just wanted to be honest and correct this.
Rating: 
Summary: good but no hard drive and no time slip
Review: pretty good recorder... i think it would be more useful for transferring VHS or DV to DVD rather than as a DVR. Reasons: 1) No hard disk. So if you want to record in SP mode and you want to record a 1 hour program and a 90 minute program, then you got to drive home to change the disc. It will only accept 2 hours of DVD quality video on one disc. 2) Let's say you record a movie from 8pm to 10pm. You arrive home at 8:30pm. Tough luck, you can't watch the movie like you can with the Tivo or the Panasonic DVR. You have to wait until 10pm to watch the movie... from 10pm to 12am... and maybe tell your boss the next day the reason you are late for work is due to your DVR. 3) let's say you watch a program and it looks interesting and you press the Record button to record it. Ok, then you found that the record mode is set to EP, which is not so good quality. So now you press STOP to stop the recording and change the recording mode to SP. It feels like you have to wait 45 seconds for it to "write info" before you are allowed to change recording mode and record again... [for DVD-R. if DVD-RW it is only a few seconds]. on the Panasonic DVR with the hard drive, it is close to instantaneous. 4. Even if you record to DVD+RW, you can't edit the recording, such as taking out the blank or commercial at the end. To do that, you need to use DVD-RW (minus R) and in VR mode. DVD-RW in Video mode won't let you do that either. It is too complicated. With a hard disk in the other DVR models, you don't worry about any of those... just record and edit to your perfection and then transfer it to the DVD-R like DVD studio would produce them. But recording VHS to DVD is good... you have several modes: HQ, HSP, SP, LP, EP, SLP... which is 1hr, 1.5 hr, 2 hr, 3 hr, 4hr, and 6hr. So you can choose whichever quality / length that you desire.
Rating:
Summary: DVD Recordingis Getting Better, but There are Still.....
Review: some issues. I've had my Sony RDR-GX7 for several months now, and for the most part it is a good product, but it does have one issue that might make you want to look at a different DVD recorder (DVDR). This is noted on page 88 of the manual where it says in the footnotes, "Do not connect the output jack (s) of this recorder to another equipment's input jack with the other equipment's output jack connected the input jack of this recorder. Noise (feedback) may result." "MAY" is not the word I would have used. "WILL" is a better one. What does this mean? It means you cannot hook this DVD recorder up to a receiver/amp like you would a VCR. If you do, you cannot record without getting feedback on top of no picture. To prevent this, you have to have the picture source come directly to the DVDR, then output to the receiver/amp, instead of having your picture source come to your receiver/amp and you record using that picture source. However, you can use one of those 4-in, one/two-out junction boxes to solve this problem, but having had VCR's since 1977 and a different DVDR (Phillips) for two years, none of which had this problem, there should have been some way Sony could have prevented this problem. Another reviewer pointed-out that if you use the SVHS video inputs, you need to use the instructions near the end of the instruction booklet. This is an important issue if you want to have a quality picture. These instructions are found on pages 88-89 of the manual. Overall, both the Phillips and the Sony DVDR I have had give you a terrific picture. Both are easy to use. The Sony is a little more intuitive, and it is easier to enter the titles, but the titles don't show on the screen as they do on the Phillips. If I had to choose, I would chose the Sony, even with the above limitation. The Sony uses the DVD-R blank disc versus the DVD+R of the Phillips. I haven't had problems with either after finalizing them. I hope this information helps those out there who are thinking of purchasing a DVDR.
Rating:
Summary: Excellent DVD recorder with THE BEST user interface!
Review: Sony gets high marks for the best remote and gorgeous on-screen interface. Its smooth anti-aliased text looks fantastic when creating titles for your recorded shows and movies. And for once, Sony has made a remote that worth using (although Sony always goes crazy with lots of little tiny buttons).
The DV/Firewire/iLink/whatever-you-want-to-call-it port works great. You get super clean transfers from your camcorder. The One-Touch feature will automatically rewind your camcorder and automatically insert chapter marks at each new scene. However, this feature seems to work only with Sony camcorders (I can't get the feature to work with my Panasonic GS400).
I also like the flexibility of using DVD-R, DVD+RW, and DVD-RW discs (curiously it does *not* record to the Sony-invented DVD+R format!). For the most flexibility, use DVD-RW discs (in VR mode) as they give you the option to create custom thumbnails and advanced editing features.
Image quality is quite good as with any single layer DVD recorder, but a 4.7GB DVD can only hold so much data. This model offers several recording times per disc: 1 hr, 1 1/2 hr, 2, 3, 4, and 6 hour.
The recorder's best HQ setting is gorgeous. It records 60 minutes per disc at a whopping 9.7Mbit/sec (The maximum for any DVD is 10Mbit/sec). At SP/2-hours, the bitrate is around 5Mbit/sec and MPEG-2 artifacts start to become apparent. The EP/4-hour setting provides a good balance between longer record times and tolerable quality. It's on par to a VCR's SLP image quality -- just okay for daily recording. At 6 hours, the quality is similar to TiVo's "basic" setting -- which is pretty blocky for my eyes.
This is a terrific DVD recorder with lots of features and a gorgeous on-screen interface.
Rating: 
Summary: Unfair reviews
Review: Sorry, the one-star rating is for people who bother to write a review without first-hand knowledge of the product. People who have not actually used the product should refrain from rating it. You really know nothing about the product, and are not helping people making informed decisions by doing so. When I read this type of review, I almost always skip it. So, why waste your time writing it?
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