Don't you just hate those moments when, for some particular reason, you simply can't get home in order to watch your favorite episode or "Dr. Who" or whatever TV show you might be interested in? Well, if your TV addiction has reached such a high level, then perhaps you should really consider purchasing one of the new Hard Disk Drive DVD recorders offered by Sony, which provide a very wide range of features, including the possibility of recording directly from your handycam.
Designed as accessories for the company's Bravia line of HDTV sets, the new models provide both a very stylish exterior and a high capacity hard drive, quite enough to store just about everything you might want. They also offer some pretty impressive storage capacities, featuring 500 GB drives that provide enough space for up to 1420 hours of TV.
Alongside an analogue TV tuner for recording standard terrestrial channels, all HXD Series models feature an integrated DVB-T tuner for viewing and recording digital broadcasts. Moreover, the HDD camcorder connection allows direct digital dubbing from any SD Handycam HDD camcorder by Sony.
As the company states, there's no quality loss during digital transfers via USB and the whole dubbing mode transfers everything that's stored on the camcorder's hard drive. Alternatively, incremental dubbing transfers only new footage that hasn't already been recorded onto the Hard Disk Drive DVD recorder.
Another interesting feature provided by Sony's new recorders is X-Pict Story, which allows you to create slideshows directly from their remote control by choosing various images stored onto the unit's HDD. A choice of transition effects adds extra sparkle to slide shows, along with your own selection of musical soundtrack from stored music files. The results can be viewed directly on your TV or burned to DVD for sharing or storing.
It's also worth noting that the recorders are equipped with BRAVIA Sync technology, which simplifies one-touch control of the home entertainment system. Connected via HDMI to the BRAVIA TV, the Hard Disk Drive DVD recorder can be controlled directly from the television's remote, along with other compatible Sony devices like Blu-ray Disc players.
Unfortunately, Sony's announcement lacks any availability or pricing details, but it's very likely that they'll arrive in European stores by the end of May (or early June).
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