As someone who's become addicted to the recording conveniences of my cable provider's set-top box — a combo cable box/digital video recorder (DVR), I was looking forward to taking home a high-end recorder like the RDR-HX900. This digital recording machine is equipped with a sizeable 160GB (gigabyte) hard drive, which can hold over 200 hours of video — that's over 8 days worth of all your favorite TV shows and home videos, available at the touch of a button. Add a DVD recorder, and you've got everything you need to create a very cool, very personalized digital video collection. The 'HX900 also comes with a built-in TV Guide® On Screen electronic program guide, which helps you find the programs you want and schedule recordings. With all of these powerful capabilities and smart features about to become a part of my home theater system, needless to say, I was psyched.


Recording — features and flexibility

The 'HX900 gives you a lot of choice when it comes to recording. Do you set it up through the snazzy On Screen guide, or use old-fashioned, simple timer recording? Do you want it on DVD or on the hard disk drive (HDD)? And what about recording quality?

For the most part, setting up my recordings was an owner's-manual-free experience. Menus were usually easy to navigate, and occasional on-screen instructions cleared up potential confusion. At first, I ran into some snags when I wanted to make changes to the recording settings. Because the 'HX900 offers you different contextualized menus depending on whether you record to DVD versus the hard drive, I found myself looking for options that weren't there anymore. I also have to admit that I'm not a fan of the remote control design — buttons are not grouped intuitively, and you have to slide the bottom panel down to access the recording buttons. But after a little face time with the manual, and some patience, I had gotten through my initial confusion, and had a collection of programs recorded how and where I wanted them.

Ways to make recordings

TV Guide On Screen gives you simple ways to find the programs you want and to schedule recordings.

TV Guide On Screen
Setting up TV Guide On Screen was simple. After a few basic questions, like my zip code and what kind of cable box I have, I was done. Leaving my cable box ON and 'HX900 OFF for 24 hours, my 'HX900 downloaded all of the channel information, and program listings for roughly 75% of the channels. By the following day, it had downloaded complete program listings.

Finding the programs I wanted was a snap. In addition to scrolling through program listings, there were handy sorting features. Alphabetical sorting gave me all of the episodes of a program coming on for the next 8 days — very handy for creating your own Friends marathon, or making a collection of your child's favorite shows for age-appropriate programming at any hour.

My favorite way to search for shows was by category. These included Educational, Movies, Series, Children's, Sports, and more. Each category included subcategories to further narrow down my search — then I had access to the next 8 days of programming that fit my interests. For example, I decided I wanted to find a new recipe to try over the weekend. Under the Educational section, I highlighted "Cooking." Using the Info button, I could see the dishes featured on each episode listed, and chose to record a couple that sounded particularly tasty.

One very cool thing about On Screen is that it lets you put your channels in whatever order you choose, and even turn channels off. While it is a bit tedious to move each channel to where you want it, when you've finished, it's like you have your own personalized cable service. In my case, Cartoon Network, Comedy Central, BBC America and the Food Network went at the top of my list, while the Golf Channel got turned off. (Sorry, golf fans.)

Making recordings with On Screen was fairly straightforward, and there were a few different ways to go about it. I first pushed either the "HDD" or "DVD" button, depending on where I wanted the show to be recorded. (In fact, I had to choose one or the other at this stage in the process, since it's not possible to change it later on without resetting the recording.) Then I highlighted the show I wanted to save, and pushed "Record." Yes, just one button. It was that simple. If I wanted to change the recording settings, like quality or frequency, I could access that menu under the "Schedule" tab, where all of my upcoming recordings were displayed.

Check out this interactive demo of TV Guide On Screen. (Although the remote functions and on-screen display are slightly different than those for the 'HX900, this will still give you a good idea of how it works.)

Timer
Some users may have cable or satellite boxes that are not compatible with On Screen, and for that reason might find themselves relying more heavily on timer or VCR Plus+® recording. (See the "Troubleshooting" section on the last page of this review for more info on TV Guide On Screen compatibility issues.) But unlike older VCR versions, timer recording with the 'HX900 is one-button easy. And to make things ultra-simple, that button is labeled "Timer." Pressing this button brought up a screen, where I entered the date, channel, and time. I could also choose between HDD/DVD and change the recording quality. Brief, basic on-screen instructions made this already intuitive process that much more user-friendly. In fact, I found myself using the timer to set recordings more often than On Screen when I already knew the date, channel, and time of the show I wanted to save.

While I was reviewing the 'HX900, I came upon a customer review stating that it would not turn itself on to capture scheduled recordings. I tried, but could not duplicate the problem — the 'HX900 reliably made scheduled recordings, whether it was off or on.

VCR Plus+
An oldie but goodie, and oh-so-simple. At the bottom of the "Timer" settings screen, there's a space labeled "VCR Plus+ code." VCR Plus+ codes tell the 'HX900 the date, channel, and time of the program you want to record. Check out your local paper, or go to www.tvguide.com to find the 2-8 digit codes for the listings in your area.

Unfortunately for me, the VCR Plus+ codes in my area have not been updated to include my digital cable listings, so my results were less than perfect. If you encounter similar problems, report them on www.tvguide.com; they can update your VCR Plus+ codes so that the 'HX900 makes the right recordings.