Sony RDR-GX257 Recordable DVD Player with HDMI Upscaling, Black

by Sony

Product Details

• Product Dimensions: 9.7 x 17 x 2.2 inches ; 5.5 pounds
• Shipping Weight: 10 pounds
• Shipping: Currently, item can be shipped only within the U.S.
• Shipping Advisory: This item must be shipped separately from other items in your order. Additional shipping charges will not apply.
• ASIN: B001I59HSW
• Item model number: RDR-GX257
• Average Customer Review: 2.5 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (20 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #11,632 in Electronics (See Top 100 in Electronics)
  • #16 in Electronics > Televisions & Video > DVD Players & Recorders > DVD Recorders

Product Description

The Sony RDR-GX257 DVD Recorder is the perfect companion for your digital video recorder. Line Input Recording (non-tuner) lets you record your favorite TV shows from your cable or satellite set-top box. You can also use the One Touch Dubbing function to copy your photos and home video from compatible USB2 or i.LINK-based digital cameras and camcorders3. Additionally, experience your DVDs in near HD-quality with HDMI upscaling (up to 1080p). You can also enjoy music and digital images from CD and DVD media encoded with MP3 audio or JPEG image files.

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

81 of 86 people found the following review helpful:

2.0 out of 5 stars A decent-performing recorder that lacks features similarly-priced competitors have., January 7, 2009

By 

Ashram - See all my reviews

This review is from: Sony RDR-GX257 Recordable DVD Player with HDMI Upscaling, Black (Electronics)

The Sony RDR-GX257 is a low-cost, tunerless DVD-Video recorder that manages good recording quality at the two faster speeds and isn't too difficult to use.

Normally, a recorder that performs its designed function well enough and with sufficient ease would, at least, deserve four stars. Unfortunately, in the case of this recorder, it earns two stars because, for the price, it lacks features that similarly priced competitive units have, such as the Toshiba D-R410 or, for a few more bucks, the Panasonic DMR-EA18K.

One feature that is lacking on the Sony is recording support for dual layer recordable discs. This problem itself may not be an issue, except there are units similarly priced that do support such media. Support for dual layer media on both -R and +R media would've added a bit more flexibility to this model that you get from the aforementioned Toshiba and Panasonic models.

Another feature that is lacking are s-video inputs, so you will never be able to record high resolution analog formats, such as S-VHS or Hi-8, to their fullest. On top of that, there are no s-video outputs. There are other players that have s-video inputs (and outputs) at the same price point, so why Sony decided to omit this from this model is baffling, especially since these inputs are included on the mentioned Toshiba and Panasonic players.

What is even more baffling was that the model that the RDR-GX257 replaced, the RDR-GX255, had these features! What in the world was Sony thinking?!

In all, because the features that were in the previous generation model did not get incorporated into the current model and that you can have more features at around the same price from someone else, it is very hard to justify this machine.

In all, I don't recommend this one.

28 of 29 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Good Product, February 9, 2010

By 

Sonya Bilbrey - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Sony RDR-GX257 Recordable DVD Player with HDMI Upscaling, Black (Electronics)

I read a lot of the reviews on this product and did not have very high hopes but seeing as all the stores that I went to did not have a large selection of dvd recorders I had to get this model. What I found that the setup was fairly easy if you are technical savvy, if you know what I mean. Well I got it set up to my satellite receiver and I said I was going to test the recorder first, so I got on of my dvds that I use from my computer, DVD+R, which cannot be re-recorded on once it has been recorded on. And what I got was a perfect picture with no 6 second record, like a previous reviewer said, it recorded everything that I wanted it too, it was fairly simple for me. I like to read the instructions that come with the product as it makes getting to know the product a whole lot easier. I suggest if you are going to set this up to give yourself some time to read the operating instructions, because you will not have trouble with this machine. Thanks and I hope this helps.

7 of 8 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars But consider this important feature, February 26, 2010

By 

Amazoner "reader, thinker, doer" - See all my reviews

This review is from: Sony RDR-GX257 Recordable DVD Player with HDMI Upscaling, Black (Electronics)

This dvd recorder is somewhat hard to use, BUT it switches the cable box for you on a timer. The Toishiba 420 does not do that. That makes this recorder 100x more useful than the Toshiba, because I often want to record on several different channels in advance.