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

Other products by Sony

Product Details

• Product Dimensions: 9.7 x 17 x 2.2 inches ; 5.5 pounds
• Shipping Weight: 10 pounds (View shipping rates and policies)
• Shipping: Currently, item can be shipped only within the U.S.
• ASIN: B001I59HSW
• Item model number: RDR-GX257
• Average Customer Review: 1.3 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (6 customer reviews)
• Amazon.com Sales Rank: #2,720 in Electronics (See Bestsellers in Electronics)

  Popular in this category: (What's this?)

  #12 in

  Electronics > Televisions & Video > Disc Players & Recorders > DVD Recorders

• Date first available at Amazon.com: October 13, 2008

Product Description

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

35 of 36 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

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.

17 of 21 people found the following review helpful:

1.0 out of 5 stars It would be great... if I could record for more than 6 seconds at a time, December 2, 2008

By	The Frogfighter S (Jewett city, CT United States) - See all my reviews

Maybe it is just my machine.. but I bought this and a pack of DVD-RWs to replace my VCR, Big mistake! I set the timer for over the Thanksgiving holiday and when I got back I had all of 5 seconds of an hour long program recorded to the disc and nothing else (I had set the timer for 3 separate hour long programs). I tried again, set the timer, being more careful to ensure I wasn't making a mistake, and again I got less than 10 seconds of an hour long program. So I tried to manually record and found that the player would stop recording after a few seconds and I'd get a Huge: Cannot Record Copy write Protected error across my screen whenever I tried to record Anything! It wouldn't even record a 30 second commercial and when it Errored when I tried to transfer Home movies from VHS to DVD I gave up! I have had it for 7 days now and needless to say I am returning this machine first thing tomorrow morning!

6 of 7 people found the following review helpful:

1.0 out of 5 stars No signal at all!, September 21, 2009

By	Nancy Hill (Live Oak, CA) - See all my reviews (REAL NAME)

I bought this player/recorder two days ago. Hooked it up according to instructions. The machine turned on and opened and closed so I know it was working but I got no signal on my TV. I double and triple checked everything and even tried all of my TV's different inputs. Still no signal. I contacted technical support via the phone (not a toll free number, by the way) and after 30+ minutes on long distance I was told the machine must be faulty. I immediately took it back to Wal-Mart (a 20 minute drive one-way)and exchanged it for a new one. Guess what, same problem! I'm very disappointed because I really wanted a DVD that records (the broken one I am replacing recorded) but I can't afford to spend more than what this one cost. All the others I have found cost twice as much or more. I wish things would work like they are supposed to!