Review of the Pioneer DVR-440HX-S DVD Recorder / HDD Recorder
Christmas day is a time for joy, brussel sprouts and the Only Fools and Horses Special - But all this changes when Gran wants to watch the Queen's speech. All of a sudden that joyous family atmosphere could slowly diminish. So let's thank those above - on such a religious day - for Pioneer’s new DVR-440HX-S, giving you a chance to record all your family favourites for less than £300. Design |
| In our personal opinion, the DVR-440HX-S is aesthetically a bit too busy. It’s plastered with writing and logos and instructions and everything else Pioneer could find to put on there it seems. The top is predominantly black and the bottom is silver, so it does go with most TVs which cheered us up slightly. The DVR-440HX-S’s slimline design is nice too; the dimensions are good at 420 x 79 x 318 mm and it is quite light, weighing in at 4.3kg. Two round buttons at either end of the player control the power and recording, and then the choice of HDD/DVD and open/close buttons are situated on the front of the disc drawer. Unfortunately the player’s plastering of logos was not the only thing that let it down – our main disappointment was with the remote control. The poor old remote control has been overlooked yet again, this time it’s a tacky-looking white one with light blue and orange buttons – great – one to hide under the cushions. |
| Features |
| There aren’t many restrictions on what the Pioneer DVR-440HX-S DVD Recorder can do. The biggest selling point for us was the 80GB Hard Disk Drive (HDD) giving you 227 hours of recording time. And once you have a programme recorded you have a plethora of choices to get your teeth into. We have identified that there’s nothing more annoying than having to go through a recording to find the exact point you want, and that is why Pioneer have sorted you out with Advanced Disc Navigator, providing you with thumbnails to choose from. You can also use the DVR-440HX-S to pause Live TV, Chase Play and to record - you simply press one button, either on the remote or on the front of the machine. Listen to MP3 and WMA files and turn your recorder into a digital jukebox, the Virtual Surround Sound puts on a powerfully clear performance with good bass. Now you’ve got music to work to, you may want to get yourself organised – and Pioneer have given you a few handy tools to help you out. The analogue-only Electronic Programme Guide (EPG) and Video-Plus options will keep you up-to-date with what’s on, assisting you in your recording choices. After recording, the DVR-440HX-S gives you a nice handful of editing options, including erase chapter, divide chapter, combine chapter, erase part, NAVI Mark, playlist input title name, add title and erase title. Pioneer have given the DVR-440HX-S some attractive HDD functions too. We like the High Speed Copy function, which copies a 1-hour programme in about 1.5 minutes. Another feature is the One Touch Recording, this function means that anything you have recorded on HDD you can copy it directly onto a DVD-R/DVD-RW disc – simply press one button on the remote. We made use of the Optimized Copy option, allowing you to choose the level of quality for the copy. The DVR-440HX-S boasts a Pure Cinema Progressive Scanner, which works perfectly alongside the Digital Noise Reduction, and together they provide a truly enhanced picture performance. Why, oh why Pioneer haven’t supplied a HDMI input we don’t know, but it really has got us scratching our heads. They have, however, provided a measly scart, RCA and S-Video input and a Scart, RCA, Component Video, S-Video and Coaxial Digital Audio outputs. When it was all going so well, Pioneer have let us down by overlooking the need for futuristic connectivity. Tut Tut. |
| Performance |
| Luckily, the component connection worked nearly as well as we imagined a HDMI would so we’ll cut Pioneer some slack there. The 80GB did us proud, although we could have probably done with a bit more space, for £300 we accept that we can’t ask for too much. The DVR-440HX-S has an all-importantly great tuner that performs well. We flicked through a few digital channels and analogue and the recordings remained noise-free and ultimately smooth. After watching the Bourne Supremacy on DVD we were blown away by its performance. Black levels were just deep enough and detail was superb. Menus are easy to navigate using the remote; the fact that we only had to refer to the instruction manual three times was a good sign in our book. |
Overall Opinion |
| The Pioneer DVR-440HX-S has really excited us with its superb performance and well-planned options for editing. If only connectivity was slightly more advanced, we would have been more impressed. If you are in search of an easy-to-use DVD-recorder that provides you with useful editing options, backed up by a good performance, the Pioneer DVR-440HX-S is the way forward. There really isn’t another DVD-Recorder at this end of the market that can offer such a good performance. |
| By Lisa Malyon |
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Pros + Great playback and DVD picture performance + Variety of editing and copy options + Virtual Surround Sound |
Cons - No HDMI connection |
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Overall Rating 
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By Lisa Malyon
12/10/2006 at 3:55:46pm
12/10/2006 at 3:55:46pm
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