Sony RDR-GX7 DVD Recorder

I picked up the Sony RDR-GX7 at a local electronics retailer this past August for nearly $100, as this was old display stock that sat around since it was released, back in 2003.  No one bit on it for quite a while, so I did - they had several different recorders for the same price.

This was the company's flagship, first release (to the States), DVD recorder - and it shows.  The aluminum face matches well with quality late-1970s/early-1980s stereo equipment, ball-bearing style buttons resembling the company's Trinitron TVs from the early 1980s, flip-down secondary control cover, and the substantial size and meaningful weight of such an early device.  The RDR-GX7 is the second-generation DVD recorder from the company, as the earlier models were marketed for JDM (Japanese Domestic Market) and were priced accordingly - and they were larger too, just run a search on RDR-A1, which was released in 2001.    The RDR-GX3 was the more affordable sibling to the GX7, but that was not sold here in the States (unless you count grey market sales).


First Impressions:

Well built, slick menu interface, but limited in what it can burn onto or read from.  The GX7 can record onto DVD-R, DVD-RW, and DVD+RW discs; DVD+R discs are not supported for recording (this was early on in the format wars).


Front Panel:

The front panel is occupied by a set of basic transport buttons: eject, play, pause, stop, record, record pause, and record stop - and the button surrounds slightly illuminate to display the transport mode.  Flip down the lower door and a set of inputs (DV, S-Video, and composite jacks) and secondary controls are exposed.

About the secondary controls, if you lose the remote, you do not lose the critical functions of the GX7.  The menu, DVD navigation controls, channel, input selection, and progressive scan are on the front panel.  Of course, DVD players and recorders today lack such buttons and can be dreadful if the family pet, child, or a mad spouse got a hold of it.

The front panel also has a good single-line dot matrix fluorescent display to the left and several LED lamps noting the disc format, mode, and timer lamps to the right.  This is more than enough for a video recorder, but is very nice for detail.  The FL display can be dimmed or set to "Auto" within the system menu, meaning the display will operate if there is no disc loaded, and will not operate if there is a disc in play.  The LED lamps and accented transport buttons are dimmed in "Auto".


Rear Panel:

The rear panel has the typical RF block (in/out), optical and coaxial digital audio outputs, two AV inputs (labeled as 1 and 3, with s-video), two AV outputs, component output and Control S - to integrate to a Control-S-equipped Sony television (relays the IR code from the television to the GX7, if the GX7 is far from the television).

There is also a cooling fan.  Personally, I do not like fans - not because of the noise, but more of the potential cleaning issues (like, say, dusty interiors of workstation computers).  Fan noise is quiet but variable by temperature.

Note: for European (PAL) countries, the AV inputs/outputs are SCART connections or if the GX7 is Japanese-market, D-Terminal is added in place of component video as well as a couple of satellite receiver-controlling connectors.


Remote Control:

The supplied RMT-D203A is a departure from upper-end remotes of the past, such as the lack of an LCD screen and a jog dial, though in its place is a rocker switch, named "jog stick" (not even close!).  The lower remote cover slides to reveal the recording related buttons (the REC/REC PAUSE/REC STOP keys) and an oddly placed input select and surround keys.  The silver/gray remote does not feel cheap, laid out like a typical modern Sony remote, and controls a television and audio receiver.


Interface:

Something with early, high-end models about the interface presentation just puts current models to shame.  Upon pressing the [System Menu], the main menu shows a smooth presentation of mundane settings, such as timer schedule, DV control, and setup contexts.

Within the Setup menu, the typical DVD recorder settings apply (tuner, VCR Plus assignments, clock, black level, audio, remote command, etc.).  Timer and Timer List is the same on any video recorder, allowing you to set an event time or view the entire recording schedule.  Selecting DV/D8 Edit switches the recorder to the front panel DV input and allows you to control the DV-capable video camera from the GX7.  The DV/D8 Edit menu lets you choose from recording the whole tape and then edit (possible with a rewritable disc) or allowing you to record selected footage.

Pressing [Tools] during a program or video brings up a secondary menu, (i.e. play disc, recording settings, audio and video settings).  The significant contexts within the Tools menu are the video and audio settings.  Within the video settings: you can control the luminance and chroma noise reduction, block noise reduction (MPEG artifact reduction), video edge enhancement (DVE) and even a video equalizer (contrast, brightness, color saturation, hue).  Within the audio settings, surround effects can be toggled and also an audio filter with soft and sharp choices ("smooth and warm sound" and "wide frequency", respectively).

The on-screen display is also slick.  When viewing broadcast television, if the station/channel you are watching is transmitting XDS (extended data service), you will see the program title and the network/station call letters.  When recording, the XDS information is also recorded - inserting a title and network automatically.  When playing a disc, two presses to [Display] will show the timeline and pressing [Time/Text] displays the remaining time and total disc time.

The only issue I have against the interface is that the JDM version of the GX7 has an electronic program guide (Japan's G-Guide, the same as the Guide Plus Gold EPG in the States), while the North American/European model does not.  For a flagship model, that's cheap and embarrassing.  Panasonic's upper-tier DVD recorders sold here from that era even had an EPG.  Flagship models pull no punches!


Tuner:

It's analog, so if you have over-the-air television (not subscribing to pay-tv services) this needs a DTV converter connected to one of the inputs.  It is analog cable ready, meaning if you have "basic" or "basic expanded" cable service without a cable converter, it works as expected.  Satellite, fiber-optic service viewers with converters will use one of the inputs.

The tuner presetting context in the menu has the usual cable/antenna choices, auto program, and auto fine tuning (which can also be manually fine tuned, when set to off on a selected channel).  Auto programming takes almost two minutes when searching for cable channels.


Recording:

There are six recording modes on the GX7. 

HQ:     60 minutes (1 hour)
HSP:    90 minutes (1 hour 30 minutes)
SP:      120 minutes (2 hours)
LP:      180 minutes (3 hours)
EP:      240 minutes (4 hours)
SLP:     360 minutes (6 hours)

As with any DVD recorder, try to stay under four hours, or image and sound quality suffers.  If you want more capacity out of your discs, you might as well skip the DVD recorder route and pick up or use a decent computer with TV tuner card, good software, and a DVD burner - you can squeeze a good two-hours on a 700MB video file.  But it will not be as easy as a DVD recorder.

When recording (without a timer or DV), you press [REC] or [REC PAUSE].  The drawback, you must press [REC STOP], not the usual [STOP] key.  This procedure can irritate someone who isn't familiar with the method, and of course, current models do not have these keys.

Pressing [One Touch Dub] acquires footage from a connected DV camera, but unlike the Program Edit function, you are not able to control the camera through the GX7.  Oddly, I find myself using One Touch Dubbing more often than the other two DV acqusition methods.

In the Tools menu and a recordable DVD inside, selecting the Disc Info. context will display the disc name, media type, number of titles, current date, remaining time (in all recording modes), and a graph of the remainder of unused space on the disc.  The standard functions to DVD recorders apply (disc name, finalize, erase all, and format).  For a DVD-RW, you can select VR or video mode, VR to edit and save on a single disc - after finalizing, which is not possible under video mode as you may not be able to free up space without reformatting the DVD-RW disc.

Adding chapters to the disc can be performed manually using the remote [Chapter Mark] or [Chapter Erase] or have chapters automatically inserted every six or fifteen minutes and is also defeatable. This should have more options.


Video and Playback:

A typical commercial (2 layer) DVD loads within 15 seconds.  A typical single-layer DVD-R disc loads within 12 seconds.

Because the GX7 is from 2003, this does upconvert to 480p (progressive scan), but nothing more.  As I mentioned in the interface section, the video is very tweakable via the tools menu.  All standard DVD functions apply.

The GX7 is limited in its playback capabilities.  Even in 2003, DVD players and some recorders were able to play back MP3-encoded CDs and JPEG picture discs, but the GX7 can not.  Even a pain-in-the-caboose Orion-built "Sansui" DVD Recorder/VCR combo played MP3 and JPEG discs (review link towards the end), and it was hundreds cheaper than the GX7 - and both were introduced in 2003!  It can play CDs though, but come on!  The GX7 can read CD-R/RW, DVD-R, -RW, +RW, even finalized DVD+R discs (which the GX7 cannot record onto).  Do not expect this to play DVD-RAM, DivX, XviD, JPEG or MP3-encoded discs.  The GX7 is one odd beast, as I am surprised it does not play ATRAC.

Since my GX7 has never been used prior to my ownership, I have no issues with the transport yet.


Maintenance Options/Production:

Well, I knew the GX7 becomes unreliable after a few years' worth of uses - mostly because of the DVD recording drive within.  Just like the "Sansui" VRDVD4005, the GX7 uses an IDE-based DVD recorder (Sony DW-11UA) - nothing proprietary about that!  The only problem is that the design of the front panel may hinder a replacement drive's tray.  Removing the drive requires removing the case, then the top circuit board and a lot of screws.

Of course, there was a supposed firmware update, which is unavailable or download and sorta inaccessible even as a service part.  What gives?  I'm not planning to email some guy in a forum for it.

The GX7 was produced in both Japan and Malaysia.


If I see a GX7 for sale, should I buy it?

Well, it depends.  It is a really good DVD recorder for its time, but has the typical reliability issues of DVD recorders from this era.  If you're comfortable in replacing a dead IDE DVD recording drive with a $20 IDE computer drive, you should be fine.  The build quality and appearance is a bonus.

If you want ease of use, reliability, and value for money (including a possible digital TV tuner) the GX7 is probably a poor choice compared to newer models.  A typical used GX7 on a popular auction site regularly hits at least $75, when a new "tuner free"* entry-level model can easily cost the same and may have 720p/1080i/1080p upconverting capabilities - if you have an HDMI-equipped television or monitor.

*Mind you, terms like "Tuner Free" and line-in recording (only) is NOT a feature, but many manufacturers makes it seem so.  It's a cost-savings measure.  It's very saccharin - if not corn-syrupy of the "features."


So, the verdict:

The GX7 is a substantial and excellent build quality DVD recorder that maintains the quality expectations and perceptions of a Sony product.  But with those Sony quality expectations come with the modern Sony reliability concerns - mostly at the fault of the DVD recording drive.  The GX7 maintains its value against newer, DTV-receiving, DivX reading, HDMI and USB-equipped, 1080p-upconverting, plastic fantastic recorders - you're comparing that to a top-of-the-heap quality DVD recorder from 2003.

For the average person expecting trouble-free performance (i.e., a reliable DVD recording drive), I won't recommend the GX7 for them.

If you like to tinker and prefer quality equipment, go get it.  You will not be disappointed.


--UPDATE--
I opened the machine up again this morning.

1. No wonder the GX7's menu puts modern DVD recorders to shame, it uses a Hitachi SH-4 CPU (IC labeled: 6417292A, SH-4 BP200).  The SH-4 CPU was used on the Sega Dreamcast.

2. The recorder has traces for a couple of ICs on the main (bottom board), most likely for the EPG.  Even with licensing costs from Gemstar, this was a billed as a flagship recorder and such costs should not be cut (the astronomic MSRP of $800 would be higher).  That's what the RDR-GX3 was marketed for, which was never released here in the States.

3. It looks like it would have had a slot for Memory Stick - for photos and music.  I do not see this feature on any version (EU, US, and JP).  This would have been a good bonus for such a flagship model.