Just got myself one of these dvd writers with a hard drive. Nice design, good results and easy to use. Only thing - there is a fan running continuously with device switched on. Sony say the fan should be temperature dependent, but if devide in a cabinet, fan may run continously. I have it on the standard sony TV shelf. Fan is a bit annoying. Anyone else got one of these to confirm if it is just mine? Thanks.

Dave, I got an RDR-HX710 on an open-shelf cabinet. Just been to have a listen, and I don't hear my fan in that .... though admittedly, there's a fan on my LCD TV that I do hear. Not noticable in normal use though. Hope this helps.

Thanks Bob - just contacted the shop, who will be swapping it out in the next week "just in case". It will be interesting to see if the next one does the same thing!

You're welcome Dave. Just listened to mine AGAIN and honestly, I can't hear it until I get close (and I do mean close!). It's maybe a faulty fan; I know it happens on PC kit 'cause I had this problem.
Good luck.

Hey Dave, I also have a 710 and you can (just) hear the fan on mine too. Didn't realise though until I opened the cabinet door ;-)
A persistant low hum.

I just had my 510 swapped out and the new one is exactly the same. Must be a feature!

Here's the next question (please excuse my ignorance, but this is my first ever DVD recorder, and I was never much good at settings on my vcr!!). I want to record from my digital video recorder onto DVD. I have played about and worked out the basics. The only thing I noticed is that the whole recording was in one chapter on the disk, which meant there was no easy way to skip through the recorded DVD. The manual says that I can add chapters but only on the HDD and if I use -RW (VR) disks. My question is: can I add chapters on the HDD and then copy these to a normal +RW disk? The second part of the question is around the best format to record in. I notice there are many more levels of quality than just SP and LP, as you get with video's. I appreciate the different quality settings must use a different sampling rate, so HQ is best, but with a normal CRT TV will I really see any difference between HQ and say ESP? Apologies for rambling on!!

To part one; yes that should be okay BUT I haven't tried it.
As to part 2, YES there's a difference ... the longer you "stretch" a recording, the grainier it gets. Me, I'm happy up to EP. All I can suggest is ........ play around and see what suits your needs.