LG HR698D / HR699D

Don't do it – I was replacing a topfield and was talked into one of the worst mistakes ever. An LG ... This is so to prove useless shows which don't record the end or beginning of shows and when channels were updated (channel 9 GEM was replaced with HD it records ???? the channel NOT the show??? DUMB & DUMBER? ) I have had a few of these (Sony - great Topfield ok ) this one I would AVOID !!!

Never buy lg product ever again – Every bad thing said about this piece of junk is true. LG should refund everyone who who bought the 250 and 500 gig hdd recorder there should be a minus 5 star rating, this is its true rating ( beware of LG products ) i avoid lg products at all costs from now on

I like this one that much I bought my mother the same model – as the title says we both got one each and we have had no problems and my one has been out side under the patio with my LG flat screen.I'm not an LG fan but this is to me was a good buy.

Poor performance for the price, failure to adequately instruct users via manual – I have had the HR699D model for approximately 1 year. My experience has been soured by a few factors that I consider critical: 1) There is a lapse of approx. 6 seconds between button pressings! This is extremely frustrating in many circumstances; for example, when fast forwarding or rewinding recordings, the point at which you press play has… Read more

already been lost and every time I have had to go back the other way to find the correct frames. After so long, I am now reluctant to watch anything as it really sours the experience.

2) I was sold this DVD model and the salesman advised me to buy this model as a "match to the LG 65LW6500 3DTV". Although it was never made clear that there would be a convoluted and technical procedure just be able the record to USB/HDD, I read multiple forums (as LG didn't provide any instructions whatsoever). After formatting the HDD on the TV, I then plugged the HDD into the DVD player and it didn't recognise it, so much for interconnectivity. In my experience and opinion, LG has failed miserably in providing a positively memorable experience with their "interconnectible" devices, but succeeded in making the experience memorable!

There are other less critical issues in my opinion, I will save readers the agony of the details, needless to say, I would owe my friends and family the respect of informing them regarding my experience and encouraging them to examine other manufacturers and devices. Not much at all really. Very expensive, way too slow to respond to commands and very user unfriendly.

Hard to use slow to respond – What a piece of junk had a panasonic non hd no bluray wanted to update so i brought this [censored word removed] of a thing what a mistake still waiting for lg customer service to ring me back when playing bluray it has red splotches in background what a waste of time and money Colour

LG have over engineered this one – We had purchased the LG MS408D media station a couple years ago, it had so many issues it was replace on the 4th visit to LG repair centre (out side of original warranty time) We had extended warranty and that paid off. They offered us the LG HR698D as a replacement I checked the web and found it was a twin tuner and Blu ray player, we were… Read more

chuffed. I also arrange extended warranty wit this one I may have to use it.

BUT within weeks of use we found it to have a clumsy menu and the device was slow to respond to the remote, ie, playing a pre-recorded program, press fast fwd and it stops and thinks then eventually Fast fwd's when the adds have finished you press the play and it sees to take ages to recognise the action and eventually starts to play and often have to go back and then forward. It is a real pain. The unit also shuts down when recording 2 programs and watching a recorded one. When this happens any recording taking place are lost.

It's like its can't do all these things at once and the remote responce is even worse when all functions are beong performed, ie recording 2 shows and watching pre recorded. The delete function is like are you sure are you really sure do you want to delete blah blah. Just delete. We have never been able to mark or bookmark a show that your watching and the manual does not explain how to do this.

Another annoying function is when recording has finished it displays a msg asking do you want to power off, if your not quick enough it shuts down and you have to restart it.

LG service have been good but I think they may have over engineerd this one, someone told me that the latest model is back to single tuner... if so that says it all

PS we write down all the things that go wrong so when it goes back for repair its all documented. twin tuner function slow responce to remote, shuts down when doing to much and then all recorded programs are lost.

As dumb as it gets – where do you start. the user interface is designed by morons. it's so slow it drives you crazy. there is nothing consistent in the design. I have to stop as it's making me mad just thinking about it again. it really is a piece of junk. my old Pioneer was beautiful to use. everything was logical .... Records in High Def - nothing special any longer just about everything

They know it is rubbish! – I have been frustrated by this machine for months now. Like everyone else here, the product is really great on paper but so poor in practice. I called up LG Customer Service to talk about the slow response of the machine to the remote and they know about this and call the issue, "normal functioning for this machine"! Other then update your… Read more

software, they have nothing to add!!! I have been a loyal LG customer for some time and been happy with their products - this one missed the boat and I would reconsider LG in the future - bad show! The specifications of the machine Poorly implemented software and frustrating response delays!!

Terrible :-( So confusing and didn't record properly! – We ended up taking it back. Programmed to record same show over 5 nights and it recorded something different every night. No Editing facility. You can't watch something while it is recording! Really needs a "chase play" option. If you are watching something back no pause function so if you take a break you have to start from the beginning again, and the fast forward function is so slow!! All in all an absolute nightmare-don't bother!

This is an expensive boat anchor – It has a confusing menu. It does stuff in the background that is annoying eg we have to turn it off to use our wireless internet - SO we cant tape movies in the evening if we r using our computers. It takes 3 minutes to load. heap of rubbish. do not buy one Expensive and does not do the job Heap of rubbish I wish I could afford to buy another brand and throw it out

LG technology needs fine tuning – When playing music dvds the player stops in between each song. i have to fast forward slightly to get it going again. normal non music dvds are ok. thought it was my dvds so put them in a sony playstation & they played as they should. also after recording a show to the hdd the message that says do you want to turn the recorder off or leave it on doesn't stay on long enough. unless you're lighting fast the recorder turns off.

Great features, poor usability – This unit has incredible potential, if the LG engineers get out all of the bugs and add some more usability features it will be the best media player on the market. On paper this unit ticked all of the boxes for me, BluRay, 3d, Twin Tuners, Time Shift, DLNA, CIFS (that right!), 1080P, WiFi, Browser, Big Pond TV and movies, all the different catch… Read more

up TV like iVeiw yahoo 7 plus, youtube, face book, piccaso etc etc.

But it is with usability where it falls down. The response to commands is slow, you often hit the button again thinking that it did not get the first command, deleting files is painful, when using web features it will hang and sometime switch off. When you play a recorded TV show if you stop it and then hit play again it returns to the start rather than remembering where you were up to (there is a feature to book mark but it is clumsy).

Most annoying is while you are watching something if the recorder finishes recording a program, it flashes up something like "unit is about to power down as recording is finished, hit no to stop close down". If you cant get to the control in time you will be starting it up again.

LG has a great innovation with the Android / Apple app for the unit. You can basically control the unit from you phone. When i first installed worked really well, if you changed to a menu that required some text the phone would bring up a key board and you would enter what you wanted. However when i updated the software on the unit, this stopped working as well as it did, now it hardly ever recognises that you have to put characters in and give you a key board on the phone.

I could go on for ever, Basically what should have been a fantastic unit is an OK unit. Great spec's, Poor usability and needs

Poor choice – I bought this product to replace my LG RH397D, which broke 1 month out of the extended warranty period. Depite my reservations on build quality, I bought the HR698D, which offered all of the features of my previous model (now defunct), with extra features and capacity, at a reasonable price. I have found that for my needs, the HR698D is an… Read more

inferior product to the RH397D. The timeshift function, which I use regularly (great when dealing with young children with unpredictable sleeping times) on the HR698D is dreadful. Unlike the RH397D it deletes all information prior that being viewed (I can't run back to rewatch a soccer goal, or to catch some missed dialogue), and the function appears to cut out after 3 hours.

Right now, I had hoped to have been watching the final installment of the John Woo epic "Red Cliff", but as the machine has let me down, I am spending my Saturday night writing unfavourable reviews of a consumer product. Sad. Offers lots of features at a reasonable price Poor usability. Technology is inferior to earlier, cheaper models

Don't waste your money – This is the most complicated machine I have tried to operate and the user manual is written by someone who knows how to use the machine but doesn't have any idea about writing manuals. Good quality reproductions. Would make a good sinker Complicated, slow, to many pop ups, shuts down when finished recording even if you are watching another show.