Is the Sony PVR reliable?
All I need to do is record two HD shows at once, with reliable timers and a good picture.
According to reports, buyers of some brands are tearing ther hair out with frustration at reliability problems.
Will the Sony copy files to an external hard disc drive?
Any help will be much appreciated.

I can only speak of my experience.

I routinely set twin timers and have had no trouble at all.

The PVR is not designed to allow you to move the files from its HD to another machine.

It does not hang/crash/die during power up while a timer is set.

The PQ is good. Dead easy to use.

Agree with this - have never had a problem with twin timers, and have set them in all possible ways - manually and programmed.

Is it possible to export a recording to (for example) a dvdr hdd by simply playing the recording and connecting the pvr output to the dvdr input?

or is that too simple to work?

Rob.

If you can wait a week or two to see how the new Firmware update pans out for the Topfield 7000 (which was released to users yesterday), this unit will fit the bill for you.

Yes, there have been lots of problems, though these have hopefully been rectified (for the most part).

Time will tell, so if you can afford to wait a week or two, you should be able to gauge how the new FW is behaving and if the Toppy is worth the effort....

I have two of the 160gb models for the past 7 mnths. reliablilty is perfect, I do twin recording all the time, PQ is excellent.

I think you will find only a smal % of people have issues with these boxes (early adoptors maybe?).

I would assume this is entirely possible. The only solution i can see.