Sony DVDirect DVD Recorder VRDMC5

This product is simply amazing! It's so easy to use that it's just incredible. I was able to start copying my old Hi8 camcorder tapes to DVDs in literally just minutes. And the results are fabulous! I played back my first DVD on a 52" 1080p LCD TV using a Blu-Ray player and the DVD videos copied from my 12-year old Hi8 tapes looked absolutely magnificent! I couldn't believe my eyes! It has an easy to use menu to guide you quickly through the setup. Aesthetically it's a homely little device, but it's very well laid out, trivially easy to use and quite versatile. And who can beat the great price and speedy delivery from Amazon! I highly recommend this product! Update: I have now used it to burn an AVCHD-formatted DVD directly from my Sony HDR-SR12 Hi-Def camcorder. This is done via an included USB cable. It turns out that this is even easier than doing a Hi8 to DVD burn, plus you get complete retention of the hi-def recording and it plays on a Blu-Ray player with full 1080 resolution. It even includes the 5.1 surround sound audio from the Sony camcorder. Fantastic result and it only took minutes to do. A regular DVD disk, of course, won't fit very much hi-def content--but still it's terrific quality and very quick and soooo easy to do!

Those of us who have been around a while (i.e., older than 40) have, I'm sure, accumulated their fair share of VHS tapes -- either pre-recorded videos or blanks onto which we've recorded any number of TV programs and movies. Of course, this was our only option until DVDs came along. Today, DVDs are THE format. Now, while movie studios have been quite good in putting out the older movies on DVD, there are still those select few whose videos are strictly on VHS and will never make it to DVD. For example, NFL Films has made the decision not to re-release old team video highlights on DVD. I have several of these which I'm not about to throw out, but I do want to preserve them. This Sony DVD Recorder is the perfect solution. I can now go through all my VHS tapes and copy them to blank DVDs. Granted, I've only used it with a VCR. But it still works like a charm. Very easy to hook up (although you must supply the A/V cables). The viewfinder is very helpful. And the finished product is very professional looking. If you have old VHS tapes, keep in mind they will deteriorate over time. If you want to preserve them, do yourself a favor and invest in this product. Otherwise, you'll wind up spending a lot more having it done by a video-copying service.

This was exactly what the doctor ordered. I did a lot of research trying to find the best (and most economical way) to transfer our 8mm and DV videotapes to DVD so we could enjoy them with ease (as opposed to having to hook the video recorder to the TV and search endlessly through old tapes). Services ranged from $20 to $40 PER TAPE. This baby is easy to use and does a great job. And with the price point, it pays for itself. ON THE DOWNSIDE -- if you have a Sony camcorder, I think you have more options for indexing, and labeling. With a non-Sony, when the DVD is done and you put it in your DVD player, it comes up as a single chapter (even though it might be two hours long). It's not that big of a deal, because you can choose how long you want chapters to be (I always choose five minutes) and, despite the fact that the menu shows only one chapter, it skips ahead at five minute intervals with ease. It would be very cool if it showed multiple chapters in the menu screen. Overall, this is a good, quality product.

Sony VRDMC5 DVDirect DVD Recorder Sony VRDMC5 DVDirect DVD Recorder , at this point I consider the product a failure for us. We have a JVC Everio-G HDD camcorder, GZ-MG130 and have tried to copy only 2 very short clips of about 5 min's durations each on to the DVD through this unit using the cables included with our camera which according to the Sony manual will work easily. so far we have wasted several DVD's. It takes more than 2 hours to copy these short clips and when finalized all we have to view in our HD DVD player is the selection screen from our JVC camcorder. No actual footage plays. We are going out on the net now to see if anyone else knows how to make this work. If not we are sending it back.

I have only scratched the surface of what it can do, but the manual is rather extensive and perhaps intimidating. But setting up to burn a DVD from a VHS tape was intuitive, and about the only thing I had to reference was the chart in the manual for recording time. So far, I have only used it to transfer VHS tapes to DVD. The main glitches I have found is a loss of signal in some of my tapes. No idea why, but that makes the DVD into a coaster. It is a real time transfer, so a 1 hour VHS tape will take 1 hour to burn the DVD. The small LCD screen shows exactly what is being burned into the DVD, so it is easy to pause and edit out something. And when recording, the record button is outlined in a red light, so if the signal is lost, it is easy to see at a distance. The LCD screen also contains a complete menu, and it is intuitive. I normally burn the DVD, then put the DVD on my computer to check if it is a good copy, by fast forwarding portions. So far, I have not found any faults in the transfer process other than signal loss. And normally, when the signal is lost, it is lost for good, not just an intermittent loss. And that loss usually occurs within the first 10 minutes of recording or so. When the signal is lost, the recording stops, so it is not as if you record 58 minutes of blank screen. There is no connection between the device and a computer.

Warning: this review is coming from someone who requires someone else to set up anything electronic...The manual was a bit confusing. It intimidated me so much that I actually left the recorder alone for a couple of weeks thinking I should just return it. The trick was to put in the blank recordable DVD and once that's in place the prompts were self explanatory. Once I figured out how to work it, it was a breeze. I only wasted 2 DVD's and now I'm in hog-heaven transferring all my 8mm tapes to DVD. Took just a bit of digging to figure out to set the recording to "SP" and that I was suppose to set it to VIDEO to DVD recording. Those were the only things I had to SET UP. Plugging the connectors in the back was a breeze. VIDEO OUT on the video player and VIDEO IN on the recorder. Quality was good. Someone told me if I used the "S" connection the quality of the picture would be better but I don't have one so I just used what I had. For the purpose I bought this recorder for it was a pretty good deal and it's small enough I can put it away in a drawer.

I have a JVC Mini DV Camcorder which uses mini dv tapes. I received my Sony VRDMC5 DVDirect DVD Recorder yesterday from Amazon, after unpacking it and reading the Sony Quick Start Guide, I hooked up the recorder and turned it on, went through the onscreen menu on the recorder, made my selections, then hooked up my JVC Camcorder to the recorder, (the Sony Manual tells you if you have another brand of camcorder other than a Sony what hook up it will accept, all of the accepted hookups came with my camera) I then pushed play on my camcorder, pushed the record button on the Sony recorder and 'Walah', a beautiful recorded DVD. When you push the eject button on the recorder it lets you know if you have any remaining time on the dvd to record on and then asks you if you want to finalize the dvd and reminds you that you will not be able to make changes after that. It plays on my computer, and different dvd players throughout our house with a beautiful picture and wonderful sound. This was my Anniversary present that I picked out myself and I am so happy that I now have a way of permanentaly keeping all the wonderful memories I have recorded on those little mini dv tapes and also with the ease of use of the Sony VRDMC5 DVDirect DVD Recorder.

I bought this for two tasks: First to transfer family video shot on a Sony HC-1000 and secondly to transfer old VHS video no longer available for sale to DVD format. The first task was executed nearly flawlessly. The interface is simple and easy to use without looking at an instruction manual. You put in a disk, connect the firewire which is not included(make sure you have 4 pin to 4 pin), select video transfer, then select DV and then it will prompt you to format the disk. You hit record and it does the rest. When you're done it will ask if you want to do any more recording. If not it will finalize the disk and out it pops. I transfered an about ten hours with only one flawed disk. I used highest quality although I probably could have selected standard. I was very impressed with the image as it appeared. Much better than IMovie transfers. The Second task was handled fairly well although I had quite a few coasters, maybe one out five using TDK -R. There may glitch in that I noticed that it doesn't recognize blue screen as not receiving a video input although it did when receiving handycam video. The result was it would keep recording until there was no room and when it came to finalize it would spin and spin and then say failed to record. This happened several times when I walked away entirely. There is an auto stop setting that seems to work. I'm not sure yet if it was coincidence or a bug. I did notice though I had no problems when I was on hand and hit stop before the disk was full. One other annoyance was that the box did not recognize my USB connection nor is it able to download videos stored on Compact Flash. On the whole though it's great and could be made even better with a few tweaks.

The unit works well and the recorded (DVD) quality is very clear. Vey easy to use .The unit is so compact the you can bring it anywhere ans is lightweight.

Excelente calidad para grabar ultrasonidos de los embarazos

الف شكر لكم

Excelente producto, facil de usar. Llegó muy rápido y en perfectas condiciones.

Llego bien el articulo, el único problema es que la caja del grabador sony viene abierta, no esta sellada y muy leve maltratada de donde se abre la pestaña de la caja. al principio tiene uno que leer las instrucciones para grabar, pero el primer dvd cuesta algo de trabajo, ya despues agarra uno la onda y es mas facil grabar. el unico problema es que cuando se reproduce el dvd grabado para verlo en la pantalla, si se nota falta de nitidez ya que las pantallas son de mayor resolucion las de ahora. grabe de una Sony handycam de caset de 8mm. a dvd .