Customer Reviews

Sony DVDirect VRDMC10 Stand Alone DVD Recorder/Player (Black)

5 star:		(7)
4 star:		(4)
3 star:		(2)
2 star:		(2)
1 star:		(4)

 

 

I bought the VRDMC10 to convert our family VHS collection to DVD. I have only used it for this purpose so my review is limited to this application. With that in mind I feel that the unit worked flawlessly. It was true "plug-and-play" simplicity and performed as advertised. I also own a Sony HDR-SR11 HD Camcorder, and plan to burn some AVCHD DVDs from the camera on our next vacation. One plus is that we do not own a Blu-ray player and this unit also serves as an AVCHD disk player. The controls and menu are easy to use, and the unit ran unattended for many consecutive hours without fail. I would recommend this to anyone with a library of old VHS media they would like to convert to DVD.

I work in the live event/broadcast industry. Quality, versatility, reliability, and ease of use are a must for what we do. This unit is great because it can be quickly deployed to a crew that hasn't worked with one before, and they don't have to refer to a manual. Very intuitive controls and menus. I have every preceding model to this one, which only record, and finally, someone listened and added outputs to make it a player too! For me, it's great because I can set up a dub from a variety of sources, and burn without taking any computer resources, and has a built in monitor! My only wish is that it had some kind of audio metering and maybe a headphone jack, and it would be absolutely perfect! I currently monitor the line out through a small mixer to headphones. It works great for burning a backup or walkaway disc to give to the producer at the end of a show, so they know that they've "got it" and can review anything necessary. Sony, if you're reading, please also either put in a finalize button or move that to the top menu.

I was tired of wrestling with the computer and confusing software for photo card backups so I invested in this DVD stand-alone recorder. It is an outstanding and simple to use product that I've also used to burn copies of my Hi8 video camera footage and numerous memory cards. No complaints other than I wish I would have waited a few more weeks for the price reductions on this new product.

Today 8/28/09 I received this product I immediatly put it to work it work as expected downloaded a video and then downloaded some pic it works excellent, I read a review stating that someone could not burn from the dvd that he obtain from the Sony DVdirect, Well let me say YES you can, you can burn from the copy that you got from the sony DVDirect. SONY did it again, one button records, it can not get more simple than this. It comes with inut and out put jacks and a remote control

Sony DV Direct is a great product to make DVD's , It exactly does what it says, the only disadvantage even after spending so much money was that I cannot play regular DVD's in this player, that would have been a big asset

The directions are mostly for using a Sony video camera transfer, though I used it to convert Laser Discs and VHS tapes to DVD's. The directions were difficult to understand as written and did not explain how the DVD would be ininiatialized. It did NOT start and stop recording when the input began or stopped like the directions said, but you had to be there watching the video to know when to stop so the next laser disc could be put into the Laser player. The quality shows a considerable loss of data as they were fuzzier in visual quality.

I have been copying old VHS tapes and mini cassettes from my VCR onto this machine. It works well for that. The instructions are not completely clear, but I was able to figure it out. I haven't figured out how to break the one hour of recording into segments so I can use the fastforward on the created DVD, but I'm sure it is in there, so I'm still working on it.

FIRST DVDIRECT MODEL WITH OUTPUTS: HDMI, component, composite, AND RCA STEREO AUDIO OUTS (FINALLY!).

Still NO HEADPHONE JACK or built-in speaker(s).

Has FIREWIRE "DV IN". USB can only be connected to a compatible Handycam camcorder (it's not a DVD burner).

Analog ins: S-Video, composite, and RCA stereo audio. AVCHD format HD disc recording.

Commercial DVDs and DVDs made on other devices CANNOT BE PLAYED.

Though the DVD burner (PC connection) capability of the early models is long gone, the addition of ANALOG OUTPUTS and DV IN make this the BEST DVDIRECT MODEL YET!

However, it STILL LACKS A HEADPHONE JACK which STILL MAKES IT IMPERFECT FOR FIELD USE! No way to monitor DVDirect audio during live location recordings (unless you fold its audio back to a mixer or video monitor).

Come on Sony - just put a freakin headphone jack on a DVDirect already, and videographers everywhere will gobble these things up.

They already have a new model out but I don't know how it compares to this one, although the only apparent difference is the unit color.

Garbage in - Garbage out. I think the point not made in most reviews is that if you are copying VHS tapes, some done in the lowest quality where you've squeezed in 6 hours of recording, you will be very disappointed with the results. It records the quality of what your VHS tape is, and the quality of all VHS tapes is much less than we've come to expect from a DVD, especially on higher res TV's.

I found the instructions confusing, like others here. I have a Sony VHS but as you copy the DVD unit doesn't tell you how much space/time is left on the DVD you are making and how much space/time the VHS tape has to record from. Forget it if you have 6 hours recorded on a tape...even 2 hours is too much to copy onto 1 DVD disk.

I also found out, when you plug everything in that it automatically starts recording! It doesn't give you the chance to set up the VHS tape to where you want to start copying and you can't do that unless you have the VHS connected to a TV - the workaround on that is to press the big 'pause' button when it automatically starts to record, which usually ends up as a tiny movie on the DVD menu anyways.

After making 5 DVD's on the Sony VDDMC10 I've had poorer results than I was hoping for. Part of that is no headphone jack so you can 'hear' as well as see what is being recorded...and the fact it starts to record before you are ready.

Another thing is that all recording on the DVD unit is in real time ... don't expect it to make a DVD disk at 16x speed, but you can do that on your computer if you want extra copies.

The only solution I haven't tried to improve things is to hook up a TV to the old VHS machine so you can play the VHS tape first to set up where you want to start recording and get a decent idea as to how much space/time you need because you probably will need more more than 1 DVD to contain what's on the full VHS tape.

I only bought it to make copies of my old VHS tapes. Maybe it will get better as I fully understand the many different methods of copying different sources like camcorders and memory cards, but be prepared to make a lot of 'coasters' in the process and to waste a lot of time. For example, I thought it was set up to record so left the machine for an hour and came back to realize that it was on pause (flashing button) and didn't record properly. There are frustrations.

I have a Canon HD video camcorder and haven't tried to copy with it yet, mainly because other reviews said it won't work if it's not a Sony. Hope to try that soon.

This is to alert all buyers that this product is absolute trash. The picture quality is really bad even at the HQ setting. Note: I used this product to record footage from my Sony DCR VX2100 3ccd camcorder which outputs high quality DV images. I am really disappointed at the quality of the recordings, everything was fuzzy and got worse at the lower bitrate settings. I have not tested it out with AVCHD (high definition)files so cannot give a verdict on that. Bottom line, do not waste your money if you are recording old VHS or DV footage. Other than this the product is easy to use. It even controls the camcorder by rewinding and starting the recording when using the DV/firewire connection. The audio is decent. Maybe it was designed for high def and not DV, can't say, but Sony should not be so misleading, if it is. There are a lot of cheaper dvd recorders on the market with no name and performs 100% better. I bought this thinking that Sony produced high quality and also for the convenience of the built in screen. Take my advice, get a demo first before purchasing.