Customer Reviews

Sony Professional HVRM15U HDV Record/Playback Deck

5 star:		(1)
4 star:		(1)
3 star:		(2)
2 star:		(0)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

I replaced my Sony DHR-1000 with this unit because it does both DV and HDV. It functions just fine. It's much smaller that the old unit, it even can be set on it's side so it has a very small footprint. It has no display, it seems that it is just the inner workings of the old unit with the HDV ability. It has the same fan sound, but the old unit was huge and hid a lot of the noise, with this unit, there is nothing to hide the fan. The remote that it comes with is very simple, but it works. It does the job, Sony gets its money for it, but there's not much that will do the DV and HDV off the mini-DV tapes. My reason for getting it was to keep from having to use my camcorders and wearing them out capturing and editing video. The 4 stars rather than 5 is the fact it's a bit noisy, no display and the remote isn't anything like the old DHR-1000. It just does the job.

I purchased this VTR from J&R about 1.5 years ago to replace my DSR-11 and for the most part it works as advertised. It plays back DV, DVCam and HDV from Sony's FX1/Z1 shot at 60i but it does not playback 24p footage shot with Sony's V1 or Z7, or 24p/30p footage shot with Canon's HV-20/30. I just got an email today from J&R saying Sony has released the HVR-M15UA which is essentially the same model but it will playback 24p/30p HDV. Not sure if Sony us planning a firmware update or some other kind of upgrade program for us (unfortunate) M15U owners but given it's lack of universal HDV playback, I really cannot recommend this VTR unless you're only shooting/editing 60i material.

This is yet another great product from Sony. It's the perfect follow up of the DSR-16 with its integrated HD support. I spent hours and hours talking to professionals in the field and reading spec sheets and this was the best bang for the buck. Great product and highly recommended. Works great with my Canon XL2 and X1 H1.

Despite other reviews at other sites that say that this HDV player/recorder works with all tapes, my experience is to the contrary. I have a small Sony HDV camera and the HVRM15U logs the tape into my NLE's (Avid Liquid and Premiere Pro CS3) without problems. But tapes generated from my Canon HV20 and XH-A1 don't play consistently. The HV20 material logs about 1/2 the time; and I don't even try to log tapes made on the XH-A1, because it just freezes.
I also use Avid Media Composer 3.1 but could not get it to recognize the HVRM15U.
I bought this to preserve my cameras' heads but find it to be an expensive endeavor. I would highly recommend it for someone working exclusively with Sony cameras.