Customer Reviews

Sony RDR-VX535 DVD Recorder & VCR Combo Player with 1080p HDMI Upscaling and Bonus HDMI Cable

5 star:		(4)
4 star:		(4)
3 star:		(2)
2 star:		(2)
1 star:		(17)

 

 

I purchased this recorder to archive my old VHS tapes and recommended by Sony. I have been able to make DVD's from material stored in the cable box; very easy. The problem I have is that it won't copy my old VHS tapes to DVD; it claims they are copy protected. These are not movies or purchased tapes that might be copy protected. They are a mixture of items saved from TV broadcasts, files transferred from VHS recorders, and some tapes that came with merchandise.

I have called Sony and they said there is no work around. They say that if the recorder thinks they are copy protected, then it won't copy them. They said there is nothing they cando and nothing I can do about it.

I owned a Panasonic VHS/DVD recorder for nearly two years with very few problems. The upscaling of VHS and standard DVD's was ok with the HDMI cable and some standard def dvd's looked a little jaggy, but overall, it played DVD's/ VHS tapes fine.
However, recording from VHS to DVD - what a nightmare!! First, when I inserted a DVD -R , the machine froze and it took several hours to finally remove the DVD; after that, it wouldn't play ANY dvd's - previously recorded, commercial, anything. After several hours with customer support, I gave up. It would only play VHS tapes - what an expensive VHs player this turned into!
So I saw Costco was selling this Sony that pretty much had the same features, but I especially wanted to be able to convert a bunch of old vhs tapes to dvd.
This Sony worked flawlessly from the beginning, and I was well on my way to converting nearly 60 old vhs tapes to dvd. No problems whatsoever with different DVD types- DVD(+-)(RW) were accepted . It won't record to DVD -RAM, but will play them. The upscaling feature on this Sony is also much better than the Panny, and so far it works great.
However, since it doesn't have a tuner built in, you'll need a connection to your cable/satellite box to record TV shows, but that doesn't matter to me at all since I'm not interested in taping TV.
Overall, I'm satisified.

I needed a DVD player for my second TV. I really love my Oppo DVD player and was thinking of getting another for my second TV, but I saw the Sony RDR-VX535 Player at Costco and looked at the features and decided to try it out.

It took less than 5 minutes to set it up and figure out how to copy tapes to DVDs, the main reason I got the Sony instead of another Oppo. It does a great job copying and with the up scaling feature the visual quality of the dvd copied from the tape is better that the visual quality of the tape itself. I don't think the up scaling or video quality is a good as my Oppo but it's pretty good and the versatility and ease of use make it a good buy.

We purchased this unit from Costco and returned it two days later. The unit pauses intermittently and sometimes freezes altogether while playing DVD's. Never got a chance to try the recording features, but if the thing won't play DVD's who cares. Sounds like a number of others have experienced the same thing. I would pass on this one.

I bought this product hoping to transfer some VHS tapes to DVD. But the machine wouldn't allow me to do this. When I pushed the one touch dubbing button, nothing would happen. I got Sony technical support on the line and they agreed it was defective. The seller was nice enough to exchange it for another one, but the second one didn't work either. Once again, I called Sony technical support and after walking me through a few steps over the phone and determining that I wasn't doing something wrong, that everything was set up right, they said the second machine was defective, too. I sent this one to Sony repair in Laredo, Texas and they sent it back, saying there was no trouble found. They did absolutely nothing to fix it. And once again, when I tried the one touch dubbing button, nothing would happen. The seller was nice enough to refund my money for this second machine, but after paying a $30 restocking fee and two shipping fees, along with telephone bills for calling Sony technical support (not a toll free number) I'm down around $100 for this dubious machine. I agree with other reviewers that Sony normally makes a good product, but this thing, man, I don't know. And Sony repair didn't exactly impress me either.

Unfortunately, I own two of thse units. They both have the same problem. The unit freezes while playing commercial DVDs that play perfectly on other players including other Sony models. Sony is aware of the problem with the 500 series (check the Sony website), AND SONY CUSTOMER SERVICE HAS SAID SONY DOES NOT HAVE A FIX. The reality is this: If you buy this unit, the Sony warrenty is WORTHLESS because they can not fix the unit and cannot offer any remedy. Hopefully you will discover this flaw in time to return it to the seller. The unit will play most commercial DVDs ok, but many commercial DVDs will fail 100% of the time even if you try a second copy.

Would I recommend this product to a friend?: No

Have had my unit for a few weeks not and it has exceeded all of my expectations. I'm a Sony fan anyway, and this is just more affirmation for me. This was the only such combo player I could find at an affordable price - apparently they aren't offered by most other companies.

I've owned this product for 3 months. It worked fine initially, now it rejects all DVD's. If I can get it to load a DVD, it freezes or stops automatically. Do not make the mistake I made by purchasing this item!

Bought this to use with my home theater set up. Worked great at first. Then started having problems with the sound and picture going out of sync and had to stop the movie and press play again. Then the disk tray starting having problems. The tray would come out and go right in. It took a couple of tries to get it to stay open to load a disk. Then the unit started making noise while playing as if the motor was going bad. All of this within 7 months of buying. At least I took out the extended warranty and will be getting a full refund.

This DVD VHS recorder has worked perfectly for me. I use DVD+R disc to record all of my old VHS home movies etc, onto. The auto finalize feature worked great but one must turn on this feature or do the finalizing manually. It has done everything I wanted it to do and is very easy to "dub" copies from VHS to DVD. Couldn't be easier.
I am very happy with this unit, love it ! I was also real happy to learn that I was able to take segments from various VHS tapes and dub them all onto one DVD disc. The DVD+R all play on my standard DVD player after they are finalized. I would recommend this unit to anyone looking for a easy to use dubbing machine.