Customer Reviews

Sony RDR-VX560 1080p Tunerless DVD Recorder/VHS Combo Player

5 star:		(14)
4 star:		(17)
3 star:		(6)
2 star:		(1)
1 star:		(21)

 

 

Finally, a DVD Recorder and VHS combination unit that allows you to view DVD and your old VHS through your HDMI connection. That's right, you read that correctly. One of the biggest drawbacks of earlier upscaling machines from a variety of manufacturers was that you STILL had to use primitive S or RCA cables to output VHS images onto your HDTV.

Like many folks, I still have a large collection of movies on VHS (for some films, it remains the only version in print), but I was not going to buy another VCR unless I could really view them on my Samsung HDTV. Some VCRs connect with component cables, but cost as much (if not more) than this combo unit, which is so feature laden that I'm glad I waited.

The upconversion is very impressive so far for both DVD and factory VHS releases (lets face it, grainy home recorded VHS copies of TV programs will never look sharp at 1080p, so keep that in mind) and the controls are no more complicated than the average machine (which, may in itself be a problem for some already).

I have yet to fully utilize all the features, including the use of my Sony HD digital camera or camcorder, but those were secondary parts of the purchase. For me, the fact that I can now view my VHS library (and non-Blue Ray DVD library) on my HDTV through HDMI with such impressive image quality is more than enough to satisfy me.

If you are in the market for a combo unit to use with your HDTV, then this may finally be what you and I have been waiting for. Stellar product.

Why 4 stars? Well, I've only had the product a week, so it is too early to throw a 5th star onto the score, but it certainly merits 4 right out of the box.

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

I purchased this unit to dub instructional video tapes to DVD. After reading the reviews I was skeptical the unit would work, but to my surprise it did. The video quality was about the same as the video tapes and the process was fairly simple.

Please note:

- Finalize the created DVDs, otherwise they will not play on other machines, also the automatic finalization was not as effective as the manual version.

- I used -R DVDs and they all worked with no errors (unlike my computer).

- It will not record encrypted tapes (those with Macrovision from the movie studios), so do not buy this unit if that is your main purpose.

Please avoid this product! I bought it primarily so I could 1) copy over my old VHS tapes, and 2) be able to record from TV. The TV recording is fine, but the tape dubbing is terrible! Apparently the VHS head in the machine is low-quality, because each tape I played always has fuzzy sound and snowy artifact - just enough to distract from the video itself -- and it shows up on the dubbed DVD. At first I blamed the tapes, but I bought an LG and it plays and dubs the same VHS tapes beautifully. I initially took the Sony back to Best Buy thinking I had a lemon machine. Well, I'm now on my third of these "bricks", and I'm throwing it away because it is just garbage.

To top it off... about a third of my commercial DVD's freeze up after 20 min of playing. For the money, by either the LG or maybe a Toshiba (has good reviews).

I've read so many reviews from dissatisfied owners that I feel I got lucky. I bought this because I wanted something that played VHS tapes but used an HDMI connection. I have small children and a zillion kid's movies on VHS, but my "kid" TV didn't have enough of the red/white/yellow inputs to accommodate the game consoles and the VCR I wanted to hook up. I didn't even care about the "record from VHS to DVD" function when I bought the unit. When I was hooking it up, my curious wife asked why I was replacing a "perfectly good" VCR. I told her about the record function (quick thinking to try to justify my purchase) and before I had it hooked up, she had a stack of old family VHS tapes ready for me to put on DVD. I started recording them and was very happy with how easy it was and how well they turned out. I have to confess that I didn't consult the owner's manual to start with. I just put in the recorded VHS tape and a blank recordable DVD and pressed the record button. Voila! Success. In the three months I've had it, I've recorded dozens of VHS tapes to DVD and the kids have watched at least twice that many DVDs and VHS movies. I've had no problems.

I had this device for about about ten days now and been using it just about every single day. Like many, I needed this type of machine to transfer my VHS tapes into DVD format. I also need a machine that played both DVD and VHS with a single set of connection. This machine fitted that bill very nicely.

But I hate to write this but it did take some trial and error to make it work. The instruction booklet of this machine IS not very easy to read or to understand. The booklet appears to be designed so you have to read every single page looking for clues on how to work this machine.

However, after some experiments and cursing over the manual, I figured it out! Ironically, after figuring it out, I discovered how easy it was to work this machine. For example, with a DVD-R disks, the most common type for DVD recording, all you have to do is stick in the VHS tape, played it and hit that record to DVD button. Make sure that the red light is on and the machine will take it from there. Recording speed is determined by hitting the "Record Mode" on your remote. In the feature section of the Easy Setup, I put "Finalize" on auto mode so it does it when it done recording and right before it eject the DVD disk. But it did take me a while to figure out how simple this machine is to use. There are many other things you can do with this machine and its all pretty simple to do,,,,once you figure out how to do it!!

So this is a good machine after all, my machine is working flawless so far after ten days of very intense usage, including some vocal commands colored with metaphors. I thought the remote was bit on the weak side with the signals but I found it easy to use. I did take away one star for its instruction manual. Whoever wrote it need to be planted head-down on an ant hill if you asked me.

I've had this unit 2.5 months. I dubbed about 20 VHS tapes to DVD and watched a 3 or 4 DVD movies. It worked just fine. Last night, it all of a sudden stopped working. Now, the only part that works is the clock. It won't play VHS tapes or DVDs. It won't dub. It won't do anything. The whole unit is frozen up. I tried requesting warranty repair information from Sony via their webpage. After entering all of my information and clicking the confirm button, Sony gave me a message that the page I requested was not available and I should try again later. UGH!!

Today, I called Sony's customer service and wanted to update my review.

After 15-20 minutes of checking various connections, tv settings, and other things,Sony's tech guy told me to remove the batteries from the remote control and press every single button on the remote control twice. I thought he was joking and expected Candid Camera to pop out from behind the curtain. Turns out that's the way to reset the remote control. IT WORKED, and the unit works fine now and I have dubbed several more tapes. The tech guy didn't know what caused the unit to freeze up and the remote to stop working, but he was patient and kept working with me until he figured it out. If you have this same freeze-up problem and nothing else works, trying resetting the remote.

I can't find a way to change my rating, but I would give it 4 stars.

The Best sony Product that I purchase at amazon.com. While reading the reviews I was very confused as to what I would get.How well it would work for me. But I was blowed away again. Being able to easily transfer my videos to dvds.Bravo Sony.

After the 1st month's use, I have been very satisfied with this unit. (note: I reserve 5-star ratings for items that go above and beyond my expectations or are of exceptional value for the money.) You should also keep in mind the specific uses I had in mind when I bought it (in priority order):
1. Dub off an extensive library of home movies filmed on Hi8 and D8 tapes with Sony Handycams.
2. Record TV off my cable box (non-premium channels)
3. Dub off old home recorded VHS tapes
4. Play commercial DVDs (rarely)

Before I go into usage details, I want to pass on my #1 piece of advice for on-line purchasing: >>> Go to the manufacturers' customer support website to download the users manual - and then read it carefully!! <<< I am amazed at how many "1-star" reviews that basically say "it didn't do what I wanted" could have been avoided because either A) the manual never said it would do that, B) the manual implies it might not do that - which usually means it won't, or C) the manual says explicitly says it WILL NOT do that.

Of course, reading the manual wouldn't have helped those that apparently got a few of the "lemons".

Example "B" above saved me disappointment. As I said in my 1st paragraph, my #1 priority was dubbing off Handycam tapes. I downloaded the manual for the Panasonic DMR-EZ48V that I was considering instead of the Sony. There in small print on pg 29 under "Notes" along with all the other problems you may encounter was the line "Compatibility with video camcorders from other manufacturers is
not guaranteed." I found someone with a similar model and, sure enough, the Panasonic and Sony Handycams didn't play well together. The dubbed DVD had repeated video freezes. Apparently Sony and Panasonic don't interpret the IEEE 1394 standard the same way.

This unit was effortless to use for dubbing from my Handycam with D8 tapes. It was less than one minute from reading the manual before I had pressed the One-Touch Record button and off it went. I was disappointed that for some reason I couldn't do the same with my Hi8 tapes. I was able to do this with my previous Sony recorder but with this one I had to use the manual (simple dub) mode.

I have had no problems with simple timer recordings off TV. I haven't yet found the right codes to use the Sony to change the cable box channels but that is not a big concern for me.

I have been satisfied with dubbing off old VHS to DVD and have noticed only the slightest of duplication loss. (Yes, Virginia, there is transmission loss any time an analog medium is used in the process.) I am also not foolish enough to think that any recent Sony, Panasonic, Toshiba, etc. unit would dub off copyright-protected tapes. Therefore I didn't needlessly slam this product with a low rating becuase it didn't do what it said it wouldn't do; see pages 3, 31, 33 and 84 of the Operating Instructions.

I have played a few commercial DVDs on the unit and have fortunately not experienced the "freezing" a few have reported. Most of playback is on another unit since I bought this one specifically for recording/dubbing.

I haven't tried to record on the VHS since I have no reason to do so. All my DVD recording has been on DVD-R and -RW media.

I would recommend this unit to a friend for the uses above.

Note to self: Check the reviews before you buy! I didn't and now am very sorry. Had I known that so many people had problems with this model I would have avoided wasting an entire day, trying to figure out why my DVD recordings kept having errors. I used this lemon to dub old VHS tapes to DVD-RWs. Five out of eight had errors!

Do not buy this model! It is a very bad, defective design.