Sony VRDVC20 DVDirect DVD Recorder

Other products by Sony

Product Details

Supplementary Guide [548kb PDF]

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Data Sheet [790kb PDF]

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Product Manual [1.46mb PDF]

• Item Weight: 7 pounds
• Shipping Weight: 6 pounds
• Shipping: Currently, item can be shipped only within the U.S.
• ASIN: B00092PV6C
• Item model number: VRDVC20
• Average Customer Review: 2.7 out of 5 stars See all reviews (56 customer reviews)
• Amazon.com Sales Rank: #34,554 in Electronics (See Bestsellers in Electronics)

  Popular in these categories: (What's this?)

  #4 in	Electronics > Computers & Accessories > Internal Desktop Components > Optical Drives > DVD Drives
  #16 in	Electronics > Computers & Accessories > Memory Cards & External Storage > Optical Drives > CD Burners
  #87 in	Electronics > Computers & Accessories > Internal Desktop Components > Optical Drives > DVD Burners

• Date first available at Amazon.com: July 2, 2004

Product Description

From the Manufacturer
Don’t let those precious home movies sit in the closet another day collecting dust, turn them into high quality DVDs easily with Sony’s new DVDirect! Simply connect your camcorder or VCR to DVDirect, and use it like a VCR to burn the video directly to DVD without a computer! Or, connect DVDirect to your computer and make high speed DVD copies of your home movies. Enjoy, share, and preserve your memories on DVD with DVDirect.

Features

• Now With DV Input For Fully Digital Transfers
• Now Fully Dual Format In Stand Alone Recording Mode
• Now Faster DVD Recording Speeds in Computer Mode
• Direct Connection of Camcorder/VCR - No Computer Required!
• Automatic Creation of DVD Menu & Chapters
• Synchronized Recording/Dubbing Between DVDirect and Camcorder/VCR
• Can Be Connected to Computer for 16X Max DVD burning

Specifications

• Video Inputs: Digital (DV) + Analog (Composite + S-Video)
• Dual Format Recording: Dual Format In Standalone & Computer Attached Modes
• PC Burning Speeds: 16X max DVD-R/+R, 8X max DVD+RW, 6X max DVD-RW, 4X max DVD+R Double Layer, 48X max CD-R/RW

Key Messages

• Why Do You Need DVDirect?: Get Home Movies Off Degrading Videotape And Onto Convenient Long Lasting DVDs
• Why Do You Need DVDirect?: Burning Home Movies Onto DVD Lets You Easily Share Them With Friends And Family

Product Description
Your home movies on DVD as easy as 1, 2, 3.Sony's latest model of DVDirect DVD Recorder is the easiest way to turn home movies into DVDs. Simply connect your camcorder, VCR or other video source to DVDirect, hit record on the front of the recorder, and play or your camcorder and presto! You'll have a DVD that can be played on most consumer set-top DVD players or your computer's DVD-ROM drive. Up to 6 hours of home video will fit on standard DVD recordable or rewritable discs, and with Double Layer DVD+R DL discs, up to 12 hours can be recorded on a single disc. DVDirect can even be connected to a computer via Hi-Speed USB for high speed 16X max. DVD burning and other cool things. Don't let your precious home movies sit in the closet; breathe new life into them by burning them onto DVD and share with friends and family or just save them for the future. Complete with accessories and software for Windows PC connection to get you up and running quickly.

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

80 of 85 people found the following review helpful:

1.0 out of 5 stars Product does not work as advertised., September 19, 2005

By	John Bloom - See all my reviews (REAL NAME)

The digital i.link connection is not compatible with other Sony devices. I purchased the VC20 and the DCR-TRV480 in order to make high quality transfers of my old Sony Hi8 analog tapes over to DVDs, just as Sony advertises. Although both items have the digital i.link feature, they are not compatible with each other. I have spent two months sending each item back to Sony for testing: Each works fine by itself, but the TRV480 does not send a digital i.link signal that the VC20 will recognize. Sony Tech Support had me purchase another i.link cable, and when that didn't work, they finally acknowledged the compatibility issue, but they have no remedy for it. I found nothing in the Sony literature that warns that these two Sony products will be unable to connect via i.link. I wasted a lot of time and $100 on the second i.link cable and in shipping for testing, and Sony Techs have walked away from the problem. Buyer beware!

54 of 59 people found the following review helpful:

3.0 out of 5 stars Mostly Pleased, October 10, 2005

By	G. Crain (Houston, TX United States) - See all my reviews (REAL NAME)

I bought this solely to archive old, analog Hi-8 Camcorder tapes. (I don't have any old movies or tv shows; I just have videos of my great and wonderful children.) The archiving of old analog tapes to DVD seems to be the sole purpose in life for the VRDVC20.

The time requirements and frustration levels of other methods had me pulling my hair out. Thus, I bought the VRDVC20 to save myself much, much time and bother.

For the most part, I am pleased with the device. I have only made four coasters (out of about 35 made), which is a better ratio than other methods I've used to archive. I did a little research and found that the device needed a firmware update, which I completed. Since the update, I have only made one coaster; otherwise it seems to be working fine.

(I do have a gigantic issue with any device going commercial, especially one that has such limited uses as this VRDVC20, and then the producer immediately sending out a massive fix for the device. Do these people do any in-house testing?)

The picture quality seems to be pretty good. I've played the archival DVDs back on 32" tvs, and there is minimal pixellation (my family has absolutely adored watching these videos). However, whenever a shot is indoors, or in really low light, the pixellation is quite noticeable. I understand this is normal with analog tapes, so I haven't expected much better.

I bought Sony CD-R DVDs for the archival process. After burning, those would not work in my Panasonic DVD player, which was on its last legs, anyway. A kind friend loaned me his Samsung DVD player, but these Sony CD-Rs will not play on it, either. However, my in-law's Sony DVD player works just fine with these, so it looks like I'm being forced into a new Sony DVD player. I'm still not sure if I'm okay with that.

When I'm finished archiving my Hi-8 tapes, I'll be sending this burner to other family members for archival of their tapes.

19 of 19 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Very Happy With This Product, December 28, 2005

By	Heath G. (New York, NY) - See all my reviews

I usually research products to death before making a purchase and I take the customer reviews very seriously. I just received the Sony VRD-VC20 from my wife for my birthday - and of course before I even opened the box I was checking CNET/PCMAG/Amazon reviews to make sure this was a good product. The reviews by the pro's were generally good, the customer reviews were mixed - but I really wanted to turn these tapes into DVD's and I couldn't bear the thought of spending hours loading the tapes onto my computer, editing them, and then authoring them - only for the process to blow up in the ninth inning with nothing to show for it. So....I opened the box.

WOW - I really am glad that I did. This product is great. First of all - its one of the easiest gadgets I've used. Right out of the box I looked at the quick start instructions, hooked up my hi8 analog camcorder using an S-Video Cable, and the 2 audio RCA cables (red/white), plugged in the unit, popped a tape in the camcorder and it was ready to go. Once you have all that set up you just press play on the camcorder and record on the DVD Direct - it is that simple. When the tape ends - the DVD Direct recognizes that there is no longer a video signal coming through and it stops recording. You then have the choice whether to record more on the dvd (it tells you how much recording time is available) or you can close out the dvd so that it will play on a dvd player. To finalize the disc all you do is hit the eject button on the recorder and it prompts you to finish the disc. It really is that easy.

So far I have made 9 discs and no coasters. They have all played in my Sony DVD player (it's a couple of years old). I have been using DVD-R Sony discs - I haven't tried a different manufacturers disc yet.

The only thing that i wish the unit could do in stand-alone mode is give more flexibility in Titling the disc and in Chaptering the disc. I have yet to hook the unit to my computer as a burner - but at some point I'll put aside some time to test it out. In the meantime I highly recommend this product for anyone who has old tapes they want to easily and quickly convert into DVD's.