Comments on: Sony DVDirect VRD-MC5 review

By: Joe Friendly

Joe Friendly — Sat, 05 Apr 2008 00:29:19 +0000

I just bought a new VRD-MC5 and recorded a single layer DVD with the DV firewire using a Sony camcorder hc1000 as source and got picture and no sound. I noticed a software download fix for sound and no picture but haven’t seen picture and no sound problems. Am I the only one with this problem? Is there a download for system update to solve this problem?

By: NoAutoplay

NoAutoplay — Thu, 03 Apr 2008 18:31:01 +0000

The absence of AUTOPLAY ruins this recorder. Every DVD you make goes straight to a DVD MENU, you can change backgrounds but you can’t avoid the DVD MENU! Every single DVD you make you will have to click on the first chapter of the DVD every time.

By: Jim Randle

Jim Randle — Sat, 29 Mar 2008 13:31:41 +0000

Hello - Can I use this machine to transfer from AVCHD to ordinary DVD - I asked for a demo in my local sony shop and the resulting DVD did not work - much to the shock of the sony staff member - Can it be done so that I can give my friends DVD copies

Thanks - Jim

By: Charles

Charles — Fri, 21 Mar 2008 16:32:36 +0000

Sure it’s possible, I do it all the time, you’ll have to buy the Dazzle* Digital Video Creator 80 converter (on eBay for $30 or less). It has S-Video and RCA inputs and a USB output to your computer. I use Pinnacle Studio and capture it onto my hard drive, then I can go in and edit it. I do have a DVD Burner on my computer, but your computer should recognize this device as a DVD Burner so you can make a new DVD from your edited version. I have a Canon L2 High8 Camcorder with interchangeable lenses and I’m thinking this would be great to attach directly to the s-video output and burn dvd’s without even copying to the High 8 tape.

By: Karen

Karen — Fri, 29 Feb 2008 19:30:48 +0000

I purchased the Sony DVDirect and transferred one vhs to dvd for a learning experience. Now I want to copy it to my computer and do some editing on the computer. Is this possible? If so, how?

By: Carlo

Carlo — Sun, 17 Feb 2008 03:34:57 +0000

I’m trying to transfer my home Beta tapes to the DVDirect ,but I keep getting a copyright error and cannot recored. Anby suggestions?

By: Chris

Chris — Sun, 17 Feb 2008 01:34:44 +0000

I’m taking mine back. I have tried every connection in the world and can’t get any sound to record. I want to burn some shows from my DVR, but I can’t get sound! I get great video, but it doesn’t do any good if I can’t get sound.

By: Anonymous

Anonymous — Mon, 21 Jan 2008 16:33:53 +0000

I’m surprised tat no one has mentioned the use of a regular DVD recorder to transfer video from tape to DVD. I have transferred, edited and record to DVD with the greatest of ease in my Panasonic DMR-EH55 with a built-in 200GB hard drive. I moved video & audio from VHS, 8mm, Mini DV, BUT NOT 1080i or HD. The DMR-EH55 is an excellent dvd recorder/player and an AWESOME video editing tool.

By: Art

Art — Sun, 20 Jan 2008 03:43:44 +0000

Ken,
You caught my attention in your article as you are the first person I have found in a similar situation. I have about 100 SVHS tapes and an equal number of Mini-DV tapes that I want to transfer to DVD. What is the best method, or equipment you know of that will transfer SVHS and Mini-DV without losing picture quality.
Thanks for any help you can give,
Art

By: Randy

Randy — Sat, 19 Jan 2008 17:28:48 +0000

Ken,

Thanks for all the wonderful info on this page.

My wife has been copying all of our old home movies from 8mm to DVD and reliving our children’s childhoods at the same time.

Every so often, she gets an error at the end of recording that says, “unable to finalize disc.” I’ve searched and can’t find a reason for this. Any thoughts?

Thanks,

Randy

By: chris

chris — Tue, 15 Jan 2008 10:05:29 +0000

Ken,

It seems like my DV recorder to DVD transfer (via i.link IEEE 1394 connector) is lower quality than the original DV tape. I would like to think for digital to digital it should be lossless. This is even using the highest recording qualitin on the VRD-MC5. Do you know if this is a compression issue?

Also, do you think VHS recording quality would increase if I put a digitall time base corrector between the VHS playback device and the VRD-MC5?

thanks,
Chris

By: Andy

Andy — Mon, 14 Jan 2008 02:18:31 +0000

I’m looking to get one so that I can get rid of my old VHS tapes. These are mostly studio movies. Are all of these ‘protected’ from duplication? Or is it only a certain percentage? Is there a way that I can tell if my tapes are protected before buying the recorder? Thanks for your help.

By: Wayne

Wayne — Mon, 14 Jan 2008 00:27:59 +0000

You need to use your computer to store a single music file in the top directory on the memory card. Then put the memory card in the MC5 before you burn the disk. You can oy use one mp3 file according to the manual.

By: Wayne

Wayne — Mon, 14 Jan 2008 00:21:38 +0000

No. Once you burn on the DVD-r or DVD+r you can’t burn on them again. You’d have to burn your edited video to a different blank disk.

By: Wayne

Wayne — Mon, 14 Jan 2008 00:19:57 +0000

You can if you have a video editing program on your computer.

By: Wayne

Wayne — Mon, 14 Jan 2008 00:13:19 +0000

Yes you can pause the MC5 and even switch to another tape and add it in as well. You can play the DVD yu make in DVD players, and evn Windows Media Player. I’ve done it.

By: Wayne

Wayne — Mon, 14 Jan 2008 00:10:06 +0000

I just copied 15 DV Tapes to DVD using the VRD-MC%. All the DVD’s have a nice picture and wonderful sound.

I put allot of digital stills on DVD as well right from my CF Card. This will be nice to take on vacations as it will allow me to put all my media onto DVD for secure backups.

I think Sony may have a copy of the manual on their website. Read the manual and it will answer most of the aboove questions.

By: Slider

Slider — Wed, 02 Jan 2008 00:15:14 +0000

I bought one couple of weeks ago to trasfer my Hi8 and DV tapes to DVD. I copied a Hi8 tape to a dual layer disc using iLink from a Sony TRV480 cam. When I played it back, there was no sound and the video was jerky at some spots (DVD player is a Sony as well). Then I copied the same tape to a single layer DVD-R with audio cable connected along with the iLink cable, I still did not hear any sound during playback on the DVD player or my PC.

I found four other users complaining about the same problem on another web site. Some actually had intermittent sound during playback.

By: lol

lol — Mon, 31 Dec 2007 03:09:35 +0000

Fuck you ya cock sucker!

By: Anonymous

Anonymous — Sat, 22 Dec 2007 19:11:08 +0000

Not sure about taping live shows but that is what your Tivo is for.

You can copy VHS tapes by connecting VCR to VRD-MC5 as long as tapes being copied are not protected.