Any users of Sony VRD-VC10?

[Guest]

Archived from groups: rec.video.desktop (More info?)

This is a standalone or USB2.0 video convertor/DVD recorder. Apparent
advantage over a lot of standalone DVD recorders is media flexibility,
it seems a lot of the standalone DVD-R units are limited to DVD-R and
DVD-RAM for recording. This one looks like it will handle DVD+/-(R/W)
or however that is expressed. I would need to get a VHS machine with
S-video out for best results, that's OK, my last one blew up in a power
surge anyway.

I already have a USB/1394 DVD-R drive, no video capture hw though.

Other threads have mentioned that when doing typical bonehead transfers
of VHS to DVD, standalone hw is equivalent in quality and much
easier/faster to use than video capture h/w and s/w encoding on PC,
which does indeed appeal to me.

Finally I am wondering - OK so I capture a VHS to DVD using this
gadget, can I then pull the scenes off the DVD to my PC for
trimming/titles/etc. using Sony Video Studio + DVD? Dumb question,
however it is not obvious to me how you would do this as once the DVD
is burned the video files are no longer recognizable as MPG files.

Thanks,

Gary

 

[danr]

Archived from groups: rec.video.desktop (More info?)

midicad2001@yahoo.com wrote:
> This is a standalone or USB2.0 video convertor/DVD recorder. Apparent
> advantage over a lot of standalone DVD recorders is media flexibility,
> it seems a lot of the standalone DVD-R units are limited to DVD-R and
> DVD-RAM for recording. This one looks like it will handle DVD+/-(R/W)
> or however that is expressed. I would need to get a VHS machine with
> S-video out for best results, that's OK, my last one blew up in a power
> surge anyway.
>
> I already have a USB/1394 DVD-R drive, no video capture hw though.
>
> Other threads have mentioned that when doing typical bonehead transfers
> of VHS to DVD, standalone hw is equivalent in quality and much
> easier/faster to use than video capture h/w and s/w encoding on PC,
> which does indeed appeal to me.
>
> Finally I am wondering - OK so I capture a VHS to DVD using this
> gadget, can I then pull the scenes off the DVD to my PC for
> trimming/titles/etc. using Sony Video Studio + DVD? Dumb question,
> however it is not obvious to me how you would do this as once the DVD
> is burned the video files are no longer recognizable as MPG files.
>
> Thanks,
>
> Gary

I just purchased this unit on April 23rd. I came very close to returning it.
First surprise when I got it home and read the manual was that to burn directly
from analog source (stand alone mode) you MUST use DVD+R media. (I had bought a
50 pack of DVD-R) You can use the dash R when the unit is connected to a
computer.
Another surprise was that I could not play back the first 2 DVDs I burned on my
DVD player. (Toshiba SD-2200) The Toshiba is an older unit so I took the 2 DVDs
to my workplace and they played back fine on 4 different players there. Also I
used 16X Memorex +R blanks and thought that might be my problem. Because the
disks played back fine at work I decided to keep the unit.
I am still a bit leery about this unit. If you notice the packaging on DVD
players at stores you will see that most / all say they will play back DVD-R
disks but very few actually write on the box that they will play back DVD+R.
Another thing I don't like about the VC10 is that you have no control over
menus. You can NOT key in any text. You can set the DVDs to autoplay and bypass
the menu on startup. AND you can't easily monitor what you are recording. If you
are recording directly off a VCR you have tied up the video and audio outputs
connecting them to the VC10. You either need a DA or to use the RF out of the
VCR to see what you are doing.
Does it sound like I'm trying to talk myself into returning this unit? Maybe.
But I do like the fact that it does 2 jobs. Stand alone and computer DVD. (for
DVD data use)
One plus from this is that I had to buy a new DVD player and bought a DVD / VHS
combo. The one unit replaced two units in the cabinet and left room for more
STUFF.