SONY VRD-VC10

From J&R Music and Computer World
Includes: NeroVision Express, Nero Burning ROM SE, Ahead InCD, Nero Showtime, Nero BackitUp, AC adapter, & USB cable. Sony VRD-VC10 DVDirect External DVD Recorder - DVDirect is an all-in-one solution for burning video, and other data, to DVD media. When used with a computer, it operates as a dual layer DVD burner that can write any kind of data to DVD-R/RW, DVD+R/RW, & CD-R/RW media. Without a computer, it can capture video footage directly from a VCR or camcorder, encode it, and then burn it to DVD media.

SONY VRD-VC10

SONY VRD-VC10

SONY VRD-VC10

Test Report

Does what I need it to do, December 16, 2004 Reviewer: Snaildarter "Snaildarter" (Bay Area, northern California) - My urgent need is to move VHS to DVD. I plugged this puppy in and by following the Quick Start Guide had it working soon. It's best to read bits and pieces of the users guide, though. The copying can stop on a video with spaces between the segments, so I babysit this while it's copying to DVD. I doubt I'll use this for anything more elaborate (we already have enough editing software), but for transferring VHS to DVD fairly cheaply for the sake of permanence, it works fine.


Nice buy!, December 11, 2004 Reviewer: xphysicist (Los Gatos, CA United States) - Unfortunately, I was expecting a bit more- this coming from Sony, but feel let down by mainly one major issue. Keep in mind that this may not matter much to you; but to me it is bothersome. Other issues are a nuisance but clearly less grave than the main one.

I waited for Amazon to carry this burner but needed this product before it showed up on their pages. So, I mail ordered it from Dell.

First the good stuff- great packaging. Looks cool out of the box and next to your computer or video equipment. The buttons are easy to use and moderately intuitive. Still, I needed to refer to the Quick Start cheat sheet. Yes, this is not an Apple :).

OK, here goes....I really wanted to get the computer out of the way and this product caught my eye. Its nice to be able to hook up a DVD burner directly to your camcorder. I was foolish enough to think that my MiniDVs, which are digitally recorded on tape, would be copied over loss-free to a DVD. Not! I do not know much about recording formats (call me ignoramus, if you will), but if I have a stream of digitized bits on tape, then can't these be captured as a stream of bits on DVD? That will ensure no loss of information. Isn't that what "digital" is all about? But unfortunately, the camcorder must output analog for the DVD to burn. This does not sound good when you have a USB on both ends of the wire, and Sony (which is in the business of making MiniDV camcorders) undertands the MiniDV format. Even if Sony was not able to burn the same exact bits on the DVD as were on the MiniDV tape (due to file format issues on different recording mediums, say), the least I expected was software that read my MiniDV digitally, and then used some software that did the conversion. Why they took the easy route and allowed only RGBY style output (the red, white and yellow jacks, 1 video and two audio) is non-intuitive for me to understand. Wish it was better. The current scheme is good when you have analog camcorders (I guess I can digitize my old Hi8 tapes and feel good), but not otherwise. This has been a big disappointment for me.

Now for some lesser but still painful problems. I stuck in a Memorex DVD+R and copied over a tape from my MiniDV camcorder- no issues. Things just work as they should. I don't expect to do any fancy editing/catologing/chapters, etc. This is strictly my tool for backing up "life as it used to be." Like I have said before, I seem to have lost some bits of past lives already. Maybe the eye can't tell the difference in quality, but I have a mental block that I can't get over.

I hooked over the USB cable to the Sony burner and backed up some files from the computer over CD-R. That went smooth but for one coaster (it complained of verification failure at the end of the copy). About 8 other CDs went though smoothly with the same procedure.

Copying over 4.3 GB of data onto a Memorex DVD+R failed in a different fashion. It said that the operation completed successfully, but neither the burner nor my local DVD drive on my laptop can read back what was written. I used the backup/restore feature of Nero.

I don't like the UI of the Nero software. Its probably much better than most stuff out there, but I expected more. To copy photographs (4 GB on my laptop's hard drive), I sat painfully going through 30 folders and selecting every photograph to be copied over. Once this repository was created, the copy onto DVD started and eventually failed due for reasons I cannot remember. It would've been nice if I could've pointed to a directory hierarchy and said- Copy the damn files (there was nothing in there but jpegs). But the software does not believe that you have anything better to do than baby-sit this thing.

Until, there's something better on the market this may still be your best option. I think I am going to keep this product for exactly that single reason. 3 stars because this is not a lemon, but a step forward in helping consumers not get bogged down by the confusing space of DVD standards that Sony sems to have simplified by hiding the details from you. I really don't want to know if I am adding R's or subtracting R's from DVD's or CD, or make that R/W/RW/DL, etc.

Copyrighted media cannot be copied, and rightly so. But once I have a my own (home video)DVD created (by hooking a camcorder to the Sony burner directly), I expect to be successful in making a copy of that DVD using my computer as the playback. I placed the newly burned home video DVD in my computer and used the Nero software to play it back; that worked (keep in mind that the Nero MPEG4 player is quirky- it can hang and you'll have to kill it from time to time using the taskbar; it can show the first frame and not play, the play buttons on the DVD console on your screen may not always work, but sometimes double clicking on the movie screen seems to start the process.) But I have not had any luck in making a copy of my newly burned DVD by playing it on the computer and using the DVD copy feature of Nero software. Given that there are no copyright issues this should be a breeze for a home video, but I guess not. It is possible I am missing something and I'll update this review as I discover the workarounds, if any. I plan to call Sony (that itself should cost a Sony a few brownie points because I have read the manual, not just the cheat sheets, and most of the features in Nero software do not even bear a mention)to find out what the hell is supported. I could not use a two step imaging process either where you copy the DVD from the computer's DVD ROM to hard disk and then burn the image. BTW, I am using an 8 month old Dell laptop running XP; that is, a fairly up-to-date computer with tons of memory (2GB) and hard disk space (~100GB available). I do not wish to speculate what other problems people with standard configurations may face (like being out of memory or not having enough disk for temporary files).

I checked on the Sony product page- there is no mention of the specific media vendors they support. The previous reviewer has been kind to share his finding; but picking up the phone to find out what kind of bread my toaster can toast seems like a headache, at a minumum.


A worthwhile investment, December 7, 2004
Reviewer: J. Lemmons (Modesto, CA USA) - See all my reviews


I didn't purchase this product at Amazon, but commonly rely on others' recommendations at this site, so here's my take. THIS PRODUCT IS A GREAT INVESTMENT. The primary reason that I didn't give it a 5 star rating, is because the packaging doesn't clearly state which brands of blank DVD's are compatible. I bought a 100 pack of memorex DVD+R & the disks wouldn't finalize. I contacted sony support & learned that there's a list of approved brands.

DVD+R DL (Double Layer)
Verbatim/Mitsubishi 2.4x speed

DVD+R
Sony 4x & 8x
Ricoh 8x
Verbatim/Mitsubishi 4x & 8x
Taiyo Yuden Co. 4x & 8x
Hitachi Maxell 8x

DVD+RW
Sony 4x
Ricoh 4x

(The support person also said TDK works - but it wasn't on the list)"The list" goes on for other types of Media (ie. DVD-R etc.) Visit sony.storagesupport.com for more info.
I have used only Sony disks without difficulty.

Note: the Double Layer disks are priced about 10 times the single layer disks, so you'd better have a good reason to use that feature.

Also, if you have an older DVD player, be aware that some will not read/play burned DVDs. I've lived this problem. It's frustrating, but I found a new, very inexpensive DVD player that works well.

One drawback... using the stand-alone option with a Digital Video Camera requires the signal to be converted to analog, then back to digital & there's certain to be loss of picture resolution - whether it's noticable may be a matter of opinion. Fortunately, you can hook up your Digital Video Camera to your computer via firewire and utilize the Video Capture software by Nero, that I found to be very straightforward. I recommend using the DVD+VR software feature that allows you to insert your latest video footage into a previously burned DVD+RW disk that works in most all newer DVD players.

I didn't commit to converting my old VHS to digital until I found an older VHS tape whose image quality had detiorated so much as to be useless. What a loss! I had been intimidated by peers who'd told me to plan on spending upwards of 10 hours to edit a single hour of finished tape. The standalone operation & the quality Nero software bundled with the software make this Sony product a less-intimidating, worthwhile investment.

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