Sony RDR-VX500 DVD Player/Recorder with VCR

• Combination DVD recorder/player and VCR with VCR Plus+ electronic program guide to simplify advance recording
• Plays and records DVD-R, DVD-RW, DVD+R, DVD+RW, and VHS videocassette
• Plays MP3 music and JPEG image CD-R/CD-RW
• i.Link digital-video input for camcorders (DV/D8)
• VHS to DVD and DVD to VHS dubbing ability (subject to Macrovision anti-piracy protection)

So ive had this unit for almost a year and wanted to wait long enough to write a review on it, im usually not quick to judge and it was a good thing i waited. First let me tell you that I did some very, very thorough research before purchasing ANY of these barely new DVD/VHS recorders and it came down to this one and the panasonic one, after going over every single review on this website i noticed many complaints were based on the shipping and handling and that ovbiosuly has nothing to do with the quality of the unit itself so i thought they were both pretty even as far as the reviews but i went with this sony unit since i trust the brand and many of my other equipment is sony as well...let me tell you the first surprise was getting the unit in a heavily smashed box !!! I was then understanding why there were so many bad reviews on the handling of this unit. Luckily for me only the remote control cracked a bit but was still able to use it without any problems, the unit itself was very well secured so nothing was wrong with it but i will tell you guys this if you get it from amazon you get it at your own risk because the delivery guys are not careful at all so good luck first off getting it home safe.....

Ok now to the main subject, the unit itself, from day one it was the easiest and most simple unit to use, the menu is basically all on a very easy to use onscreen format. As far as the recording goes if you record straight from tv is just as easy as recording with your vcr. I mainly bought this unit to transfer a big collection of tv shows i have on vhs onto dvd. It is very simple to do this, you simply select record from vhs to dvd press enter and it starts recording!!! Also i was very impressed with the vhs quality on the unit, while transfering my tapes i got a pleasant surprise as i was able to play some of these old games without any jumping on the picture which i had not been able to do with many other vcrs in the past! Also when using HQ speed on your dvd it actually improves the picture quality as well as the sound which i thought would be impossible, of course that will reduce your recording time but its worth using for those very old and meaningful tapes you may have. One negative i found on the dvd itself is that when recording from tv on either lp, slp or ep format the quality is really awful! you lose sound and picture and even my older vcrs will make better recordings on lp, slp or ep then this DVD unit on that speed so that was very dissapointing! Ive recorded by now over 300 dvds on this unit without any problems and with very good quality. Of course i only use good media such as sony, i once tried using memorex media and towards the end of the recording it would start skiping so you have to be very careful also on the type of media you use, Overall this machines served my purpose which was to transfer my collection and record a few more shows off tv.

HOWEVER I wouldnt be so quick to buy it if I was you and here is why.... When i first bought it most recordable media out there was 8x so i bought about 200 dvds all at once, everything went well until about 5 months ago when i ran out of blank dvds, I then went to the store to get some more media and noticed all they have now is the new 1x-16x media or just 16x and guess what??? this unit does not suport that type of media !!! I didnt know of course until i brought some of these home tried them and kept getting an "error message" on my screen... I then contacted SONY CS and this was their response "The RDR-VX500 VCR/DVD Recorder records on 8X speed or slower DVD-Rs/DVD+Rs. Please refer to pages 10 to 12 for information on compatible discs for the unit."

And guess what?? these 8x or slower media is now very hard to find in ANY store out there wether you try costco, best buy or circuit city, of course i was able to find some through compUSA which a sales man was able to get for me from the BACK stock room ! which probably means they will be discontinued soon or will not be carrying any more, I can still find some of these online and even through SONY sales but for how long ??? I was very dissapointing since its been only about a year since i got this unit and it seems that technology already caught up to it. Now i will probably need to replace it for a newer unit to keep up with technology, so unless you dont mind searching for those rare 8x or slower recordable dvds then you should go ahead and buy it because it really works well and makes great copies and is very easy to use but if you feel it will be a hassle to be getting the right media for this unit then by all means look for something that can support 16x discs and hopefully will also give you the quality recording that you need!

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This DVD was my third choice behind Go Video and Pansonic until reading various complaints from owners of Go Video/Pansonic machines about neither playing foreign DVD/CD and how difficult both players were to install and operate.

Sony player has played several discs that were not made on it and it is very easy to install and use. Price was over $ 100.00 lower than above mentioned brands and was the cheapest player/recorder on the market.

My only complaint is the remote, which has so many buttons it makes you stop and think about what you want to do.

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No complaints here. I have used this primarily to transfer videotapes to DVD. This has worked flawlessly each time and then works on any DVD player I put the finalized DVD into. The manual is clear, as such devices go. Efficient and hassle-free, as one would want.

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Unfortunately, my experience with this unit hasn't been totally satisfactory. In the four months that I've had it, its been in the shop twice. Since each repair visit takes on average about a month, I've only had two months of use.

I'll start with the positive. The dvd portion is great. I've had no problem either playing or recording dvds on this unit. The instructions are easy to follow, and the end result speaks for itself. The one slight drawback is that it takes about two minutes to load and format a recordable dvd . So you can't put in your disc and expect to start recording immediately. If you do that, you're going to miss the first two or so minutes of your program. I would advise people to load/format recordable dvds ahead of time, so that you have them on hand for those unexpected recordings.

The major disappointment has been the vcr portion. From day one, tapes that were recorded on other units would not play on it. By the same token, tapes recording on this unit would not play on other vcrs. After noticing this, I took the unit in to be fixed (by Best Buy). A month later, I got it back and found the same problem. So I took it right back (to Best Buy). A month later, I got it back and found the same problem.

In the end, the vcr portion has been "repaired" twice, yet still has the same problem. Not wanting to lose the use of the dvd portion for another month, I just hooked up my vcr to it, and use that when I want to view my old vhs tapes. It works out fine. But if I had known this was going to happen, I would have just bought a SONY dvd recorder, and saved myself the hassle and the money.

I tend to tune out technological change until something breaks and I need a new gadget -so I expect a bit of pain when I buy something new as I usually have a bit more of learning curve than many folks. When my VCR bit the dust three weeks ago, I went out to get another and saw the RDR-VX500. I have been surprised how pain-free it has been -had it set up and connected to our LCD HDTV in a couple of minutes, and the one button transfer recording on the front panel between the VCR and DVD could not be simpler. Have recorded about a third of my old VHS-C tapes to DVD without a hitch, and I've played them on our three household desktops, our laptop, and a couple of low end DVD players without a problem. (Have used both DVD-R and DVD+RW disks.) The quality of the reproduction on the DVD is of course excellent, but the VCR, too, does a noticably fine job -it is not at all hard to watch on a fairly good HDTV screen. Finally, while there are many buttons on the remote, they are sensibly laid out, and not as bad as many remotes with which I've struggled. I'm very pleased with this machine and recommend it to any protoneoluddite like myself.