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!
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.
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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.
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Buyer beware if you attempt to copy digital 8 tape from your camcorder using i-link to this burner.I bought this burner with the goal of coverting all my digital 8 tapes to DVD using the i-link. What I discovered is that this burner automatically goes to pause if there is even the slightest gap on the tape you are trying copy. In order to start recording again you must physically press the record button again to start recording. If your tape has quite a few gaps -which many home videos have, you will have to sit next to this burner and press record everytime it pauses. Bottom line to burn a DVD with this unit you have to sit next to it for the entire hour to make sure it does not stop -unless your output take is well edited with no gaps at all.
I contacted Sony technical support on this issue and they admitted that the pausing of the burner using i-link because of tape gaps was a "design flaw" that had no remedy. Furthermore they had fielded many calls on this exact issue with their only suggestion to attempt to return the burner to the vendor.
If you are not going to use this burner with i-link and a camcorder then I guess you are ok. Unless you have perfect output tape with no gaps, you are in for a frustrating experience using this burner. Buyer Beware!!!
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I was eagerly awaiting the release of this product. And I jumped and got this in May 05. My main intention was to convert all my home movies from MiniDV tapes to DVD. This product sounded ideal as it had the DV Link and the fact that I did not need a TV or a PC to constantly interface with it.When it arrived, I immediately got my MiniDV camcorder, plugged this unit in, popped in a blank DVD+R disk, plugged in the DV cable form my camcorder, hit record and it started recording. (Very simple no need to read the manual!) But after about two minutes, it paused recording. I was puzzled, and then after reading the user manual found that the unit pauses recording whenever there is a break in the actual recording. You have to manually hit the Record button again to resume recording. I did just that and it started to record only to pause again after 3 minutes and then again a countless number of times! By the time the 60 min. tape was complete, I was already frustrated! So much for my idea to leave it alone until it finishes recording.
I called SONY support to inquire if there was a way to turn off this "feature" and was told that this was by design and there was no way around this! What were the SONY engineers thinking? Do they really think most people will finish recording a 60 min DV tape in one sitting and that too without any breaks? What good is this unit if I have to pay constant attention to make sure that the recording has not paused again! They fail to realize that if I had the time to constantly watch the recording, I would be better off with a regular DVD Recorder or a DVD+-RW drive on my PC which are much cheaper too!
On day 2, I decided to return this unit. The lone DVD I burned, was ok, no complaints about that. So, if you do not mind the constant attention it needs then this is for you! If you have the time, I think you would be much better off with a PC & and DVD+-RW drive as you can get quite creative with that. As for me... my search goes on...
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