Sony RDR-VX560 1080p Tunerless DVD Recorder/VHS Combo Player

• Does not include Tuner
• 1080p Upscalling Video Output through HDMI Connection for DVD and VHS
• One Touch Dubbing from Digital Still Camera and DVD/Hard Drive Camcorder through USB
• 2-way One touch Dubbing from VCR to DVD or reverse.

Finally, a DVD Recorder and VHS combination unit that allows you to view DVD and your old VHS through your HDMI connection. That's right, you read that correctly. One of the biggest drawbacks of earlier upscaling machines from a variety of manufacturers was that you STILL had to use primitive S or RCA cables to output VHS images onto your HDTV.

Like many folks, I still have a large collection of movies on VHS (for some films, it remains the only version in print), but I was not going to buy another VCR unless I could really view them on my Samsung HDTV. Some VCRs connect with component cables, but cost as much (if not more) than this combo unit, which is so feature laden that I'm glad I waited.

The upconversion is very impressive so far for both DVD and factory VHS releases (lets face it, grainy home recorded VHS copies of TV programs will never look sharp at 1080p, so keep that in mind) and the controls are no more complicated than the average machine (which, may in itself be a problem for some already).

I have yet to fully utilize all the features, including the use of my Sony HD digital camera or camcorder, but those were secondary parts of the purchase. For me, the fact that I can now view my VHS library (and non-Blue Ray DVD library) on my HDTV through HDMI with such impressive image quality is more than enough to satisfy me.

If you are in the market for a combo unit to use with your HDTV, then this may finally be what you and I have been waiting for. Stellar product.

Why 4 stars? Well, I've only had the product a week, so it is too early to throw a 5th star onto the score, but it certainly merits 4 right out of the box.

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Unfortunately, I own two of thse units. They both have the same problem. The unit freezes while playing commercial DVDs that play perfectly on other players including other Sony models. Sony is aware of the problem with the 500 series (check the Sony website), AND SONY CUSTOMER SERVICE HAS SAID SONY DOES NOT HAVE A FIX. The reality is this: If you buy this unit, the Sony warrenty is WORTHLESS because they can not fix the unit and cannot offer any remedy. Hopefully you will discover this flaw in time to return it to the seller. The unit will play most commercial DVDs ok, but many commercial DVDs will fail 100% of the time even if you try a second copy.

Would I recommend this product to a friend?: No

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I purchased this unit to dub instructional video tapes to DVD. After reading the reviews I was skeptical the unit would work, but to my surprise it did. The video quality was about the same as the video tapes and the process was fairly simple.

Please note:

Finalize the created DVDs, otherwise they will not play on other machines, also the automatic finalization was not as effective as the manual version.

I used -R DVDs and they all worked with no errors (unlike my computer).

It will not record encrypted tapes (those with Macrovision from the movie studios), so do not buy this unit if that is your main purpose.

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Please avoid this product! I bought it primarily so I could 1) copy over my old VHS tapes, and 2) be able to record from TV. The TV recording is fine, but the tape dubbing is terrible! Apparently the VHS head in the machine is low-quality, because each tape I played always has fuzzy sound and snowy artifact just enough to distract from the video itself -and it shows up on the dubbed DVD. At first I blamed the tapes, but I bought an LG and it plays and dubs the same VHS tapes beautifully. I initially took the Sony back to Best Buy thinking I had a lemon machine. Well, I'm now on my third of these "bricks", and I'm throwing it away because it is just garbage.

To top it off... about a third of my commercial DVD's freeze up after 20 min of playing. For the money, by either the LG or maybe a Toshiba (has good reviews).

I had this device for about about ten days now and been using it just about every single day. Like many, I needed this type of machine to transfer my VHS tapes into DVD format. I also need a machine that played both DVD and VHS with a single set of connection. This machine fitted that bill very nicely.

But I hate to write this but it did take some trial and error to make it work. The instruction booklet of this machine IS not very easy to read or to understand. The booklet appears to be designed so you have to read every single page looking for clues on how to work this machine.

However, after some experiments and cursing over the manual, I figured it out! Ironically, after figuring it out, I discovered how easy it was to work this machine. For example, with a DVD-R disks, the most common type for DVD recording, all you have to do is stick in the VHS tape, played it and hit that record to DVD button. Make sure that the red light is on and the machine will take it from there. Recording speed is determined by hitting the "Record Mode" on your remote. In the feature section of the Easy Setup, I put "Finalize" on auto mode so it does it when it done recording and right before it eject the DVD disk. But it did take me a while to figure out how simple this machine is to use. There are many other things you can do with this machine and its all pretty simple to do,,,,once you figure out how to do it!!

So this is a good machine after all, my machine is working flawless so far after ten days of very intense usage, including some vocal commands colored with metaphors. I thought the remote was bit on the weak side with the signals but I found it easy to use. I did take away one star for its instruction manual. Whoever wrote it need to be planted head-down on an ant hill if you asked me.