Sony DVDirect user reviews

Pros Cool looking screen, burns dual layer and functions great when connected to a PC

Cons Too much to list in this section! See Opinion

Summary I purchased this product just over a year ago and have it connected directly to my pc. Just the other day I tried to connect it to my VHS for the first time. Wouldn’t you know that it would NOT recognize the RCA jack connection. I tried a few other devices such as a DVD, Camcorder…etc, and still NOTHING. So I call customer support and after being directed here and there I finally got to a live person who could “help”. After giving her all my information including email, phone, home address, she very kindly told me that it would cost me $19 for her assistance!!! I’ve already paid over $250 for a device that now only works with 50% of its capability and I need to PAY YOU MORE MONEY to help me with your defective product! All I can say is “WOW”! What a load of CR*P!!

Pros Only the Looks are good

Cons The Writer itself is Sony DRU-700A Dual Layer DVD Burner

Summary Please don't buy anything from BUY.COM

I received my order as stated, but guess what they sent me a used one with missing stand for the burner the wires open, color faded and the box was old and returned. i have it video taped. which i returned so agian please dont buy anything from buy.com it's my humble request. cause i feel cheated despite paying the full price got used and returned stuff from another customer.

Allright about the product, I wasted 5 to 7 DVD's without any luck, tried burning dvd to dvd (home video) no luck, then tried burning dvd from a movie that i have on hard drive again no luck it would stop and somehow it would leave scrapes and scraches on the dvd itself which i guess is a waste.

anyways guys all i learnt is sony is not the best in everything, i have everything sony from laptop to desktop to dv cameras etc but i guess this is not the right product, they made as they say burn dvd's as 123.

sorry sony.


not happy at all with such a waste product in the market with other users having problems. i hope all other users try not to opt sony for there needs. because even the customer service sucks.

well i am very upset with sony.hope someone might make a difference.

Pros Easy VHS transfers, Easy TiVo transfers, simple to use

Cons Occasionally "hangs" when finalizing disc; extra step required to "see" what you are transferring from VHS; only 1, 2 or 6 hour recording times on a single layer DVD

Summary I bought this to do 3 things: transfer VHS to DVD, transfer TiVo recordings to DVD, and burn DVD's from a computer (as a regular computer drive). Though I've not yet burned from the computer, the drive is very good at transferring VHS tapes and TiVo recordings. Depending on the "quality" you select, the end result can look pretty good. I will say that the 6 hour SLP mode is pretty poor quality, and if you're transferring from VHS (which is pretty bad quality to begin) you are going to be left with something that you'd think twice before watching again. 5 hour long tennis matches transferred from VHS on the 6 hour mode look pretty bad. Certainly I could have used the high quality (1 hour) mode, but I didn't want to go through 5 DVD's for 1 tennis match. One complaint I have about the drive is the lack of video outputs. The reason this creates a problem is that once you've hooked up your VCR or TiVo to the drive, there is no way to monitor what you are recording unless you use a second "output" on the VCR or TiVo to the TV. Doesn't sound like a big deal, but if the drive had outputs, it would be so easy to connect a cable from the output of the drive to the TV and be done with it. With the VCR and TiVo, I used 2 outputs. One going into the drive and then the co-axial output going to the co-axial input on the TV. This allows you to view what you're recording which is pretty much essential if you're wanting to edit out commercials. The downside is that in my case you have to dismantle your cable setup to accomodate doing this. If only it had an output on the drive! As far as performance goes, I've only made a couple of coasters. Not sure what the problem was but one disk wouldn't finalize (after a 4 hour VHS transfer) and I had to start all over. This is pretty annoying in "real time" after waiting 4 hours for the burn to be complete. The other coaster was a very old DVD-R that probably was incompatible with the drive. I bought Fuji DVD-R's from Best Buy and they work very well. The TiVo transfers look very good if the TiVo recording is at the "high" or "best" setting and the drive is set to it's best burn quality setting (1 hour mode). I thought it looked just like I was watching the show on TV for the first time. I know TiVo has a method of transferring shows from the TiVo box to the computer, and burning DVD's from there, but I haven't experimented with that yet. I don't see why that would be easier than doing it straight from the TiVo to the drive itself. The only thing I haven't done yet is connected it to the computer to use as a typical burning drive. I plan to do that tonight. I will say that from what I've read, this is the weakest part of the unit. I hope that isn't the case but we shall see. If it does a poor job of burning from a computer, it will be returned to the store. If it does a good job, then the drive will do everything I asked of it. Hopefully this review helped somebody. A remote would also be very helpful. It would be great when you are transferring a program to sit in your favorite chair and pause the record using the remote during commercials, fast forward the VHS or TiVo until the program starts again, and unpause the record on the drive. Without the remote, you cannot be too far from the drive as you manually have to push pause on the front of the unit to do this.

Pros ease of use in stand alone

Cons Signal lag in stand alone.

Summary The machine I just purchased has a firewire input. This allows for digital imput from ta camcorder. However imput signal lags behind the start of the camcorder and 1-2 seconds of the tape is not recorded to the DVd at times. Occassinally it does not receive the digital signal at all.