Sony VRDMC3 DVDirect DVD Recorder Review

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(More customer reviews)I received the Sony VC30 model for Christmas, and enchanged it for the MC3 to get the color screen (and glad I did). I was a bit leary after reading the reviews here, but I've just finished converting our entire collection of home movies from VHS, 8mm, hi8 and miniDV tapes to DVD.
I've used only Sony brand, single-layer blanks (both +R and -R, but +R seems to yield better playback) and have had no problems. I've made close to 200 DVDs with only two "coasters" that would not finalize after recording. I've done most of my recording on the SP mode, putting two hours on a DVD. After testing different settings, I couldn't tell any difference (viewed on 55" and 32" TVs) between the HQ and SP settings for my older videos (some 25 years old), but could definitely tell on the newer recordings, especially those with a lot of motion (such as water skiing and other sports). So for those, I chose only the HQ setting.
All recording is done in real time, and there have been weekend days when the thing has been going all day and evening. I've connected it to a VCR, and 8mm and miniDV camcorders. When using the VCR, the color screen on the MC3 is very handy. Using an S-cable yields slightly better picture than standard video cables. For the miniDV camcorder, I use firewire and this has an added benefit of recording only the recorded video on the camcorder, shutting off when the recorded video ends. (When using a VCR or older camcorder, you have to watch for it to end and manually turn off the burn.)
The menus the MC3 creates are fine for my purposes. It will create a new "title," which shows up as a separate "window" on the start-up menu, every time the MC3 is stopped (if you just pause it, it won't create a new title). I set the MC3 to create chapter stops every five minutes, which is handy when skipping through video on playback. If I'm burning a DVD of, say, my daughter's birthdays, I'll create a new "title" for every birthday. On playback, each "title" shows up separately on the start-up menu, but the entire contents of the DVD will playback at once, with a new "title" starting when another ends. For misc. tapes that have a variety of short segments, I've found it easier to record it all to a DVD, then view it and note the times of the various segments. Then I re-record it to DVD, creating separate "titles" by stopping the MC3 when a segment ends. (I'm keeping the first copies as backups.) I haven't found a way to create a chapter stop manually; there are some instances where this would be handy.
Overall, the MC3 has been fantastic. I've been putting off this project for years, not wanting to have to do it via computer, and now I have it all on DVD, at reasonable cost.

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Sony VRDMC5 DVDirect DVD Recorder Review

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(More customer reviews)Okay - I love this item for what it can NOW do for me and how EASILY it finally ended up doing it. I gave it four instead of five stars because of what I had to DO to get it to work the way I needed it to.
I have fourteen years - wedding, holidays and 3 children - worth of Video Cassettes ranging from 1994 - Sony, HG120, NTSC, Video 8 tapes TO 2008 - Sony, Hi8MP Digital 8 tapes.
My old camera was a Sony and the current camera is also a Sony: Steady Shot Digital 8, Model DCR-TRV460.
The Sony VRD MC5 DV Direct DVID Recorder I have can, and NOW DOES, burn DVDs from my Sony Handycam with both types of tapes via a Sony DV Direct Cable. However - it did not, out of the box, purchased in December 2007, burn my old tape formats to DVD with Audio. The Audio was gone and I could not get it to burn!
I had to waste about ten DVDs trying to figure out what the heck I did wrong. I scoured the manual, I bought two types of DVDs, looked here on Amazon, went to the Sony site. NOTHING on WHY the audio was missing!
When I finally found a way to contact Sony - live chat did not work and I could not get anyone on the phone - via email they went back and forth with me in email telling me that the Software Version on the Recorder had to be updated. They gave me a link that I could not find by navigating the site on my own, thus needing their intervention. I found the download, and followed directions, I tried burning the file to CD in many different ways and STILL the software would not upgrade! They never called me or gave me a number, it took days to try to figure out what was happening and they finally told me how to call someone.
I did it again while I was on the phone with them. Still the Recorder did not recognize the CD I was burning or the file I downloaded from the site. They made me call back, I was transferred twice, someone took my info and it took from 1/11/08 to 1/22/08 to get a CD that they burned at Sony and shipped to me.
I just came up today, followed the very same directions just with their CD and the software upgraded without a hitch. I just burned a tape from 1994 and the audio is there!!
After spending three years and more than $700 in software for my computer, a DVD Burner for my computer and finally a standalone Sony VHS/Camera player and VHS/DVD burner but none, and I do mean NONE of them - were able to do the job. Even the standalone unit never consistenly burned quality DVDs from the Camera and you had to tie up your tv for hours while it burned to DVD only for the "finalization" of it to not "take" so you had an empty DVD which was not R/W. Waste of time!
Please note that I am a technical person so not ignorant. I am just short on time so I wanted something that would get all my old moves onto DVD with a PHD - Push Here Dummy - functionality and the Sony VRD MC5 device did it.
The struggles, aggravation, wasted time it took me to get to today were worth it but PUH-LEASE Sony. Get a grip and put the information out there. Be proactive! Make it available! Communicate! Tell the vendors that sell your product what they are going to have to tell their shoppers do to get it to work. Update your manual. Whatever you have to do - no consumer should have to hunt like I did for weeks to try to find a way to fix something Sony knew about when they shipped the devices.

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Geniatech iGrabber One Touch Video Grabber For MAC and PC, Push Button Recording Review

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(More customer reviews)I needed to transfer some old Hi-8 video and VHS to my computer. I found this and thought I'd give it a try as it was the least expensive of the options I had found. Set up took under 3 minutes. There is no manual, just a read me file (where obviously English was not a first language) but it is pretty self explanatory.
So far I have digitized one 2 hour tape from an old Sony Hi-8 (circa 1996). The video on the screen during the transfer is VERY shaky and grainy but when you're done and play it back the video is just fine. I had no issues with quality or sound on the one tape I transferred. I did not adjust ANY of the settings in the software.
Then I imported the video to iMovie and it all seems to be working fine and the quality appears to be the same as the original. (Maybe a tad bit better). I also ran other small programs (iCal, Firefox) during the transfer with no apparent issues. I'm running 10.5.8 on a 2.66GHz iMac with 2GB RAM, so nothing fancy.
It does exactly what it is supposed to do at a great price.

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Elgato Video Capture Device (White) Review

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(More customer reviews)I read the reviews here and went ahead with my purchase anyway. I'm glad I did.
It couldn't be any more simple to record from an analog source to the Mac. My project is converting some old VHS home movies to digital videos. I wanted to try a test before I jumped into the real projects, so I decided to encode a small section of a VHS tape purchased around 1992.
I popped the software disc into my laptop and it installed in a few minutes. When finished, I launched the application and it presented me with a screen to test the video signal. I plugged in both ends of the device and I saw what was playing on my VCR instantly. The next screen made sure I had audio. Once set-up was out of the way, it was off to the races. I tested with a 10 minute section of the video and the software stopped recording exactly when I told it to.
I wanted to address the "issue" the other reviewers mistakenly have with this product not outputting H.264. The first video I captured has a file extension of ".mp4" and the description is "MPEG-4 Movie" in Finder. When I right-clicked and chose Get Info on the file, under Codecs, I see H.264, AAC listed. This proves H.264 encoding works with this product. I request the reviewers who said this is not working do the same and report the results.
Bottom line, this is a very simple to use product and I am looking forward to using it to convert those old movies from VHS. MUST BUY.

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Transfer video from a VCR, DVR, set-top box, camcorder or any other analog video source to your Mac as an iTunes-ready file. The easy-to-use software guides you through each step, from connecting an analog video source, to capturing video, to choosing how you will watch and share it. One simple click adds your captured video to iTunes to sync with an iPod, iPhone and Apple TV, plays it in QuickTime, or uploads it directly to YouTube. You can also edit your video right away in iMovie. Elgato Video Capture features composite and S-Video inputs which enables you to connect any analog video device to your Mac, and comes with a SCART adapter. Elgato Video Capture handles NTSC, SECAM, PAL, and PAL/60 video and records in iTunes-ready, high quality H.264 or MPEG-4 files. Select between 16:9 or 4:3 aspect ratios to match the source video for optimal playback quality. After capturing you can edit your video right away in iMovie

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