Sony RDR-VXD655 VHS DVD Recorder Combo with Built In HD Tuner by Sony
|
List Price: Category: Home Theater See more digital camera details and other models |
|---|
(Click here)
Digital camera reviews of Sony RDR-VXD655 VHS DVD Recorder Combo with Built In HD Tuner
Digital camera Review: Not quite up to snuff
Summary: 2 Stars
The RDR-VXD655 records eratically when recording VCR tapes. Sometimes they are almost as good as my 10 year old recorder, but often they are so poor that I don't consider them worth viewing.
The playing of my old tapes is consistently good.
The DVD recorder is well behaved. My only complaint here is that to view the title list on the DVD could be easier. If you just press the "title list" button on the remote nothing happens. First you have to press a button on the top of the remote that switches you to DVD from VCR, then the "title list" button will display titles. Since the "title list" is only applicable to the DVD; Sony should have programmed it so that when you press the "title list" button it automatically switches to DVD and shows you the titles.
I haven't tried the other features but this is a very poor start.
Digital camera Review: Ouch....
Summary: 1 Stars
I saw that this was unavailable on Amazon so I checked out the Sony site.. On the Sony site they state that this is no longer available.. Too sad, because I've heard and read online that this is a very good product....Digital camera Review: Piece of junk if you want to record tv/play DVDs
Summary: 1 Stars
Worked great for about 4 months. Then, it refused to finalize recorded discs saying they could not be played or recorded. Then, timer recordings failed, shut itself off in the middle of the 2 hour program. Then, recordings using the record button failed, either stopped recording on its own or wouldn't update disc info properly. Now, even has problems playing purchased discs. If you follow Sony's recommended advice to unplug the unit for one minute and start over, it might work for recording or playing 1-2 discs and than failure again. $114 plus shipping fees isn't worth it to me to fix it. Good it is no longer available new. Don't waste your money and buy it used.Digital camera Review: Pleased.
Summary: 4 Stars
I bought this to transfer to DVD all the VHS-C tapes of the kids I've accumulated over the years. I have about 70 of those. The Sony is working very well in this process. I put in the VHS-C and a blank DVD-R and press a button. When it's done, it stops and I continue the process. Very easy, and the end product is a very nice DVD collection of the kids.Digital camera Review: Poor Performance and Poor Construction
Summary: 2 Stars
The first RDR-VXD655 that I purchased had a defective quartz clock which caused it to lose approximately 30 seconds/day and acute lack of synchronization between the video and audio when playing back either VCR or DVD material recorded off the air through the built in tuner. This problem was so acute that I could not keep track of what people were saying because I was so distracted by the fact that a person would close his mouth well before the audio stopped.
Because of clock and video/audio synchronization flaws mentioned above, I returned the first unit and exchanged it for a second one. The second one, although the unit kept good time, made a noticeable motor humming and vibration noise when turned on, even when not recording or playing a tape or DVD. The flimsy sheet metal top of the case exacerbated the noise problem, but by placing a book on top of it, that problem was minimized (although I could not help but wonder what sort of life span one could expect from a unit with unbalanced rotating mechanical parts). I then investigated the video/audio synchronization, and although it was much better than the first unit, it was still evident. After on-line chat sessions and telephone calls to Sony support personnel, the only real suggestion either one of them made was to "reset" the unit, which meant "unplug it for at least a minute" (to allow the internal capacitors to discharge, thereby eliminating all previous settings). Although I had already tried this to no avail with the first unit, I repeated this procedure with the second unit since this seemed to be the official Sony "fix". This of course meant that one then had to go through the time consuming channel search procedure, setting the clock again, etc.
However during this nightmare, I finally noticed on this second unit that the video/audio signal coming through the tuner and going straight into the TV set composite input was slightly out of synchronization when viewed on the TV set; not just the recorded material, although the lack of proper synchronization seemed worse when playing back a recording. Needless to say, I returned the second unit also.
Therefore I am now in the position of having no recording unit that can be used after the digital TV transition in February 2009 without having to use a converter box set to the channel I wish to record and putting up with video jitter and distortion problems.
Although my basic rating for this unit would be only one star, I gave it two stars to give it the benefit of some slight doubt simply because I tried two other brands of VCR and VCR/DVD units with my Sony KDL-32XBR6 TV and they also suffered from compatibility problems with the TV set when playing back material recorded off the air, so the Sony TV set itself apparently has problems of its own that may add to the problems exhibited by the RDR-VXD655, although the problems with the other units were nothing like those mentioned above.
You can read all about my Sony related nightmare at: http://sonyhdtv.karltipple.com.