Sony RDR-VX500 DVD Recorder / VCR Combo

After purchasing and returning an iLo DVD recorder (it didn't like the new copy protection scheme on movies like The Forgotten - nor my Miami Vice Season One DVD set), I read the small amount of reviews available on the Sony RDR-VX500, decided not to skimp, and made the plunge.

The good news - it does most things very, very well. It plays commercial movies flawlessly, copies non copy protected VHS tapes to DVD perfectly, accepts input from my camcorder via firewire without a hitch, and copies from my SA8000 and SA8300 DVRs to DVD extremely well. It plays MP3s well, too, but why not provide WMA support, especially at this price?

The menu structure is fairly straight forward, and the title menu is much nicer than the iLo - I can title DVDs in half the time compared to the iLo.

The negatives: It *is* a little slow to load movies (keep in mind most of these recorders are just short of PCs these days), and yes, the remote is not exactly user friendly, but I use a Pioneer universal remote anyway. Don't look for cheaper universals to control this unit - you'll need the type that actually learns from the Sony remote.

A big negative - it doesn't seem to like movies on DVD+R, DVD+RW, or DVD-RW (I don't use DVD-R) that I copied using DVD Shrink, DVDXCopy, etc. They tend to freeze up at one point. I've made lots of movies on three different PC based DVD recorders I have, and they play fine in most players - but not the Sony RDR-VX500. I guess I can't rightfully complain too loudly about that, but I do actually buy these movies and use the copies (kids...you know the story) for everyday use.

It doesn't seem to randomly reboot like the iLo or other Lite-On based units I've tried, every piece feels substantial and well engineered, as you'd expect from Sony at this price. Were it not for the poor playback on copied movies, it would be very tough to beat. So with that caveat in mind, I'd recommend this unit based on the overall performance.