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Media Hardware

Sony Launches DVD-Burning Appliance 158

Posted by michael from the small-yet-expensive dept.
what_the_frell writes "News.com.com has a story about Sony's latest DVD Burner that can be connected directly to your VCR or Camcorder to directly record or back up your recoded home movies, TV shows, etc. It can also be hooked up to a PC via a USB 2.0 connection as well. The article reports that the device effectively removes the PC from the equation, giving users an easier way to make their own DVDs. No word yet if it will record straight from your television, or from your DVD Player to circumvent copy-protection. *wink*" Sony also has its own press release on the gadget.
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Sony Launches DVD-Burning Appliance More

Sony Launches DVD-Burning Appliance

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  • Appliance? (Score:4, Funny)

    by ackthpt ( 218170 ) * on Tuesday October 12, 2004 @04:54PM (#10507303) Homepage Journal
    DVD-Burning Appliance

    At first I thought this was something I'd have in the kitchen or laundry... still, sounds like a capital idea.

  • WTF? (Score:1)

    by io333 ( 574963 )
    Is Sony being run by someone new? This from the same folks that brought us the MiniDisk? I don't believe it.

    • Re:WTF? (Score:1, Interesting)

      by Anonymous Coward

      Sony has an investment in the DVD standard being used, I wouldn't worry.

      (Also don't forget, this is also the company that brought you the BetaMax decision)

    • Re:WTF? (Score:4, Interesting)

      by ackthpt ( 218170 ) * on Tuesday October 12, 2004 @04:56PM (#10507343) Homepage Journal
      Is Sony being run by someone new? This from the same folks that brought us the MiniDisk? I don't believe it.

      Careful...

      Just because it's a neat idea doesn't mean they put quality into its components and/or construction. I've shyed away from buying things from Sony after reading many reviews of their spiraling (downward) quality. Different people in charge with different priorities. Akio, you are missed.

    • Yeah, but the disks are all in ATRAC format.

      --
      I'll pay you $10. Really. [slashdot.org]
    • I just had to pipe in that I really love my minidisc player/recorder. More importantly, I love minidiscs. About every other day my wife would complain that her cd was skipping. I would look at the back of it and it looked like she was playing street hockey with the thing. I started recording her favorite songs to minidisc and that problem went away. I just wish I could purchas minidiscs prerecorded so that I don't have to buy the cd and the blank minidisc, then take the time to record. Right now I am lookin

      • Re:WTF? (Score:2, Informative)

        by DrMyke ( 150908 )
        Kenwood and Sony makes a indash minidisc player (Kenwood eXcelon KMD-X92 , Sony MDX-F5800 ) as well as sony makes a changer for its in dash units. (Sony MDX-66XLP 6-Disc MiniDisc Changer)

        hope this helps

        -myke
      • So do i. I have a second-gen Minidisc player i've been using for a while now and it beats any MP3 player, specially in portability and battery life. Newer Minidiscs can record above 1X, so my main complain with them has vanished.

        Thing is, Sony tried to restrict them so much they killed the format. We could have Minidiscs replacing floppies right now, or we could upload MP3s directly instead of having to re-encode them in ATRAC. It's a crying shame, it's a nice little device.

        BTW, i hacked a line-in
        • Last I heard, Sony is cosidering switching to MP3 [engadget.com] for their portable players. With the new Hi-MD players allowing for file storage on their 1Gb discs, it might not be too long of a wait for the type of device you mentioned.
          • And, as usual for Sony, it will be 5 years too late to do any good.

            MD was definitely cheap enough to take on the floppy disc and win... all Sony had to do was liberal licensing of the MD drives and removal of the DRM.

            I have exactly (2) Sony products in the house, my 20-month old DVD writer for the PC and a cheap-o Sony DVD player. Every other piece of A/V gear in the house is made by other companies (usually Toshiba).

  • Pre-empted by slashdot! (Score:4, Interesting)

    by Ignignot ( 782335 ) on Tuesday October 12, 2004 @04:55PM (#10507327) Journal
    I hit read more and /. told me "nothing to see here, please move along." which by coincidence was exactly what I was about to say. I've had a pvr / dvd burner for at least half a year now. This isn't new stuff, except that it can be hooked up to your computer. And then the article goes on to say that they are eliminating the computer from the personal media loop? Then why do they have connections for it? Is it too much to expect rational reporting, at least?

  • *wink* (Score:5, Interesting)

    by autopr0n ( 534291 ) on Tuesday October 12, 2004 @04:56PM (#10507335) Homepage Journal
    There's no way that Sony of all people would release a device that ignores macro vision, or even the broadcast flag.

    That said, If it connects to a VCR, then it probably uses RCA/RF/SVIDEO inputs, which you could clearly use to record from any source .

    sinfulshirts [sinfulshirts.com]. tshirts that make baby jesus cry.
    • Actually, attempting to record a DVD using RCA outputs from a DVD playing device will result in a macrovision message being popped up on the screen! It knows... well unless you have one of the Apex [walmart.com] players!

      • Re: I wouldn't say "Apex" (Score:4, Interesting)

        by nusratt ( 751548 ) on Tuesday October 12, 2004 @05:20PM (#10507602) Journal
        better read this before you start recommending Apex products. A lot of people hate this company. [gottadeal.com]
        • I never said I recommended it, but I know people who have some and have had no problems whatsoever. Plus, the players seem to be fully-featured for the low price. As for the people who hate their products, well, you get what you pay for!
        • I have had, over the years various Sony devices. CD players for home and car, along with DVD players. Many were released before the burned media was available or prevailent. Consistantly the devices would not play burned (in a legitimate copy context) media. Though its pure speculation I would think that there might be a conflict of interest when a large electronics manufacturer also has one heck of a foot in music and movie media.

          By contrast an my Apex AD-660 Dvd Player (Circuit City Special ~4yrs ba
    • I hooked up a Sony MiniDV camcorder to my Sony DVD player with RCA jacks and it wouldn't let me record anything, so there's a good chance that this thing won't either.

      I had everything running through my Harman/Kardon receiver and the camcorder would record broadcast or cable TV just fine....but it balked immediately when I switched the video input to the DVD player. Macrovision?
    • Yeah, Sony would not make that mistake. My digital 8mm camcorder from 2001 actually detects Macrovision encoded sources and refuses to even try to record. (I was trying to use my fair-use rights to make a backup copy of a DVD in order to watch it in a different location on the camcorder's nice big LCD.) Laserdiscs however, I can copy just fine. :-)

  • What's so special? (Score:4, Insightful)

    by mconeone ( 765767 ) on Tuesday October 12, 2004 @04:56PM (#10507342)
    This just seems like a natural progression for me... Standalone CD burners -> standalone DVD burners.
    • One of the things that's special is the fact that because it's Sony, you could buy it now and it would still work 10 years from now ;)

    • They already make standalone DVD burners, though I don't think they are very popular.

      The deal with this thing is it can be used standalone, to simply record video onto DVD, or you can plug it into your PC and burn data or whatever.

      I'm sure that it will work with Macrovision exactly like it does today if you try to record the output from a DVD player onto a VCR, with the telltale Macrovision picture crapification.

      If you can strip out the Macrovision you should be able to use it to make copies. The qua

    • This just seems like a natural progression for me... Standalone CD burners -> standalone DVD burners.

      Probably because what seems like a "natural progression" to any sane non-retard, is generally the last thing to occur to a Sony exec.

  • Why USB 2.0 (Score:4, Informative)

    by Icyfire0573 ( 719207 ) on Tuesday October 12, 2004 @04:58PM (#10507368)
    Why is it that they always use USB, sure its fast at its burstable rate of 480 Mbs, but Firewire sure beats it with a sustainable 400Mbs, that and if your hooking up a digital camcorder to your dvd burner wouldn't you want something that was already in the camera, IIRC most camcorders have 4-pin firewire out ports because they are superior for the data transfer...

    • Re:Why USB 2.0 (Score:4, Informative)

      by SpooForBrains ( 771537 ) on Tuesday October 12, 2004 @05:04PM (#10507434)
      ... because few machines ship with firewire, that's why. USB is a default peripheral on any new PC.
      • ... because few machines ship with firewire, that's why. USB is a default peripheral on any new PC.

        Yet (just about?) every machine Sony ships has a FireWire (er, I mean "i.link" 4-pin non-powered bastardized Sony flavor of FireWire) port.

        After all, their video cameras are all Fir.. i.link, and the standard for video transfer is FireWire.

    • Re:Why USB 2.0 (Score:1, Insightful)

      by Anonymous Coward
      Because it doesn't really matter. What kind of device do you know if that can put out 400+ Mbs?? Certainly not any DVD burner. People like to argue about USB 2 vs Firewire until they're blue in the face but there's no storage device that can possibly obtain those speeds in the first place.

      • Firewire usefully faster, and important to Sony (Score:5, Insightful)

        by blorg ( 726186 ) on Tuesday October 12, 2004 @07:25PM (#10508796)
        Firewire can be usefully faster, for example with an external hard disk; all the benchmarks I've seen show Firewire performance to be superior to USB2 while using less CPU resources (and certainly this is the case with my own external Maxtor, connected to my desktop). The point is, USB 2 *doesn't* do 480Mbs for any sustained period, it is in fact well below 400Mbs and you can see a difference with 'normal' devices. (A 16x DVD is over 22MB/s, e.g. over 175Mb/s.)

        It would be particularly peculiar, however, for Sony to launch something that did USB2 and *not* Firewire, as Sony are a major Firewire supporter - it has been impossible to buy a Sony Vaio without it for the last five years at least, while they have only added USB2 to their laptops relatively recently (typing this now on a Vaio with firewire but no USB2 :-(

        Annoyingly Sony use the 4-pin no power connector, and have the gall in their more recent laptops to situate a proprietary Sony DC output right beside the 4-pin firewire when they could just go with the standard 6-pin...
    • Why is it that they always use USB ...
      most camcorders have 4-pin firewire out ports because they are superior for the data transfer...

      You've answered your own question. Sony seems to be incapable of releasing a product without some built-in foolish technical obstacle.

      I don't know what's worse: that Sony deliberately cripples their products (in ways far beyond the level of crippling the rest of the industry deems adequate) to protect their media interests, or that people spend a premium for the Sony bran

  • Copy-protection (Score:5, Insightful)

    by ottergoose ( 770022 ) on Tuesday October 12, 2004 @04:59PM (#10507377) Homepage
    No word yet if it will record straight from your television, or from your DVD Player to circumvent copy-protection. *wink*

    Software that manages copyright ownership (or any other software for that matter) doesn't require a PC to be ran. I'd guess that Sony, which has large interests in the motion picture and music industries, has some kind of copy protection with this - with or without a PC.
  • Its been out a while, just plug in and record. nothing new here...
  • With SOny being one of the largest movie producers in the world and way up there too in the music bizz, I doubt they will bypass ANY copy protection. In fact I would expect it to be built into the device too.

  • Sony likes trouble (Score:5, Funny)

    by Rosco P. Coltrane ( 209368 ) on Tuesday October 12, 2004 @05:00PM (#10507392)
    Sony's latest DVD Burner that can be connected directly to your VCR or Camcorder to directly record or back up your recoded home movies, TV shows, etc.

    In other news: Sony launched a recordable DVD burner that records movies and live TV, etc... To commemorate the 30th anniversary of the launch of the same Sony's Betamax product in 1975, the MPAA decided to sue Sony. "It's just like the good ole days" declared MPAA's godfather Jack Valenti.
  • Happiness. What a fantastic device.
    • Blank screen. What a fantastic DRM.

    • Re:This device + TiVo = (Score:4, Informative)

      by spectecjr ( 31235 ) on Tuesday October 12, 2004 @05:22PM (#10507629) Homepage
      Happiness. What a fantastic device

      This device + Tivo has been around since December. Here's the product page for it. [tivo.com]

      It's made by Pioneer.
      • Except that the device you mention is really only an option if one is using standard cable. Those of us who have DirecTV + TiVo haven't had a PVR+DVDR option.

        Until now, that is. And I think that's the point.
        • Except that the device you mention is really only an option if one is using standard cable. Those of us who have DirecTV + TiVo haven't had a PVR+DVDR option.

          Until now, that is. And I think that's the point.

          Yeah, but they can't do a DirecTV one because the data format is different to DVD. The only reason the PVR+DVDR works for standalone is because it has to do MPEG compression anyway, so it compresses to DVD format MPEGs.

          What you're getting if you hook the Sony one up to a DirecTV DVR is, basically, lo
    • Happiness. What a fantastic device.

      You're in for the biggest let-down since Geraldo Rivera opened Al Capone's tomb...

      Sony has sort of a way about sabotaging formulae like "This device + TiVo = Happiness".

      Had they been the ones to come out with the "You got your peanut butter on my chocolate/your chocolate in my peanut butter" idea, instead of a Peanut Butter Cup, they'd sell a product with a tub of peanut butter and a bar of chocolate, where you couldn't even just dip the chocolate into the peanut butte

  • I guess I'm just stupid... (Score:4, Interesting)

    by nusratt ( 751548 ) on Tuesday October 12, 2004 @05:06PM (#10507448) Journal
    ...but is there any reason that someone who already owns a PC-capable burner would want to spend another $300 for this?

    In fact, it seems to me that this product is only for people who don't own ANY kind of burner, not even a non-PC set-top DVR:
    if you already own a set-top DVR, and you have $300 to burn, wouldn't you rather spend it on a more capable PC-based burner (e.g., faster, multi-format, etc.)?
    • ...but is there any reason that someone who already owns a PC-capable burner would want to spend another $300 for this?

      I bet you a ninepence you still have a separate stereo, alarm clock, TV and DVD player and books at home, while your PC could very well play music, wake you up in the morning (afternoon?), act as a TV, play DVDs and display ebooks. How comes?

      The reason is, a PC does many things, but never does any one of these many things well enough to be something you want to life with day by day. Not
      • Actually, my computer *is* my stereo, alarm clock, TV, DVD Player, and eBook reader, you insensitive clod ;)

        There is no reason to settle for a PC that doesn't do those things well -- there are efficient computers out there that will.

        Of course, there's also the single-point-of-failure issue, which is where modular products are a definite boon.

    • There is a large market for people who like stand-alone gadgets but aren't interested in learning software and having to use the computer to do everything. It's definitely not the "geek" mentality, but a lot of people see the computer as a very complicated addition to the process, and would rather buy something that skips that step.

    • "...but is there any reason that someone who already owns a PC-capable burner would want to spend another $300 for this?"

      You've never tried to encode two hours of Mpeg-4 video have ya?

    • Re:I guess I'm just stupid... (Score:5, Insightful)

      by Dr. Evil ( 3501 ) on Tuesday October 12, 2004 @06:10PM (#10508140)

      You'd still have to buy the video capture hardware, and then you'd probably not be able to transcode and burn in real time, you'd have to have the know-how to prevent it from stuttering as it burned and you'd have to have the know-how to make it playable on a standard DVD player.

      So depending on output quality, it may be cheaper, faster, and easier although certainly not as flexible. Yeah, you can probably find a cheap capture card, but how's the quality on that?

  • Misplaced modifier (Score:3, Informative)

    by JUSTONEMORELATTE ( 584508 ) on Tuesday October 12, 2004 @05:09PM (#10507490) Homepage
    burning appliance [state.co.us]
    or
    Appliance that burns DVDs [sony.com]


    --
    want $10? [slashdot.org]
    • Not to go too far off topic, but DVD-Burning Appliance is indeed correct because DVD-burning is hyphenated. This signals that these two words are acting as a single adjective for the word to follow (i.e, appliance). It's not a burning appliance, it's a DVD-burning appliance. That said, they've been known to correct errors after posting, so if they did put in the hypen after the fact, then ignore me. :-)

  • When you think about it... (Score:5, Insightful)

    by hollismb ( 817357 ) on Tuesday October 12, 2004 @05:13PM (#10507524) Homepage
    It's actually a pretty cool little device. Say I wanted to record something in order to edit it, either from tv, or anything putting out a video signal, like a game console. Instead of having to wire it to a vcr, or complex wiring into the computer, I just hook up the output to this, burn to a dvd, and I've got it to play with anywhere else. Not bad. Obviously, it'll still detect macrovision and not allow regular DVD movies to be copied, but it does seem to eliminate the need all those 'Dazzle' video capture devices that they sell at Best Buy and the like.
    • Yes, though the press release only mentions MPEG-2 recording (sensibly enough, since it's making DVDs to be played "anywhere"). That's a lossy compression step from the stream that's recorded from your camcorder. For a DV camcorder you'd normally get a lossless transfer (via firewire) to your desktop for editing. You can edit MPEG-2, but it's more of a target format than an intermediate format.

      Still, it's a great toy if you don't want to edit, or if you don't mind editing MPEG-2.
    • Sony seems to be suffering from big misleadingness regarding integration and portability. When I bought my Sony camera, I looked for something that I knew I could use under Linux, so I got an all-purpose CDR-TRV345E DV camera (which accidentally included a USB link too).

      The DV part works fine, it works so well that I actually use it to backup my data [sourceforge.net]. The USB drivers are proprietary stuff. If you lose the CD, Sony WON'T give you a copy of your drivers (didn't happen to me, but I found lots of complaints

  • Dual Layer (Score:5, Insightful)

    by blackmonday ( 607916 ) on Tuesday October 12, 2004 @05:13PM (#10507527) Homepage
    The best part is dual layer and PC connections, everything else is already available for $200 at costco and you get TV tuner included. I believe amazon had a DVD recorder with TV tuner for $169 just a few days ago. The costco model (don't remember the brand, its some weird Chinese brand) includes firewire input, so you can plug your DV / Digital 8 cam right into it. Not bad for that kind of money.

  • USB? Where is the DV? (Score:5, Interesting)

    by Deorus ( 811828 ) on Tuesday October 12, 2004 @05:15PM (#10507548)
    What about the IEEE-1394 interface they were so proud of on their cameras? I have one of those i-Link and USB DCR-TRV cameras with a lot of v8/hi8 tapes to burn into some optical media. Why do I have to be forced to use an analog connector between two digital devices? Really expected to see Sony better integrating their products.

  • Sony DVD burner? NO THANK YOU. (Score:2, Interesting)

    by Anonymous Coward
    I have a DVR-500, and it really, really sucks. It, like all Sony products, stopped working directly after its warranty expired, and now only burns at 1x, sometimes.

    It makes loud clicking noises when starting and may or may not work on some media.

    The 510 model likewise, sucks. It does the same things, and, as it got older (a friend of mine has one), stopped running at top speed as well.

    Do yourself a favor: NEVER BUY SONY. Does it look cool? Yes. Does it work well, at least immediately? Yes. Is it s
    • Most Sony equipment I've ever bought has been top notch. Especially their video gear.

      With that said...

      My first DVD player for the entertainment center was a Sony. It worked fine, but it was very fussy about what disks it would play. Quite a few disks from Netflix wouldn't play in it and it wasn't because they were scratched. I had problems playing brand new disks.

      So I bought a Panasonic unit that was a generation newer. It plays every DVD I've ever tossed at it. It doesn't play VCD or SVCD, which w
    • My Sony DRU-500A is still going strong and I've owned it for around 18-20 months now... probably burned close to 400 or 600 DVDs by now with it.

      Had a lot of problems with it early on until they patched up the firmware and Roxio got their act together (combined with better media).

  • Even with the DRM , it's good. (Score:3, Interesting)

    by RealAlaskan ( 576404 ) on Tuesday October 12, 2004 @05:17PM (#10507576) Homepage Journal
    It's from Sony, so of course it has nasty DRM. The question is: how nasty? As long as we can burn our own stuff to it, and distribute that, then it could be useful to me, and a whole lot of other people.

    Sending friends and family home movies on a DVD is going to be great for the folks who like that sort of thing. As long as these are ``real DVDs'', not some crippled substitute, they'll be great.

    For the slightly longer term ... there are garage bands today, and maybe someday there will be garage movie producers. Another ten years of Moore's law will make something like Toy Story possible on a few desktop PCs. I'm really looking forward to that.

  • not that useful but priced quite well (Score:3, Interesting)

    by blackest_k ( 761565 ) on Tuesday October 12, 2004 @05:23PM (#10507637) Homepage Journal
    An alternative solution might be the adapdtec viedeoh hardware mpegII encoder with built in TV tuner. cost about 100 sterling add in the cost of a seperate burner then the price is competetive.

    I can't quite see the advantage of this device as a stand alone unit.
    Pirating videotapes maybe, simplicity?

    I just can't see the point if you can't edit without using a PC why would you want to buy this device?

    getting raw camcorder footage direct to dvd without editing is just going to mean ripping it again from the dvd to edit out all the worst shots.

  • OKay... can it record a direct video feed? (Score:3, Informative)

    by Samrobb ( 12731 ) on Tuesday October 12, 2004 @05:26PM (#10507658) Journal

    From what I can tell, it *looks* like this device should be able to record direct-to-DVD without the need for an intervening tape. Anyone have any experience with using a device like this that way? Ideally, we'd like to be able to record direct to DVD, and when done, swap the DVD out to a duplicator and make a few copies of it.

    For those interested, this would be an idea setup for a couple of classes I'm taking where we have distance learning students. Being able to send them a DVD with a month's worth of classes on it would be a whole heck of a lot better than what we're managing now, and $300 is probably within the budget for a simple solution like this.

  • Normal standalone DVD recorders let you plug in a VCR and a camcorder with firewire (at least mine does and it only cose £180). I don't really see why this is supposed to be different.

    Am I missing something?

  • Predictable (Score:1, Insightful)

    by Anonymous Coward

    "No word yet if it will record straight from your television, or from your DVD Player to circumvent copy-protection. *wink*"

    And Slashdotters have the audacity to wonder why DRM schemes, RIAA/MPAA legal lobbying and lawsuits are being built and deployed in the home retail markets in various countries. You're fools to yourselves.

  • Sony Plays Catchup (Score:5, Informative)

    by Anonymous Coward on Tuesday October 12, 2004 @05:30PM (#10507694)
    This appears to be no different than the Liteon 5005 I purchased several months ago. The only difference is that the Sony appears to use a newer dual layer drive and costs about $100 more.

    Don't get me wrong - these are very useful devices. I'm ready to toss my VCR as soon as I dub a few tapes to disc. But it's not groundbreaking new technology.
  • And his Windows Media Center bullshit must be a Good Thing.

  • what has sony got to loose? (Score:4, Insightful)

    by museumpeace ( 735109 ) on Tuesday October 12, 2004 @05:31PM (#10507704) Journal
    they either sell the movies [they own the rights to LOTS [danbrown.com] and LOTS [fool.co.uk] of movies, new and old [sony.com] and yet to be made.] or if you to rip the movie while you rent it or have a download in the right format, they will sell you the recorder...they make the bucks at one end or the other...that's the Sony solution to the whole copywrong battle.
  • I guess I'm missing something, but haven't we had stand-alone DVD recorders for quite a while now? I bought a DVD recorder functioning exactly like a VCR several months ago. - http://www.dvdrecorder.philips.com/
  • It does DVD+R and DVD+RW, both single and double layer. It's pretty well known that the + format is less compatible with players than the - format.

    So the disks it burns probably have a 50/50 chance of even being playable in my 3rd generation (5 years old) Panasonic DVD Player.

    Sure, they'll play on my Mac or PC, but sitting in a computer chair to watch 90-120 minutes of video is far less preferable than kicking it in my easy chair and stuffing a disk into the player in the entertainment center.

    If they ma
    • Hmm. Lets think about this a minute. If the standalone burner burns +R discs - would it be reasonable to beleive that it can also play them?
      I only own one VCR and it can record AND play tapes.
    • I have found the +Rs to be more compatible (i am brurning with a 2nd gen Philips DVD+RW Drive).

      My Older DVD player is a 5 year old Kenwood 7000 (which is actually a Panasonic 2nd Gen player with Kenwood menus). That always takes AGES to initially read DVD-R media - though it woudl eventually play it. With +R the initial read is as fast as normal pressed disks. It doesnt handle +RW, but my newer (1 year old) Panasonic player handles anything, but still handles +R slightly better.

  • It's a Sony, it will be crippled (Score:5, Insightful)

    by Proudrooster ( 580120 ) on Tuesday October 12, 2004 @06:11PM (#10508157) Homepage
    Sony... the guys who brought us very expensive DVD players that wouldn't read CD-R/DVD-R media.

    Sony, the guys who brought us the Sony Memory Stick and Magic Gate copy protection aka "Slow and Lame."

    Sony, the guys who just released the "iPOD Killer" that can't even play MP3's before converting them to Sony's proprietary format.

    Sony, the guys who make TV's that enforce macrovision so strictly that they sometimes don't work with DVD players and legal DVDs.

    Unless they've turned over a new leaf, this thing will be crippled. I quit buying Sony years ago because of their anti-consumer stance.

  • It's analog only (Score:5, Informative)

    by Keith Mickunas ( 460655 ) on Tuesday October 12, 2004 @06:23PM (#10508270) Homepage
    No geek should be excited about this. It's inputs are S-video, composite video and analog stereo, along with the USB. If you're copying from your A/V gear or your camcorder, you're restricted to the analog formats. Even if you have a DVD player that defeats macrovision, you're still making a low-quality copy from the analog signal. You can't copy the DD or DTS signals with this either.

    This might be a fine device for someone that just wants to eliminate their VCR, but that is all. You can archive your old VHS tapes, your personal videos, or stuff off the Tivo, but that's about it.

    • No geek should be excited about this.

      Amen brother. I would not buy a standalone DVD recorder that does not support firewire input (or i-Link as Sony insists on calling it).

      So other than double-layer support, what makes this so ground-breaking over this one [sonystyle.com] that they all ready produced (and has firewire)?

      I get the impression that the MPAA is highly opposed to firewire on recording devices. I see fewer and fewer devices with this feature. Heck, I'd be willing to settle for input only as a compromise

    • I've been looking for a standalone device to let me transfer several hundred VHS tapes to DVD so they take up less space (without tying up a computer) or require constant video capture fiddling.

      The tricky bit is that quite a few of those several hundred VHS tapes are commercial movies, thus, with Macrovision. So, I'll probably need a Macrovision killer.

      I have no desire to make a copy and redistribute it. I DO want to exercise my fair use and transfer the content to a more convenient format, and put the

  • Not new.. (Score:1, Insightful)

    by Anonymous Coward
    There have been many standalone DVD burners on the market now for years. I got one more than a year ago and it even had a harddrive in it as well for recording. Plus my pioneer TiVo has a burner in it as well.

    Good to see that slashdot is keeping up with the tech industry.. Only a few years behind now...
  • No word yet if it will record straight from your television
    That's easy.
    Since it already has S-Video and Composite Inputs, you just hook it up to your cable box, or through your VCR.
    It doesn't need to have a TV Tuner to record TV... it's enough that whatever provides the video/audio signal does.

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