Home > Consumer Reviews > Sony RDR-VX555 Tunerless DVD Recorder/VHS Combo Player

First let me say that I did not purchase this item to record from broadcasts. I bought it to use as an easy way to transfer video/audio data from VHS to DVD. I wanted to upgrade the storage media for all of the home movies of my family. I can remember when a simple VHS player/recorder cost in excess of $700, so imagine my delight when I came across this item, for just over $200. It is almost too simple. Drop in a VHS tape of your own making, and a DVD (I use DVD-R 4.7g blank media). Push one button. Bam. It begins the Dub process. Easy. And very good. After you make the copy, you are almost finished, you must finalize the disc. Again easy, as explained on page 88 of the manual. Something like two or three options in the menu, and it does it. Now it will play in almost any other DVD player. My Mac did not recognize the disc when I inserted it into the DVD tray on my G4 PowerMac. It just showed up on the desktop as a Sony Disc, or something. DVD player in OS X played the file fine. However, to get it into your Mac, to edit, as I wanted to do, you need to use something like Toast (I have Toast 7.0) Dragged the file over, and toast did the rest. Now the file Toast made from the Sony file is in iMove, waiting for me to edit. Again. Quite simple. The manual does explain that if this unit detects any copyright signal from another source, it will not copy from that source. (Be it a DVD, VHS, or Broadcast from your cable/Dish provider) Something to consider if it is your plan to duplicate copyrighted material. This is not the proper forum for the discussion of 'Legitimate Back-Up vs illegal duplication (aka Piracy), But I felt for the money, this unit does what it says it can do. And it does it well. Personally, I am biased, in that I really like Sony products. Please take that into consideration as well, as you consider this purchase.

Everything works fine and it would be a great product, but, if you want to record cable or satellite TV premium channels, forget it!! There is a copy protection system in this unit that displays a notice saying you cannot copy these channels, then stops recording. Certain premium channel providers may not use the blocking signal yet from what I have heard. But the majority do, so beware. It will allow recording of these channels to the VHS tape but not the DVD. Most other brands of recorders will allow DVD recording with no blocking. Sony is automatically assuming we are all pirates. I am recording these channels (which I am paying a premium price for) for my own personal use. I consider this "fair use" of the video. I erase them then record again. The new unit I purchased from Radio Shack has the same "one touch" features for recording home movies as well. I am never buying a Sony recorder again.

It has a chip which refuses to record a satelite signal (alleged copyright protection) even if the signal is local boredcast, sports, movie channel or pay per view. My sat provider advised me that the problem lies in Sony's copy protection technology, which interferes with their signal. No other company manages to screw with the signal like Sony.


translation - DO NOT BUY SONY DVD OR RECORDING PRODUCTS.

One great product. It works right out of the box, the first time. Set up is a snap and takes only about 10 minutes. I have a Dish satellite system and had been warned that Sony had put a chip in this recorder that would disallow any recordings from the DVR. I have found this allegation totally false as I have had no trouble whatsoever recording directly from the Dish or the DVR. VCR dubbing is also a snap as long as you set recording speed first. I have put 8 hours of old VHS tapes on one DVD. And if you purchase the HDMI to DVI input cable, everything is played at 1080i which has a much clearer picture on High Def TV set. I am very pleased with this product.

This was an impulse buy from Circuit City, because we thought Sony was a good product (we have a couple of Sony TVs). We are in the process of sending it to the Sony Company for repair because the DVD recorder doesn't work properly. Sometimes it won't let us record movies from HBO or SHO - a screen will come up saying it is copyright protected. I thought if we paid for a movie channel from cable, we could record it to watch it later. Other times we will be watching a movie, and about one hour into it, the DVD will freeze and make a loud noise, and we have to turn it off. First, we thought it was a bad DVD, so we put it into another DVD player, and it worked perfectly. This unit is still under warranty, but Sony is making us pay $12.00 to return it to them for repair, and we have to live without it for at least 3 weeks. It would have been nice if they would send us a new one right away, or better yet, refund our money.

Not only is the unit a piece of junk, it is so user-unfriendly it's pathetic - and I'm not a novice at electronics.

The bottom line is, we will never purchase expensive items like this again without first going home and checking Amazon's reviews - and there are plenty of negative reviews here. I wonder if Sony ever sees any of them.
This has been the most wasteful $250.00 we have ever spent in our lives. Take my advice, save your money, and do some research before buying.