Rating: 
Summary: Great product. I am loving it so far...
Review: After fruitlessly trying to set up a miniature movie and DVD burning studio on my computer, I broke down and bought this DVD Recorder. I absolutely love it so far, and I plan on eventually converting my massive sports event collection to DVD.The product comes with a huge user manual, but I don't know why, because it is extremely easy to use. It is no more complicated than a new VCR. All of the menus and commands are intuitive. Most commands only require you to press three or four buttons to get to a command. To start using it, you just pop in a DVD, start recording, pause to edit out the commercials, and stop when you come to a natural break in the program. When you are done, you can name your chapters using the on-screen menus. I use DVD-R disks, and they are extremely cheap if you get them 25 or 50 at a time, which you will most definitely want to do. This weekend I zapped a football game from my satellite to two DVDs using the HSP recording mode. I watched a few minutes of the DVD with a buddy of mine, and we both couldn't get over how wonderful it looked, and how crisp the recording was. I can get 90 minutes to a DVD on HSP mode, and it almost perfectly reproduces a satellite or digital cable picture (if you squint real hard, you can sometimes see rough edges around small objects on the screen when they are moving - that's about it.) You can get up to 3 hours on a DVD with the LP mode, but you can see the slight decrease in quality from a satellite picture. Before you buy, MAKE SURE THAT YOU UNDERSTAND THE RECORDING MODES! The technology does not allow you to reproduce a 150-minute movie yet on one DVD (it requires two). That is, unless, you want to take a quality hit. If you can get over this, then this is a product that you will want to get.
Rating: 
Summary: Great quality, but not from my Wedding video
Review: Bought the Sony RDR-GX7 with high hopes of transferring all of my home videos to DVD. The quality was okay - not really any different from the original video. But I wanted something more for my wedding. I found it an anchordigital.com - their IWeD product came out much nicer than anything I could have done. The Sony RDR-GX7 is a solid (if pricey) performer - and I'm happy leaving the wedding tape to the pros and making my own TV to DVD collection with it!
Rating:
Summary: I LUV THIS THING!!!
Review: BUT; U KANT TAKE THE DVDs U'VE RECORDED ON THE SONY RDR-GX7 AND EDIT THEM IN YOUR PC. I DON'T KNOW, MAYBE I'M USING THE WRONG SOFTWARE. MAYBE I'LL TRY ADOBE LIVE MOTION INSTEAD OF SONIC'S MyDVD SOFTWARE THAT CAME WITH MY SONY DRU-500A RW DRIVE IN MY PC. BUT EVEN WITH THIS LITTLE DRAWBACK, I JUST LUV THIS THING. I RECORD THREE SHOWS OFF OF TVLAND EVERYDAY WHICH IN TOTAL IS THREE HOURS LONG. I RECORD THEM EACH IN LP MODE AND MY PICTURE QUALITY STILL SEEMS HARDLY SACRAFICED. I BOUGHT IT IN MAY-2004 FOR $498. IT SURE BEAT THE $799 PRICE TAG SONY HAD ON IT AT THEIR OWN WEBSITE. I WOULDN'T TRADE THIS THING FA NUTTN!!!
Rating: 
Summary: THE BIGGEST MISTAKE I 'VE MADE!!
Review: DO NOT BUY THIS CRAPPY PIECE OF JUNK!!
I purchased this unit with faith in SONY. Well forget it!! after 4 months the unit failed and began reading "disc dirty" half way through each recording. I sent the unit back for repair. They claimed to have "fixed it" but when I received it back it STILL failed on each disc (note that these failures RUIN the disc!). They sent me a brand new unit. GUESS WHAT..?! It failed after 3 months with the SAME PROBLEM!! I sent it back for repairs. AGAIN they claimed to have "fixed it". Well, it malfunctioned IMMEDIATELY!! I sent it back AGAIN!! This time they gave me a refurbished unit. I know you wont believe this...but the unit is WORSE than the other two!! They are currently sending me ANOTHER new unit. But I have no doubt this one will STILL be a piece of crap. They simply don't have this technology down. SONY should NEVER have put this junk on the market. BEWARE!!
- UPDATE -
They sent they new unit. Guess what? PIECE OF JUNK. Fails on discs writing and when reading written discs. After trying FOUR of these units I can assure you this is a LEMON. Please note these positive reviews are from buyer who had their units for two weeks or similar time periods. I have had four different units for ONE YEAR and can tell you THIS IS JUNK! Selling this crap on ebay and buying a REAL unit. NOT SONY!!
Rating:
Summary: Great DVD Recorder
Review: Has all the features I was looking for. Great price ($350) - but I think this model is no longer being made (still available at many places though). Records all DVD formats and has an i-Link input for my camcorder. Not too difficult to set up and to perform all recording functions. Now I'll be busy archiving all my old video tapes.
Rating:
Summary: Don't understand all the raves, this product is worthless !
Review: Having read the glowing reviews on Amazon, I purchased this machine and am terribly disappointed at it's performance. My main reason for selecting this model was that it uses DVD-RW format, amongst others. On inserting a disc, it tries to format it and then rejects it - saying 'dirty disc' on the display. I have tried several brands and have had the same issue. I even took my discs to a local retail store and got the same error message on their machine. Yes, I could purchase DVD+RW's and try those, but I don't feel like investing anymore time or money on a machine that fails to live up to it's hype. Shame on you Sony !
Rating:
Summary: So Far, So Good!
Review: I bought the Sony DVD Recorder a couple of weeks ago and have thoroughly enjoyed working with it. Before I purchased the Sony unit, I captured video and burned DVDs via my computer, which was fun, but somewhat of a hassle as I had to hook up my VCR, video card and PC while sitting at my computer desk. I now have a VCR hooked up to the DVD Recorder in my bedroom and I can just relax on my bed and record my VHS tapes to DVD. Plus I don't have to worry about software glitches which can disturb video capture and/or DVD burning. The Sony accepts three of the five primary DVD media for recording (DVD-RW, DVD-R and DVD+RW). It does not allow you to record on DVD+R and DVD-RAM discs, which almost caused me not to purchase this machine as I have quite a few DVD+R discs that I paid big money for my computer video editing needs. However, if you record a program on a DVD+RW disc, you can use your home computer (provided you have both a DVD-Rom drive and a DVD+RW drive) to copy the DVD+RW data to a DVD+R disc. That DVD+R disc is playable on the DVD Recorder. It's an additional step, but it is one I'll probably use until the DVD+R's are used up. You can then erase the DVD+RW disc for use in recording another program. Video quality of the DVDs is quite good. So far, I have done all my recording at the 120 minute quality level as many people who have this machine state that this yields pretty good results. I have to agree that it does. You also have the ability to record in 60, 90, 180, 240 and 360 minute modes, so I assume that quality improves or diminishes with less or more time respectively. For recording purposes, the DVD+RW disc provides only basic editing functions, primarily related to changing title names and deleting shows. If you overrecord something (say a commercial after the program), I don't think that you can edit the disc to remove the commercial. My understanding is that the DVD-RW discs provide more flexibility for editing than the DVD+RW, but I have not tried it yet. Overall, this appears to be a great product in the Sony lineup. I suspect future generations will be even better and cheaper, but I'm happy with this purchase so far.
Rating:
Summary: iLink glitch
Review: I bought the Sony RDR-GX7 just before XMAS 2003 as a present for my wife and I after having researched it to death and procrastinated over it endlessly. Ultimately, we felt it was the best buy out there. While I have been highly impressed with the many capabilities and picture quality of this DVD recorder, one of the major reasons that I paid the top price for it was its iLink capability using "One Touch Dubbing". Using this function one is supposed to be able to digitally record an entire DV tape and then later edit it with little loss of picture & sound quality. However, using the iLink has revealed either an Achille's heel of this DVD recorder or, hopefully, an isolated problem. It will not record - via the iLink port - a complete miniDV tape playing in a digital camcorder. I am using my less that two year old Canon ZR45 miniDV camcorder. After an unpredictable and variable amount time the RDR-GX7 just stops recording from the camcorder and starts to "Write Info" - meaning that as far as it is concerned all of the tape has been copied and it is saving other associated data to the DVD disc. When this happens, the camcorder, however, has not reached the end of the tape and still has large part of the tape still left to record to the DVD disc. I have tried to copy the miniDV tapes to all types of recordable DVDs from different manufacturers (TDK, Verbatim, Imation, Memorex) all to no avail. I thought that perhaps the problem lay with the firewire cable that I was using but, using a second new one, did not solve the problem either. It does not matter which recording quality setting one uses, the problem remains. So finally in frustration, I returned RDR-GX7 to Circuit City for repairs and was told that because the Sony 90 day Warranty had passed, and not withstanding having the Circuit City extended warranty, the machine would have to be sent out for repairs and, pending the outcome, then we would see what to do next. So I am waiting for it to return. I bought the extended waranty because of a previous bad experience with a Sony CD player which failed withing a week of the expiry of its warranty period - but that's another story. I have read of no comments on the the iLink function and how it works for people but anyone considering this recorder certainly needs to test this capability very quickly after purchasing it.
Rating:
Summary: More than satisfied!!
Review: I bought this dvd player/recorder because of the price the store was selling it for plus the fact that is sony's top of the line DVD recorder/player. I had no idea what it could do until i had acually bought the machine . The first thing i did before i used the recorder was, i read the manual and at the same time went through the option menus on the dvd player(that inculdes the menus for the dvd recording and editing). I would strongly recommend doing so as it makes it alot easier to use from that point on.
The DVD Player itself is a very good player, not as good as Sony's ES line dvd players(more than 1000 dollars/single purposed), but it nevertheless has a very crisp and clean picture; better than most. The video editing is very easy, straight forward and simple. The projects that i have completed have always turned out exsactly the way i wanted them too, which is not always the case with editing videos from my own experience. I would strongly recommend buying this player if you want to buy a product that is useful and will save u money at blockbuster.:)
I realize that there is a new dvd recorder with 120 gig hard drive if i am not mistaken. That hard drive would come in very handy when editing numerous tv programs. Go out and buy one of these(don't hesitate) and let the good times roll, you will be more than satisfied.
Rating:
Summary: High quality, no reliability problems so far
Review: I bought this model (which I think has now been discontinued, so good prices should abound) last winter. I have used it to copy several hundred hours' worth of home videos onto DVD-Rs and I'm extremely pleased with the results. Most of these videos were in PAL format from another country, so I had to hook it up to a Sharp and a decoder unit. I've also used the DVD-RW formats, and have recorded directly from my NTSC TV and videos, and had similar positive experiences.
In reading the latest 15-20 reviews it appears to me that they are largely consistent with my experience:
a) The quality of picture is superb, and it does clean up old VCRs slightly, but obviously can't correct garbage. I have had only a couple of "dirty disk" messages, and disks were flawed, so if you have this unit and it's giving you a lot of them despite your knowing your disks aren't dirty, you have a defective recorder unit, and should get the retailer to replace it.
b) I don't use the editing functions. It appears to me that those who were disappointed with this unit are primarily sophisticated editors. So if what you want is outstanding picture quality (and the sound is just fine, for me anyway) and aren't going to do a lot of editing, this should be good for you. But if you need a lot of the features others have described, you should look for other models.
c) I am not a technophobe or a technophile, but I grow impatient if things are hard to set up and use. The Sony is easy enough. Sometimes I had trouble finding the relevant instructions in the manual, but I was always able eventually to find them or figure it out.
Unfortunately, I am unable to use this to record PAL DVDs for my friends in other countries; I had thought I could, but the GX7 DVD sold in the US can't do this--you have to get a UK version, and I'm not sure how it would work here.
|
