Sony VBD-MA1 DVDirect MA1 MultiFunction Blu-Ray Disc/DVD Recorder

I think it's been discontinued. Too bad. I purchased on the recommendation of a friend, and have loved this product. You can read reviews from people much more savvy than I. But I do know this: if you have a high-res, 1080p camcorder, how else are you going to back up all your movies? if you copy to dvd, you lose resolution (it WILL compress the video and you lose resolution). I didn't want that: I paid more money for a high-res' camera for a reason. If you just copy to your computer hard drive, then where and how will you view your movies? Techies can figure out stuff like Plex, Roku, streaming, etc. But many people will probably only watch those home videos on the computer screen. This lets me burn a BLU-RAY disc, and take it to my blu-ray player and watch it on a TV, where I want to watch it. The process works best like this: take your SD card from your video camera, and put it in the card reader on this device. Then put in a blank blu-ray. The first time, you want to change a default setting, and make sure you are copying from HD==> BD (or something, you'll figure it out). You want to basically keep the whole process as high of a resolution as possible. Once you do that, the device will default to that every time, even after it's turned off. So, you put in the memory card, a blank blu-ray disc, and you press the big red 'copy' button on the front. That's it! it finishes, and you have your home movies on a blu-ray, without losing resolution or getting downgraded, at all. It makes a (boring) menu on the disc, but who cares. You will most likely put the disc in and just hit play. You can use the blu-ray remote to skip to each 'scene', like in a movie. Or, just let it play, and it'll play back just like you were playing back an hour-long tape. Very well-made device, easy to use. Highly recommended.

I bought a Sony HandyCam HDR CX-130 Camcorder, the lowest priced Sony HD Camcorder. It's $150 less than the 160G unit. Well with a 16G Class 4 SD card I can record 2 hours of HD video. I used the $150 I saved to buy this unit. This unit is amazing. It can put my 2 hour HD video on a Blu Ray or DVD. Also i have the added extras. I can record from any source. I just transfered several VHS tapes to DVD at a cost of $0.25 per 2 hour video. Also, I can place a SD card full of photos iinto this thing and burn a 4.7G DVD of those photos. Great when traveling. This unit is very portable. I also tranfered several hours of my old miniDV home nmovies to DVD. I am amazed at the quality of the video transfers.Took it on Vacation and immediately burned my movies in the RV. Put the SD card back into the camera to take more movies.It's exactly what I was looking for. Using the HandyCam's highest HD setting it will record 2 hours of video on a 16G SD card and then the Recorder will transfer those 2 hours of HD video to a Blue Ray.The Good1. Highest quality video recording I can find.2. Easy to use, idiot proof.3. Portable4. Works with any Video input. Composite, SD card, DV5. Archives Photos in a snap to a DVD or Blu Ray6. Can copy my 3D photos to DVD, I needed that option.The Bad1. no HDMI input2. Can't record 3D Video.

I bought this item 2 years ago with the express purpose to burn large amounts of data onto disc compared to DVD's and the fact that it had ports available to plug in VHS recorders so I can digitize video tapes. The first unit I purchased failed to burn after less than a month, but I had it exchanged for another unit. It functioned normally, but the one issue I had was that it never completely shut down after you tried to turn it off. It would automatically restart after you pressed the on/off button. I had to unplug the AC adapter from the back of the unit in order for it to completely shut down. This worked normally for two years until recently when I tried to turn it on again. The LCD screen doesn't light up though the unit is on. I'm not happy that Sony discontinued this product so no service would be available nor could it be replaced. The asking price for these units online is outrageously high. They're not worth it. Other blue-ray burners are much cheaper now. I don't recommend anything by Sony anymore. The quality of their product have declined over the past decade.

Finally Sony has developed and released a method to be able to record the Hi-8 tapes from the Sony cameras on a format which is more readily available. I have done some 8 tapes to date, and find the DVD disc very readable on a DVD player, and it works well through a digital projector as well. I am glad I purchased this item, and recommend it to you. It will take you about a half hour after you have all the components needed, and it will record well for you. Amazon shipped it promptly, and it was well packaged, so no problems.

I bought one, couldn't believe how loud it was, so I got another one from Amazon. It was even louder. Amazing how Sony can put something out that looks so good but is of such poor quality. I didn't even bother to burn a disc with it, as I can't stand the loud whirring, whining noise from what I think must be the fan. What a shame how far Sony has fallen.

I did not even pull this out of the box, because if you look very closely at the back of the cover it tells you that Sony Mini-DV cameras can only download standard definition video. I already have a sony VRDMC5 DVDirect burner which does the same thing. Thankfully Amazon refunded my money less only a small shipping fee.I really have enjoyed the ease of use from my prior DVDirect burner. However, to download from my HDR-HC7 Mini-DV camera, I have to toggle on an option that downgrades the video from HD -> Standard. So even though all my tapes are in HD, I only get standard DV video.I was hoping this would allow me to burn directly to blu-ray from my camera. It does do that, but ONLY if you have a camera with a hard drive. If you have a camera with tapes like mine, it is not an improvement.So if you have a Mini-DV camera you probably can find a VRDMC5 or VRDMC6 burner that works just fine at a cheaper cost. I'm giving this 1 star because this is really is a huge waste of money for anyone with a Mini-DV and Sony ought to be much more clear about that!