I just got one of these babies. I am an IT professional and have the PC equipment for burning DVDs and capturing video, but I still felt that I wanted this unit.

The features that appealed to me were:

- 16x write speed

- Sony brand name

- DV input

- Dual Layer burning support

- Stand-alone mode (no PC needed)

I have this hooked up to my home theater. I have an HD setup and a Motorola 6412 Hi-Def DVR. So far I have been able to make excellent copies of kid's shows from Nick and Cartoon Network, etc, in the SLP format (6 hour record time). Those are GREAT for long trips with the portable DVD player.

I have also made excellent DVDs of my home movies shot with our Sony HC30 digital video camcorder. That's where the DV firewire (IEEE-1394) input comes in handy. You will have to buy a firewire cable if you don't already have one. I needed the 4 to 4 cable that has the mini d-shaped connectors on... Read more

First off, I'll admit, $250 for a recorder is a pretty steep commitment, and I wouldn't suggest anyone pay more than that for this one. Now, having admitted that it's a bit excessively pricey, I'll say I am pleased with this burner and feel no remorse in shelling out the bucks. When it comes to electronics, I really do believe the adage "you get what you pay for." But to be fair to it, I need to review it in two parts. The concept of a burner that works with a PC and as a stand-alone recorder is pretty novel still, and admittedly, not perfected. This is the Swiss Army knife of burners, and while it is a lady of high-class and quality, like anything designed for a multi-use function, it isn't able to do everything perfectly with all the bells and whistles. It's important to really examine the technical specs on this product, make sure it does what you are buying it for-don't buy it blind and risk disappointment because it doesn't do exactly what you expected. I wanted this to use as a... Read more

I bought this about a month ago, and by now, I can fairly say this is the best dvd burner out there! It is so simple to burn from vhs, that I was able to burn all my very old home movies without any problem... The 2 inch screen is extremely helpful, since this way you know when to stop it... It is very easy to setup the dvd on diff. quality modes, so if my vhs was very old and the quality wasn?t that good, then I was able to burn about 6 hours on one dvd with the same quality as the old one...

Another plus nobody seems to have mentioned, I can burn directly from my tv! I am going on a long car trip, so I burned for my kids 6 hours of disney channel programming so that they could watch cartoons they hadn?t seen before!

Why didn?t I give 5 stars? Well because the only thing missing is a way to create menus, titles, etc. from movies burned without the computer, maybe, if before finalizing I could do something with it in my computer, then I would give it 10... Read more