Sony RDR-VX500 DVD Player/Recorder with VCR (RDRVX500)

DVDs suck. If you think differently, don't read on.Now that that's out of the way, here's why the RDR-VX500 is a piece of junk.1. iLink interface doesn't work. More likely to work as the length of a title is shortened. Can still hang w/ titles as short as 5 minutes.2. Title/disk naming menu is ridiculously arcane & is missing about 90% of the most common punctuation symbols one normally uses, including ".", """, "'", etc. Panasonic's menu is so-so but 10 times better. Panasonic also lets you choose the thumbnail for each title -- but Sony FORCES YOU TO BE STUCK with whatever the first frame of the title is -- LAME! Newer models are reportedly just as lame, too!3. disk tray not slow -- good. But like all DVDs, takes minutes to load/read, and many minutes to write anything.4. Fast forward modes suck; says FF1, FF2, FF3; not 5x, 10x, 100x, etc. Need I mention that when you get to the end of a title there's no going back? That's just a "feature" of all DVDs. Nothing like watching an entire show just to check you actually recorded it all. FF too far/fast? Too bad, sucker -- this is the world of DVDs! -- you gotta start over! Did you know that DVDs suck?5. The tiniest microscopic particle can wreck your DVD write. Ever try to make a backup copy of one of those (occassionally successful) homemade DVDs? I'm only at about 90% success on this (yes, I try all 3 of my computer's DVD readers each time). Can all of the blame go to Sony? Maybe not, but remember -- DVDs suck! Yes, I tried Sony media. And TDK. And Verbatim. And Memorex. And about 5 other brands. It's not like I didn't try to get it to work. What I wonder is, would VHS ever have even taken off if it was like this? Actually, I know for a fact that the answer is NO. The ONLY thing DVD has going for it is that people hoped/assumed it would work at least as well as VHS. (Fools!) BTW, whatever you do, don't let your kids within 10 feet of a DVD! The ensuing scratches from even the most surgical handling in/out of a case will make the disk not merely unreadable, they'll hang your DVD player (you'll find this out after about 10 minutes of waiting for it to read). And if your blank DVD isn't as virgin as the pope, forget even THINKING about recording on it! Your unit will hang so bad you'll wish you were the one getting hanged! I've often had to put up w/ 2 reboots every time there was a supposed "media failure" (funny how my PC was able to use the "bad media" (DVD+RW) every time afterwards!).Geez, gimme VHS, please!

Hope I'm not premature here, but I just made my first DVD dub from a VHS home movie tape and everything is as good as can be. Remember, the VHS playback (which may also record, but who cares?) is in the same streamlined case, so you don't have to hook up your old camcorder, or buy one, or clean the heads, etc. It plays back S-VHS too, so I imagine it can dub those as well, although I haven't tried. If you're familiar with video equipment, will take about five minutes to get going; if you're not familiar, maybe 15 minutes or more depending on your aptitude for following manuals for "menu" items. Incidentally, probably a very much higher percentage of unsatisfied customers (got "lemon", nitpicker, neurotic, etc.) post negative reviews on the web than the percentage of satisfied customers. Elementary psychology, my dear Watson.Addendum May 20, 2005: while it makes a DVD from S-VHS it does not make a S-VHS from your commercial or other DVD -- only a VHS. I've bought so much equipment I believe this is a manufacturing cost difference to SONY of about $2, but of course I could be way off. Perhaps there is a copyright/duplication issue lurking in their anti-consumer choice here. I also dubbed from a JVC MINI-DV camcorder, purchasing from eBay the connecting cord for about $10 instead of JVC's house cord for about $35. When you hit the start button on the SONY recorder, it automatically starts the camcorder as well, a characteristic, evidently, of DV connections. Finally, you might think the slot for your VHS home tape is unnecessary, as you could simply cable your camcorder or a VCR to a simpler designed DVD recorder. Trust me, it's a lot more fun not to have bother with another appliance. (But note I had to for my MINI-DV tapes, and will have to use yet another appliance (or a camcorder) to track my HI-8 and 8 tapes for DVD dubbing. How many more formats before I die?)