Sony DVDirect VRD-MC1 Review

With the jury still out for the ongoing media format war between Blu-Ray and HD-DVD, the incumbent DVD format continues to find much favor with consumers, aided by falling prices for both media and hardware. Formerly expensive external writers are now affordable though cheap portable flash and hard drives are making them less attractive. The Sony DVDirect VRD-MC1 however is a different beast. While most writers cannot abandon their umbilical cord to the PC, Sony’s DVDirect series of external writers (now into its third generation) does away with a computer altogether.

The Sony VRD-MC1 works fine with or without a PC, easily transferring all your media to the DVD format with a few touches of a button. Priced at a substantial US$259 though, it’s not a gadget for everyone but if you own a camcorder or fancy migrating your VHS collection, it is a rather convenient and hassle-free way to get things done. If only it had video output capability, it would have brought it one step closer to perfection and better convenience.

HardwareZone