The New York Times
March 8, 2007
State of the Art
A New Box From Sony Turns Videotapes Into Shiny DVDs
By DAVID POGUE
E-mail: [EMAIL PROTECTED]
Citizens of ancient cultures made no multimedia records of their own
birthday parties, weddings or babies’ first steps. How tragic and
boring. When they sat down in front of the TV after dinner at family
gatherings, what on earth did they watch?
Yet even in the most recorded, videotaped and photographed society in
history, we have our own issues. For example, we insist upon upgrading
our recording technologies every few years, each time orphaning millions
of disks, reels and cassettes in older formats. All over the world, VHS
and camcorder tapes from the 1980s and ’90s are slowly turning to dust.
And it’s becoming harder and harder to find the equipment you need to
play back some of those videos.
Even the DVD will one day turn out to have been a temporary format, but
at least it has advantages over tapes. The video quality is terrific.
You can skip around without rewinding or fast-forwarding. And homemade
DVDs may last 100 years, if you believe the vendors of those gold-coated
blanks.
Now, the technologically savvy computer nut thinks nothing of connecting
an old camcorder or VCR to a well-equipped Mac or PC; hitting Play;
waiting two hours for each tape to transfer in real time; editing and
touching up the result on the computer screen; and then waiting another
two hours for the resulting video burn onto a DVD.
But in Sony’s opinion (and many other people’s), this is much too
laborious, expensive and time-consuming. Enter the Sony DVDirect
VRD-MC3, a $218 box that converts old (and new) videotapes into shiny
new DVDs with an emphasis on two extremely important attributes:
simplicity and reproduction quality.
Under the hood of the cleanly designed, black-and-white plastic case
(12.7 by 4.9 by 10.6 inches) is a DVD burner that accepts almost any
format of blank disc: DVD-R, DVD+R, DVD-RW, DVD+RW, and dual-layer
(extra-capacity) versions of each. (There is one exception: the DVDirect
doesn’t accept the dual-layer DVD-RW variety.)
The steps to follow, and the experience you’ll have, depend on what
you’re copying to and from; this is an extraordinarily versatile
machine. In every case, however, the 2.5-inch color screen provides
simple instructions. You operate the whole affair with only four
controls: Record, Stop, Return and a four-arrow navigation button.
OLD VIDEOS Suppose you’ve got a stash of VHS, 8-millimeter or Hi-8
videotapes. You can connect your old VCR or camcorder to the DVDirect
using either an S-video cable (for best color) or using the usual set of
three RCA cables (red, white and yellow). Once you hit Play on the VCR,
the DVDirect auto-detects which jack is being used. Then you hit Record.
If you’re willing to baby-sit the transfer, you can press Stop on the
DVDirect at any time, fast-forward or change the tape, and then hit
Record again; doing so creates a new “title” on the DVD’s menu, complete
with a thumbnail image of the scene. Hitting Pause instead creates a
new, invisible “chapter” marker; later, you can use your DVD player’s
Previous or Next button to skip among these markers during playback.
Alternatively, you can walk away and let the thing roll unattended. The
Sony can add chapter markers every 5, 10, 15 or 20 minutes for your
convenience.
You have a choice of five quality settings. The HQ setting provides
spectacular video quality — virtually indistinguishable from the source.
At this setting, you get one hour of video per regular DVD, or two hours
per dual-layer DVD.
Before you can use any finished DVD in a regular DVD player, you must
“finalize” it — a software finishing process that takes two minutes.
DIGITAL VIDEOTAPES If you have a more recent camcorder — a MiniDV
digital model — things are even simpler. You connect the camcorder to
the Sony’s FireWire jack. The camcorder magically rewinds itself and
then pours itself onto a blank DVD. Each scene on the tape is supposed
to become a new title on the DVD automatically, although that feature
didn’t work on my unit.
The Sony can even handle video from Sony high-definition camcorders,
although it doesn’t burn high-def DVDs — just wide-screen, standard ones.
HARD-DRIVE CAMCORDERS Some of Sony’s latest camcorders record onto
built-in hard drives. The DVDirect is a natural for these models, since
emptying out that hard drive once it’s full is a periodic requirement.
As a bonus, making such a transfer doesn’t require a one-hour real-time
waiting period, since the machine can slurp down the finished computer
files right off the camcorder’s hard drive.
DVD CAMCORDERS Why would you need the DVDirect if your camcorder already
records onto DVDs? Easy — to consolidate several of those 30-minute
miniature discs onto one full-size, higher-capacity one.
DIGITAL CAMERAS The DVDirect has built-in slots for every kind of
popular memory card. You can insert a digital camera’s card and, after
waiting about 10 seconds per photo, crank out a DVD containing a slide
show, complete with background music. You get a choice of four canned,
surprisingly not-cheesy-sounding music soundtracks. The included
compositions loop undetectably and endlessly, so that the music never
runs out in mid-slide show.
As an alternative, you can save time by copying the card’s photos
directly to the DVD — no slide show, no music — which is a great way to
make a backup of your pictures, or to help yourself to the photos from
somebody else’s camera (at a birthday party, say).
YOUR PC You can even hook up this burner to your PC and use it as a
conventional DVD drive for making backups. A junior version of the
popular Nero disc-burning software for Windows comes in the box.
This setup, however, is a waste of the DVDirect’s talent. The great
thing about having a stand-alone box is that you can park it in some
public place — the kitchen table or the den — and check on its progress
as you walk by.
The DVDirect is a delightfully simple, very flexible machine that brings
all kinds of old memories into the DVD age. Use it long enough, however,
and you’ll wish for some subtle improvements. First, there’s the coaster
problem.
A coaster, of course, is a wasted disc that didn’t burn correctly. It’s
a cost of doing business for anyone who burns DVDs, but a heartbreaker
on the Sony because, in many cases, you’ve sat through two hours of
camcorder playback before getting the bad news. Online customer reviews
of the DVDirect indicate that some people never get coasters; others get
a coaster here and there; and a few get so many coasters, they return
the machine. The determining factor, says Sony, may be the brand of
blanks you buy. (I got only 2 coasters in 25 burns, although two
successfully burned DVDs had mysterious brief dropouts in the sound.)
The photo slide shows generally look great, but the conversion of your
pictures to DVD video format degrades the quality of certain photos —
those with prominent diagonal lines — pretty harshly.
There are no audio or video outputs. You can’t, in other words, use the
device as a DVD player, and unless the VCR or camcorder offers sound,
you can’t monitor the audio as you transfer an old tape.
Finally, it’s too bad that the steps are different for each kind of
source and each kind of blank DVD. For example, the DVDirect offers to
finalize some disc types automatically when they’re full; after burning
other types, you have to start that process yourself using the menu.
Fortunately, the DVDirect’s manual is one of Sony’s finest efforts —
clear, well organized and free from laughable cross-cultural misfires.
In the end, though, you wind up liking the DVDirect, probably because
this utilitarian, impersonal machine is a gateway to some emotional,
nostalgic experiences. True, ancient cultures left no video and
photographic records of their lives for future generations to enjoy. But
thanks to thoughtfully conceived gadgets like this one, you won’t have
to make the same mistake.
_______________________________________________
Bib_virtual mailing list
[email protected]
https://listas.ibict.br/mailman/listinfo/bib_virtual
