Sony VRD MC5 Multi Function DVD Recorder Check Over and Tear Down

[@andrew1479]

This is a great machine and I still use one at work. The only thing that tends to go wrong is the loading belt for the DVD platter sometimes needs replacing.

[@12voltvids]

And it had a slot on the bottom to manually load and unload if the belt slips. I think it's cool and will be using it.

[@tacofortgens3471]

​@@12voltvids im going to use this for video8 hi8 digital8 transfers, due to firewire input.

[@12voltvids]

@@tacofortgens3471 yup it works great.

[@dadbabyletsplayz5132]

I thought about getting one of these years ago for when I did weddings and the bride only wanted the footage and no editing of video but I never did get one. Looks like a neat unit. Be nice if they had a bluray version of this for todays HD content.

[@12voltvids]

Yes a Blu-ray version would be nice. This does a good job for analog capture. It actually records higher but rate than my toshiba. I'd i record a full disk, let's say in 1 hour mode. My Toshiba records about 1:03 and the burn goes to about 5mm to the edge of the disk. Same recording on the Sony also about 1:03 but the burn goes right out to the outside edge of the disk, so the Sony uses more space on the disk. This would be a higher bit rate for the video.

[@TonyBullard]

Thank you for providing a teardown! That front white cover had me stumped as well!

[@allenfleckney5969]

Thanks for this Dave. Very interesting I just bought one in the uk for £20 pounds. EBay.

[@jerryspann8713]

I've actually recorded 1080p video to a CD as an MP4 file and it plays back in HD on a bluray player.

[@12voltvids]

Many Bluray players will play .MP4 files. All of mine will and they don't care if it is on a USB stuck, CDR, DVDR or BDR disc. I have Insignia/Dynex and Sony. The old one won't but the modern ones no problem.

[@imissmypencils]

That’s awesome! What program did you use to do that?

[@tacofortgens3471]

Windows can burn disks, drop a mp4 file on a CD and burn it​@@imissmypencils

[@andrewmorris2461]

No disrespect dave your still sounding under the weather, hope your feeling better than you sound. Been sounding rough for a few days now.

[@12voltvids]

It's fu*king covid. I still feel like I have been run over. Neck is stiff now. Have to stay off the day job till i test negative and as of tonight I am still positive. I thought it was the flu when last weekend it hit me very fast. Son has it too. I was able to dodge it the last 3 waves but it was brought into the house by my son that loved public transit with all the sick people up close and personal. He had it a week before me and still has it.

[@andrewmorris2461]

I was guessing it was coved but didn't want to speculate, definitely another wave around my area as well. Take it easy, hope you're better asap.

[@altanphedap6361]

​@@12voltvidsGet well soon

[@12voltvids]

@@andrewmorris2461 i dodged it for 3 years and it bit me. I'm careful but my son who doesn't drive (yet, he has his learner's but has not gone to driver school yet) loves to ride the bus with all the infected losers without enough common sense to stay the fuck home when they are sick. Hey what good is covid if you don't pass it around. Not feeling too bad but can't go back to work till i test clear.

[@markmarkofkane8167]

Nice compact unit. Looks handy. Would it record over the air tv?

[@12voltvids]

It does not have a tuner but if you plugged it into VCR or cable box it would. I'm sure it won't record a copy protected recording though without a scrubber.

[@vwestlife]

Maybe it only supports 1080i AVCHD, not 1080p.

[@12voltvids]

It only supports specific model of cameras. I have 1 perhaps 2 that it supports. It doesn't see my newer cameras.

[@altanphedap6361]

I do have same machine.... I copied VHS tapes to DVD... BUT poor things is that I do have only mono VCR..... 😢😢😢

[@bsanchez3563]

Not sure aboht a hard drive being small enough to be in a camcorder but a supposed fornat but never in store seen on hsekves forn of card called m2 or memorysticj micro mark 2 and alsk micro sdxc cards at least as big as 64gb if not even more perhaps for the only seemingly apparent storage from a hdrcx240 but they even made em blue if you want vs just mate black and for the win from my opinion for what average of devices are abke to be had for a oem version of any devixe in more than standard colors of limited selection.. :D not trying to brag by any means as I do not want to seem boastful intending..though for quite the cintrary by far I wish the hdrcx240 had included in the default included stuff... a way to use dv inputs on a dvd recorder vs having to seek out a resort of measures for connecting from it by the only port/output it havps ie besides micro hdmi is the built in usb cable.. but not a way to havevany included out of the box.. 5:16 ooh that sounds nice in my opinion at least for what it is worth lol ... interesting. But heck evenvthe composite cable could have been included to make it possoble without tracking down some sort of reputable source for a surefire safe way to trust that I can find a decent build qaulity of a vmc15mr2 I am pretty sure that is the correct model of cable to be abke to back up the camcorder.. otherwise at mercy of a micro sd card never going bad or not showing garbled looking pixelated or somehow not legible data where once a wedding video or other stuff used to be or was supposed to be tbh.. oh well.

[@tacofortgens3471]

I got one but the disc spindle is broken, dvd wobbles and burns fail

[@mabbaticchio]

Nice video Dave as usual. I have the same model. When I record from my Sony HiFi VCR using the composite cable, it is recording a very small area of what seems like distorted video along the bottom edge of the picture. I've read that this is to be expected when playing back on modern TVs and that old CRT TVs would have not shown that portion of the video. Is there any way to avoid this? It has nothing to do with the recorder I know cause I can also see it when I just play back the video on an LCD Monitor from the VCR.

[@12voltvids]

Thats the head switch point 7 lines before vertical sync. All analog video has this. Crt hid this with overscan. Difital displays you have to live with it.

[@mabbaticchio]

@@12voltvids Thanks for the explanation Dave. Puts my mind at ease.

[@m9ovich785]

Strange coincidence Dave... I see one of these for sale locally and did a Google search for it and this video popped up ahahahah One of these days I'll make it through all your Videos .... Mike M..

[@12voltvids]

Considering how many I have done that will take awhile.

[@TonyBullard]

Ugh. I think mine has a bad drive. The "Checking the disc" function takes 4 or 5 minutes on it's own. Yours seems to have done it within a minute. I've managed to record one thing successfully, ( I can preview it on the machine ) but I can't get a disc to finalize.

[@12voltvids]

Try opening and dusting off the lens.

[@ernestojavier5488]

Me Gusta muy practica.

[@Miao-cm4jx]

Can it be burned without a menu like a data DVD?

[@massapower]

I keep inserting blank DVD-R and it gives me error. Unreadable Disc inserted. I've tried many blanks and also Pre-Recorded and even original DVD'S. What can be the problem? Thx 😁

[@12voltvids]

Bad drive or dirty lens.

[@tacofortgens3471]

Mine has a bad spindle motor, dvd wobbles laser cannot track 😮, trtying to get a parts donor

[@brwncrss1]

Perhaps could this transfer videos pictures and music from a modern cell phone 📱 ,,?? ( Apple 12 or so ?? ) to burn it and transfer in to a dvd 📀 format ??

[@12voltvids]

This DVD recorder accepts firewire from a digital camera such as a mini DV or digital 8, composite video in and S-Video in plus audio. It will make slideshows from still images on compact flash memory stick are SD cards. You can also record AVCHD which is high definition discs that play in a Blu-ray player from certain models of Sony camera namely the hard drive based and some of the earlier flash based cameras by connecting the USB port. I have one camera that that feature is supported on and that's my hybrid HD camera that has the DVD burner built in if I record video to a memory stick or to the internal memory I can plug that camera in and take the files right off of the camera to a larger ABC HD disc and can actually burn a dual layer disc which can have up to 90 minutes of video. but as far as connecting it to anything else other than those specified devices it doesn't do anything but yet it is it a neat product. if I can find my old cx-220 camera that I gave my son years ago and he's lost it in his bedroom somewhere it might work with media recorded on that camera I'll have to try it if he can ever find the camera. As I say I gave it to him when I got my ax 33 I gave him my old camera as he wanted a camera to do some stuff for his own little KZbin channel that he was playing around with 10 years ago and I haven't seen it since it's buried somewhere I'm sure in his bedroom under a pile of something that he can't find if you saw his room you would understand it looks like a bomb went off you think my bench is messy you should see my 24-year-old son's games room in bedroom.

[@lox_501]

Dave question, after owning a DVD player for about a year and suddenly when playing a disc it starts to freeze up the picture for a few millisecond during the whole movie even though it never freezed up before, what causes that.

[@12voltvids]

Usually it's the spindle motor bearing getting sloppy.

[@lox_501]

@@12voltvids ok so if the motor bearing is getting sloppy does that mean the bearing is worn out? At that point is it repairable or replace the whole unit.

[@12voltvids]

@@lox_501 so what happens on CD and DVD (and this is one of the reasons they say not to stick labels on disks of any kind as it causes an imbalance) is if disks are not perfectly balances when. Spinning they cause a wobble. This is not an issue untill the bearings start to wear then this wobble is amplified when it gets too great it can cause read errors. I have one that i just use for background noise (scenery DVD play) and every time it gets to a certain point it starts to freeze. When the motor slows as the disk reads out and it gets to a certain speed it resonates and causes trouble. If I leave it on chapter repeat so the laser is not at that location / disk speed it's fine. Since DVD players are a dime a dozen I would just gab another and a few spares for when they get hard to find.

[@RobsonWilliam82]

Damn, I just saw this being offered used, just saying it is a DVD recorder, no model # informed. Thanks! 😅

[@leonjohnsonjr3331]

Can u change the recorder on this unit or it program to the system

[@12voltvids]

No idea.

[@craigw.scribner6490]

Great review--thanks!

[@ilcommentatoree1320]

Can it be used as a portable DVD player?

[@12voltvids]

If you like silent movies it can. There is no speaker or audio output. It's designed for authoring disks.

[@ilcommentatoree1320]

Sin! thank you all the same

[@leonjohnsonjr3331]

I got 3 of these unit but I got the black ones

[@tacofortgens3471]

Thats a later model without svideo in, mc6 I bepieve and uses a laptop drive ans is slapler

[@plesio2830]

you forgot to put rubber legs over the screws

[@12voltvids]

No I didn't.

[@staswlad]

1394 DV

[@12voltvids]

Firewire

[@TheWretchedWorld]

Bought one of these new old stock for $100 Australian so I could effortlessly digitise all my vhs tapes

[@12voltvids]

They work great

[@leonjohnsonjr3331]

The mc6 dont have the s-video connection like the mc5

[@12voltvids]

So it's a downgrade?

[@12voltvids]

@@tacofortgens3471 at the 1:07 point your question was answered. 95% of the questions asked by everyone are answered in the video if you bothered to watch and not create a your own highlight reel by skipping forward. Those that skip forward don't do me any good as far as revenue goes because time watched counts for ad rev. There is a reason that most videos are around 30 min because short videos earn a fraction of what longer ones do. I don't mind answering questions it's just that when the question is asked was answered in the first minute of the video I kind of get annoyed.

[@leonjohnsonjr3331]

No the mc6 dont have s- video I got 3 of then but the mc5 have the s-video

[@leonjohnsonjr3331]

​@@tacofortgens3471not the mc6

[@12voltvids]

@@leonjohnsonjr3331 Does the mc6 create video from sd cards. In other words can you plug an avchd card in and make an avchd video? The mc5 can not, you have to plug a comparable camera in via USB, if you remove the memory stick and plug it into the mc5 all it can do is make a slideshow from stills.

[@leonjohnsonjr3331]

Consumer CDs

[@12voltvids]

?

[@leonjohnsonjr3331]

@@12voltvids that's what they call the cds that only play in certain CD recorder's

[@12voltvids]

@@leonjohnsonjr3331 No, there are 2 types of CDR. Regular CD-R and CD-R Music. They are identical except for a little code that is stamped into the preamble area that the laser reads. This is also where the disk info (write speed ect) is stored. Manufactures of home audio recorders had to check for this code or they wouldn't record. These blank disks had a royalty tax added as they were intended to record music. In Canada we got fuc*ed because we had to pay royalty tax on all CD regardless if we were using them for music or photos. The music rated discs however were hit with an even higher tax. I think it was over 1.00 per disk. Imagine going to the store to buy a spindle of 100 discs and having a 100 tax added at the till. Regular CD had a .40 tax. Still do afaik. I bought about 600 disks just before the tax came into effect. Manufacturers started dumping really cheap discs to try to get in before the tax hit and many of those disks didn't last even 5 years. I lucked out and got a few hundred Fuji maxell and tdk and probably still have 100 or more sealed awaiting recording. There was a way to trick the consumer player to record on regular disks. Load a blank audio disk and let it read up. Once read open the recorder and remove the disk manually (without ejecting it) and replace with regular disk. Make recording and finalize in 1 session. Done. Hmmm sound like too much work for me, I'll pass and get my hands on a pro recorder.

[@leonjohnsonjr3331]

@@12voltvids yes sir I remember I was first to make cds in my neighborhood in 96 I bought my recorder from incredible universe I paid 1600 for it but the blanks was $20 a pop

[@tacofortgens3471]

Chicken