Sony RDR-VX525 DVD Recorder / VCR Combo

Pros: The process of hook up was easy as is the dubbing.
Cons: If I had to use the book as a guide I would have been lost.

My wife purchased the Sony RDR-VX525 DVD Recorder/VCR Player for me last week. I have set it up and I'm now using it. For some reason or other I'm not a natural when it comes to setting up wires from here to there. I was fortunate though, the Sony ...

Pros: Fine as a Combo DVD/VHS player, but overpriced for that.
Cons: Recorded DVDs can't be played on other machines, making it essentially useless as a recorder.

I copied two VHS tapes to DVDs on this machine. The DVDs play back on this machine, but every other DVD player I tried failed to play them, including another Sony DVD player which displayed a "no disc" error. I also couldn't play them on my computer, and I tried a variety of software DVD players and DVD ripping software. It is not a codec issue. One DVD burner program was able to tell me that the DVDs contained 1 session with 2 tracks, with the second track (judging by its size) containing the video/audio data. This is not any kind of standard format. It's useless if you want to play the DVDs on any other player, or on your computer.

Pros: Simple dubbing function.
Cons: Some DVDs skip while playing, and always at the same spot. Not on the computer.

Recording older VCR moves that do not have the anti copy protection code on them, record fine. Before playing them on another DVD player or computer, the disk has to be finalized by the recording DVD player unit. A previous reviewer stated that the disks recorded by this play were not playable at all on any other DVD units on the market. I have found that this is NOT the case, they play fine.

Pros: Works fine. Plays on all machines
Cons: None.

This recorder works fine. The reviewer who could not play recorded dvds on other machines obviously did not "finalize" his recordings. He should have read the instructions.