Convert those old VHS tapes to DVDs!

The VHS format is becoming obsolete. The time to convert your favorites to DVD is now, easy and inexpensive.

That old, bulky collection of VHS recordings will decompose over time and VHS players are on the verge of obsolescence.  You can copy those tapes to DVDs with only your VHS player and the SONY VRD-MC5 DVD Recorder.  This handy little device can preserve your favorite old films, photos saved to a memory card and personal taped memories.

Archiving older media often involves transferring it to something newer and more durable over time. The SONY VRD-MC5 Recorder simplifies this seemingly difficult process. While no format has ever been nor is not likely now forever, the DVD is the modern standard and is apt to be around for a good many years.

Like many other people, I have acquired hundreds of VHS tapes over the years.  Some are professionally made films and others are home movies. I have also used them, in the old VCR to record TV shows to save or for watching at other times. Having recently converted to a DVR (Digital Video Recorder), I needed the VCR only to watch my old tapes. 


One at a time, I am copying them, with ease and simplicity, to DVD using the SONY VCD-MC5 DVD Recorder. Then, I can watch everything on the DVD player.

Amateur video recording technologies have changed considerably over the years.  My earliest home movies were on ‘standard' 8mm film, then 8mm ‘super 8,' and later still, VHS.  Years ago, I had my favorite 8mm films converted, by a local drug store, to VHS before the original film became too brittle to use. Now we have entered the age of the digital image, most commonly archived on a DVD format. These will last a good deal longer than any type of recording tape can be expected to.

The history of audio recording is even more complex having taken consumers through vinyl recordings (16, 33, 45 and 78 RPM,) real-to-reel tapes, 8-track, cassettes and currently CDs.

In shopping for the equipment to accomplish these transfers myself, I looked at a good many ‘combination' machines that have both a DVD player and a VCR built in. They will play either and will allow for a recording transfer from the old tape to a new DVD.  The problems with this solution were simply that 1) I didn't need or want another VCR, 2) I already have a new ‘upscaling' DVD player and 3) those machines are quite expensive. I looked at several in the $300 - $450 range.

I searched for some time before discovering this SONY DVD recorder. A small box measuring only 7.5" (W) X 9" (L) X 2.5" (H) and weighing in at only 3.3 pounds, it connects via a variety of cabling options to video cameras or to any other video device. The connecting options include standard (red, white and yellow) video tri-cable, USB, mini-FireWire and an S-Video input. The SONY VRD-MC5 also has slots for memory cards of various types that video material or photographs can be copied onto DVDs from.  It really is an all-in-one little package!

Dubbing is also an available feature but I have not used it yet because, to date, what I have on tape or saved on a memory card is exactly what you want a DVD copy of.

While it is essentially a single function device - doing only one thing, burning other media to DVD - it afford many choices and options in that singular purpose and process.

No computer is required.  You simply plug in the SONY DVD recorder to a power sources and connect the device (or insert the card) you want to make a DVD of.  It really is that simple.  The menu is on a small screen (1.5 X 2",) is quite easily intuitive and you can also track your recording as it appears on that screen in real time as the transfer is burned onto the DVD.

You can start it up and walk away until you return to OK the ‘finalization' of the newly burned DVD copy of your material.

All major types of recordable DVDs will work with this SONY DVD Recorder, including DVD+RR (single or double layer,) DVD+RW, DVD-R (or DVD-R DL,) and DVD-RW.
Recording from a VHS is in ‘real time' while recoding DVDs from other recorded media (Camcorder, memory sticks, cards, etc.) is considerably quicker depending on your selection of Standard or High Definition and a range of quality/mode selections within each of those two major categories.

I have found a simple way of keeping the SONY DVD Recorder plugged in and atop the old (and plugged in) VCR.  In this way, I can just pop an old VHS tape and bland DVD any time I run across another VHS I would really like to preserve and make more easily playable.

The VRD-MC5 retails for about $150.  I chose to purchase a factory refurbished one (new, as far as I could tell) directly from SONY for just over $100.  It is a modest investment I expect to easily pay for itself in the coming months. Having VHS tapes converted one-at-a-time at a store quickly becomes prohibitively expensive.

Setting it up took about 5 minutes and was simply a matter of plugging in power to both devices and connecting the transfer cables.

So if, like me and many people I know, you have amassed a collection of VHS recordings and want to save them and be able to watch them on your DVD player, take a look at this SONY DVD Recorder.