A
rchiving creaky, old
analog footage is sort of
like flossing—we all know
we should do it, but it’s such
an easy thing to blow off. And if
flossing was the same tricky, three-
stage process as converting VHS tapes to
DVD—digitize, encode, burn—it’s a safe
bet that few of us would have any teeth
left in our head.
A handful of products, including
Plextor’s ConvertX, have simplified the
process, but we’ve never encountered
anything as simple as Sony’s DVDirect.
We hooked up a VCR loaded with a
legendary tape of a beloved colleague
barfing into a patch of succulents during
a Future Network company weekend,
pressed two buttons, and the DVDirect
spat out a set-top compliant DVD-
Video, complete with chapter stops at
15 minute intervals (yes, the stomach-
churning episode went on for that long).
That’s so cool it’s not even funny.
The DVDirect can do this parlor trick
with any analog signal carried on a
composite or S-Video cable—from your
camcorder, VCR, or television—with
its composite or S-Video inputs, as
long as the source doesn’t use CGMS
or Macrovision copy protection (that
includes most commercial VHS tapes).
The DVDirect will automatically begin
recording as soon as it detects a signal,
and at the lowest quality setting, you
can pack up to 12 hours on a single
DVD. You can specify the chapter-stop
intervals, and even whether to make the
disc play automatically when dropped
into a set-top player.
Connect the DVDirect to a PC via
USB, install the bundled Nero software,
and you’ve got a DVD burner capable of
writing at 16x to DVD+R media rated for
that speed, and at 8x to DVD-R media
(if you can find it—no one could supply
us with any at press time). At 16x, we
wrote 4.25GB to a disc in six minutes
flat. Burning 8GB to double-layer media
took just 43:11 (min:sec)—so there are
no speed issues with this drive. The
DVDirect would not, however, burn at
speeds exceeding the media’s rating
If you don’t already have a DVD
burner, chances are it’s because you’ve
been waiting for a drive like the
DVDirect: one that makes converting
analog sources to DVD-Video truly
effortless; and one that supports disc-
burning speeds that exceed what most
folks can afford in media anyway.
It should be noted, however, that
recording an analog signal direct to
DVD with this device, but without a
PC, can be done only with the DVD+R
format. This will produce discs that
are compatible with fewer older set-
top DVD players than DVD-R discs are.
The drive also lacks a FireWire port
(yes, we know that creating DVDs from
FireWire-equipped DV cams is already a
breeze). And the DVDirect was unable
to record any of our commercial VHS
tapes, not even our aged Schoolhouse
Rock compilation. But we can buy that
on DVD—not so with our company-
weekend videotape, which will now be
around for a long, long time.
—LOGAN DECKERSonY $6$iReCt
$6$ "URneR
Give your VHS tapes the
two-finger salute!By far the easiest and most convenient way to archive
analog media; fast burner.COPYRIGHTSCOPYWRONGS
Doesn’t permit recording of copyrighted material, won’t
exceed rated media speed, and very expensive.
$300, http://www.sonystyle.comMA XIMUMPC6%R$)#4 9
Sony’s DVDirect can produce
DVD-Video discs with or without
a PC. Or it can just sit around
and look cool.9.25“6.25