panasonic vw-bn1 avchd archive and playback dvd burner for sd5, sd9 & hs9 camcorders

Rating:
Date: 2008-05-17
Useful, but slow and limited media compatibility
Title says it all, really.

The Good:
===================

1. Utility.
This is a pretty useful item if you own one of the compatible Panasonic camcorders. I have the HDC-SD9 1080i camcorder which uses only SDHC cards, and so having this little drive is super handy when traveling and you want to keep using a single SDHC card to record hours of HD video, because it allows you to burn onto DVD (single or dual-layer) media and then reuse the memory card. After connecting the drive to my HDC-SD9 (both of which need to be connected to AC adaptors) via USB cable (with different mini-USB connectors on each end... don't lose it!), it's as easy as selecting the burn video option. It lets you select specific video clips stored on the memory card and will let you know, after selecting your clips, how many DVD-R or DVD-R DL (dual-layer) will be required for the selected clips. Easy to use.

2. Design.
This little drive is pretty sleek, aluminum-cased, compact in size, is relatively quiet when operating, and should be easy to carry around. No power button, but why would you need one?

3. Taiyo Yuden compatible!
Yes, I only burn on TY media, and I can verify that their standard 16x DVD-R work fine. Unfortunately, TY doesn't make any dual/double layer media at this time (or at least, they don't sell them to the public).


The Bad:
========================

1. 6X burning speed for DVD-R (including DVD-R dual-layer).
This drive would be a bit better if it could burn a DVD-R DL at 8x and a DVD-R at 16x, instead of 4x speed, which would speed things up significantly.

2. No DVD+R (or DVD+R DL) support.
This is a real let down of this drive. Unlike almost every DVD burner out there, this dvd writer will only let you use DVD-R media and not DVD+R discs. This is bad because, for whatever reason, DVD+R DL media are cheaper and faster for the price generally. 8x DVD+R DL are plentiful and easily obtained, while only 4x DVD-R DL discs seem to exist at the current time.

The Bottom Line:
=======================

Overall, I would recommend this drive despite its shortcomings, those being primarily the lack of 8x burning and DVD+R support. Still, it's a highly useful companion to easily burn your HD videos onto DVD (until blu-ray burners become affordable) for convenience while traveling and simply for avoiding the slow and painful video editing process (until home computers become more powerful) for those who don't mind watching unedited, raw footage.

Rating:
Date: 2008-04-29
Works as promised
I am using this with my HDC-SD9 camcorder, and it works well with DVD-R discs. Every time I use it to burn a DVD, I think it is surely about to break down due to the variety of noises it makes, but so far so good. Also, by connecting this to my camcorder and then connecting the camcorder to my TV, I am able to play back the AVCHD disks and display them on my TV without a blu-ray player. I do wish it had an on/off switch.

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