Sony VRD-MC5 DVD Burner Gets U.S. Releaseby David KenderPublished on Jul 18, 2007 2:56 PM 
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July 18, 2007 – Sony today announced the US release of the VRD-MC5 DVD burner, which will ship in August for a retail price of $230. The burner, which offers support for select hard disk drive and flash memory AVCHD camcorders, was first announced in Japan in May. The VRD-MC5 offers the ability to connect with the Sony HDR-SR5, HDR-SR7, and HDR-CX7 (Specs, Recent News, $1199) camcorders, transferring still photos and standard definition and AVCHD footage for burning to full-sized DVDs without the use of a computer. The burner features several connections, including FireWire, S-Video, composite, component, and USB. Sony states that the final discs of standard definition video are playable in most consumer DVD players. Discs of HD video, however, are limited to Blu-Ray players, which many consumers have not yet adopted. The press release includes a reminder that Sony’s own PlayStation 3 is a Blu-Ray compatible player.
While the VRD-MC5 burner will accept AVCHD, only Sony-branded AVCHD camcorders are compatible. Also, the burner will not convert HDV file streams. The VDR-MC5 retails for $230 and is expected to hit stores in August.