Review on Sony VRDMC3 DVDirect DVD Recorder: Efficient and Versatile Disc Recording Solution by Bill Martinson

When I first set this up, ripping VHS tapes worked like a dream, even with a different manufacturer's VCR. I then tried with firewire according to the manual Hi-8 tapes of a Sony digital camcorder (DCR-TRV310) to copy. I get a message that recording will start after tape rewind, but when I rewind the recording doesn't start and I can't start it even if I manually press the "Play" button on the camcorder again or start it with a rewound tape . I can't figure out this issue as for example the camcorder works fine when connected to a TV so I don't think it's a problem. Who else has this problem? Could this have something to do with the Hi-8 cassettes shot on a previous generation Sony camcorder? If that was the problem, I somehow wouldn't expect it to be that problem compared to an error message. Any solutions? I suspect when I call Sony they tell me it's the camcorder's fault (even though it's Sony!) and I doubt it.