Sonel Macro Master Pro

Bought a Vice 1000 - Best thing since sliced bread......

Old Disney video in the bin, lovely copies onto DVD format.

Job done :0))

bought a Sonel Macro Master Pro scart lead by putting the labeled end to dvd the other to tv never had a problem.

Really good to finally get rid of all the old VHS tapes - th eSonel Macro Master Pro is great quality. Fantastic copies & excellent help from the makers.

Great easy to use website very clear on the product descriptions. works great as alternative SKY+ as I can now record all my films and sport that were protected by macrovision directly onto my dvd recorder or my HD recorder using the Macromaster. I bought the Vice1000 for my friend who has recent recording problems with Canal+ to which he has no problem now thanks to the Vice1000

I returned an incorrect item (under their 14 day policy) by "Signed for post" and have been unable to contact them for 3 months. Tried to call by phone or email. BEFORE you order, you will not get any response and will lose your money as I did! Don't trust Sonel.

Sonel Macro Master Pro does not look any different to any other scart lead. I have so far emailed them twice & have received NO service support, let alone an aknowledgement.

The item did not come as descibed with power LED & socket for external power 'if required'.

You'll have heard this before - never trust a website that are not prepared to offer a phone number for customer service.

Yours sincerly,

One seriously unsatisfied customer!!!!!!!

The best thing about the Sonel Macro Master Pro, is its ease of use and its simplicity. However, having been forced to pay more for this product than the perennially advertised price of £19.99, I think I would rather have paid another manufacturer more to give me a better quality product.

I have been watching the Sonel website for almost 2 years now, and they advertise this product for £19.99 on the front page of their website. They have never had the £19.99 version of this product available. It is eventually revealed that the £19.99 cable is "Out of Stock", which has been the case for at least two years, but of course they have an identical product available for £5 extra, in exchange for the dubious advantage of having the connectors gold-plated. I have been e-mailing the company for several months to ask them about this, but I have never had a response, and they never pick up the phone.

Eventually I decided to purchase one at £24.99 because, to be fair, it still seems to be the cheapest solution on the market to Macrovision. It arrived in about 5 days as promised. However, despite the extra £5 worth of gold plating (who needs it for domestic video products), on their available alternative, the picture quality was significantly noisier when routed through this lead, and the colours less vivid and somewhat desaturated. It only works sporadically on certain videos, and the lead that is sent by Sonel, definitely does not resemble what is described on their site. There is no socket for an external power supply, and the lead really is quite flimsy and cheap.

I tested the Sonel Macro Master Pro with my Pioneer DVR recorder and a new Disney DVD. It worked fine, copy protection was removed. It needed extra power, which I took from my wife's silk epil- shaver: 14v/600mA. Didn't work without it. If I tried to copy disk without extra power, it took about 10 seconds for Pioneer DVR to notice that it's not protected and then it started to copy, but without a picture, just the sound was there ;)

Having a 20 odd year old TV, I was more than a little peeved when my new DVD player was virtually unviewable, thanks to the joys of Macrovision.

The Sonel device was the cheapest solution.. so I went for it. In my initial tests it worked fine on three out of six copyrighted DVDs and no effect on the others! Very strange. The LED lit up OK so I didn't really suspect a power problem.

Emailing their sales address only received an automated reply, so I decide to return it under their 14 day returns policy. It must have been about five weeks later the package reappeared marked "Return To Sender". This was using the address on the website and in the enclosed leaflet (Sonel, 4 Kestrel Avenue...)

Out of desperation, I then sourced a small flexible power supply from eBay (under five pounds) and the Sonel device then worked perfectly. The LED was much brighter.

This was a 300mw device and needed to be set for 9 volts. Be careful to check that positive and negative are the right way on the plug as it does not appear to be a standard.

I hope this helps anyone, who hasn't tried the external power supply route.

If you are thinking of getting a Sonel Macro Master Pro... think no more, just get one. (See Good Points)