Instruction: Answer the given question by extracting information from the supporting document.

Input:
Question: Does this delete the footage on the camcorder hard drive or tape?  or does it just copy it
Document: I found this extremely easy to use. It is a great product.However, I made the mistake of thinking it would record in HD for all Sony Camcorders. I have an HDR-HC7 camcorder, that records to a MiniDV casette tape. It is an HD camcorder, but rather than recording to a hard drive or directly to a DVD it records to MiniDV.This VRD MC-5 product will record from my camcorder in standard definition, just like it will record output from other camcorders.
Whether you're looking for a way to quickly free up tapes and memory cards so you can take more pictures, want to archive old footage on VCR tapes, or master videos and photos quickly onto DVD, the VRDMC5 is a versatile Swiss Army knife that can take a wide variety of inputs and chuff out finalized DVDs rapidly.I recently became overwhelmed with all of the video and photos I had on my various cameras and I also didn't want to clog up my computer hard drive with everything that I've recorded recently.
This was a compromise for saving videos off our already loaded hard drive. Has no HDMI input but rather video, composite and S-Video plus audio input. No output. Built-in video screen was handy but somewhat hard to read. Does not record from all cable stations ... you will see a waiting for signal message if a channel is copy encoded. Bad news since my JVC and Phillips recorders do not balk at these channels.
This is a nice unit and it works fine for copying over Firewire and USB for SD video. If also copies AVCHD (hi-def) video/audio via USB, but there is a big limitation. It will not copy AVCHD to dual-layer disks. Big problem because AVCHD takes up lots of space (a 120 G hard drive holds about 15 h of it), so you can see that a single layer DVD holds not a lot.
You can take the digital transfer route but then this device is not very useful any more since you have to do everything on your computer.- Does NOT work via USB with any hard drive camcorder I tried (though I don't have a Sony HDD camcorder). This is not a huge deal but was something I'd would expect to work given how standard the USB interfaces tend to be on HDD camcorders.
The DVDirect works so well, I haven't even installed the software that came with the camera. The DVDirect does NOT use your computer, and doesn't need to.Turn it on, it prompts you to connect your camcorder, VCR, or flash card. You push a button and insert a blank DVD. It prompts you to burn the entire contents of the hard drive, or by date, or individual clip, or playlist. Then you push the big button.
Even when I went to buy this writer, the retail store person still wanted to debate that I needed a blu-ray recorder instead. Needless to say, I bought this and a PS3 since you DO need a blu-ray player (just not a writer) and last night after a couple of hours, my wife and I had copied the videos from our camcorder hard drive and watched them in pure HD (1080i) and they were amazing. Great product Sony!
The Sony VRDMC5 DVDirect is utterly fantastic !! I bought a Sony HDR-SR11 High-Def. camcorder on the day it was released by Sony, Mar. 6, '08.Sony HDR-SR11 10MP 60GB High Definition Hard Drive Handycam Camcorder with 12x Optical Image Stabilized ZoomI bought the DVDirect a couple days later on sale at Best Buy.You can't always trust what you read in these reviews. Most of the negative reviews for this Sony DVDirect are from those that didn't read the "details" before purchasing.
I am still experimenting.And, as others have noted in reviews, the Sony USB port will not read an input from my computer, portable flash drive or my Canon HF-10 camcorder. The Sony did read, copy and burn still digital pictures from my Canon PowerShot digital camera model A720IS SD 2GB card onto DVD.
So with all that said the Sony VDR-MC5 has been a life-saver. If you have a Sony HandyCam with a built in hard drive or memory stick you can save ALOT of time (I have the SR-11). The MC5 will burn your video directly to a DVD in about 20 minutes in HD (AVCHD Blu-Ray) format BUT you can only play the DVD on a Blu-Ray compatible DVD player.
Answer: It will not delete the information on the tape. It will just copy it.