Copying VCR tapes to DVD

[JanetRose]

Walmart is selling an RCA player that will transfer VCR movies to DVD - has anyone ever done so - is it very easy??

 

[mrsmom]

We just bought one yesterday and iam taking it back today, It skips and freezes up. It was An Ilo brand
Kim

 

[bicker]

This one?

http://www.walmart.com/catalog/product.do?product_id=4252297

Looks pretty simple to me, though I'm not sure I'd bother, if you have a working VHS player. I just hook mine up to the Line In of my DVD recorder and voila. It's a little more work, but I figure why bother paying extra for that insignificant bit of integration. You can pick up a decent RCA DVD Recorder for half that amount (http://shopping.yahoo.com/p:RCA DRC8005N DVD Recorder:1991546169:page=compare), and with a few cables have what you want.

Anyway, back to the RCA unit you have your eye on. Note, though, that it will only transfer "personal" VCR tapes to DVD. That probably means that copy-protected copyrighted VCR tapes won't necessarily copy well (or at all), so be sure you understand those limitations before you buy.

 

[JanetRose]

I want to transfer home movies (over 18 years old) to DVDs before they become damaged.

 

[aprilgail2]

I just want someplace I can take an old VHS tape and they can transfer it to DVD for me...its all home moives from 1963-1980 that I had transferred from super 8 to VHS 20 years ago now I want them transferred to dvd from the vhs.

 

[JanetRose]

It seems like it will be cheaper if I transferred them myself and I wanted to cut some stuff out, not much, but some.

 

[bicker]

The regular DVD recorder I mentioned above is $120.

I was looking around a bit further at DVD recorder/VHS player combos, and you may be better off with this device:
Samsung DVD-VR320 DVD recorder/ VCR combo

The most important advantage is that it records on DVD-R discs instead of DVD+R discuss. My TiVo's DVD recorder uses DVD-R, while my computer's DVD recorder uses DVD+R; I haven't noticed a difference in terms of quality or compatibility on playback, but I have noticed a BIG price difference. DVD-R tends to discount a lot cheaper! Always consider which type of media something like this uses, when making a purchasing decision.

The other advantage, of course, is that it is lower in price than the unit at Walmart, and still from a name brand, Samsung.

 

[Just2554]

Oh boy, the DVD recorders. I feel like I've become an expert about these things since we got our Panasonic VCR/DVD recorder at Christmas.

My first word of advice: do NOT buy the cheap-o blank DVDs. I am telling you, they will NOT work correctly in many DVD players aside from the recorder. I use our recorder primarily for recording old movies off of TCM and my dad tapes off the Travel Channel and we had a spindle of cheap, no-name blanks that we got for 8 bucks. We recorded the whole spindle only to find out that the blanks wouldn't play in 2 of our 3 other DVD players and in the 3rd player, they played intermittantly at best. We got new discs and voila, they suddenly worked. So go for Memorex, Verbatim, Panasonic...the more expensive discs yes, but at least they work.

Secondly...if you're buying the VCR/DVD combo to record store-bought VHS's, forget it. They contain a thing called macrovision, which basically screws up the entire movie if you try to record it. The newly recorded DVD will skip, float in and out of focus, the dialogue will cut in & out, etc. We have the combo only because my father wants to transfer home videos to DVD. Really, that's the only thing you're going to be able to transfer from VHS to DVD correctly.

If I can be of anymore help, just post and ask.

 

[JanetRose]

I'm not very smart when it comes to electronics - I still can't figure out my scanner so I'm hoping it will be very easy to transfer. Now if I wanted to add special effects, music, etc., I wouldn't even bother.

Thanks to all for their help!

 

[bicker]

Just a note about blank DVDs... price isn't a great indicator of quality. The same discs that sell for $8 somewhere sell for $20 somewhere else, and there are good blank discs to be had for less than the name-brand price.

This is a great webpage for information on buying blank DVDs.

http://www.digitalfaq.com/media/dvdmedia.htm

Unfortunately, the website is down right now, but you can view the page from Google's archive:

http://64.233.179.104/search?q=cach...om/media/dvdmedia.htm+manufacturers+DVD+discs

I feel 80-95% is good enough, as long as I do a validation afterwards, so I stick with either Ritek, Prodisc, or Fuji. I've been buying them from cdrdvdrmedia.com, and have had only minor issues (really not their fault -- they announced a sale the day after I placed my order, so I missed out on a nice discount). However, there are a few places better rated for DVD media:

http://64.233.179.104/search?q=cach...edia.htm+manufacturers+DVD+discs+buymedia.htm