a good dvd recorder to copy vhs video tapes?

19 years ago

Please can anybody recommend me a good DVD recorder (for computer or by itself) to burn my home made VHS video tapes; around $300. What would be pro/con between computer DVD burner or separate DVD recorder? Thank you so much.

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Comments (4)

jeremytimco
19 years ago
I have a Dazzle RCA to USB converter that works well. They cost $35 to $75. Then you can hook your VCR up to your computer and edit it. Then any computer DVD burner will work. I think the new lightscribe DVD burner is cool. walmart is selling it for $100.
Pooh Bear
19 years ago
How well does it do with dropped frames and out-of-sync audio.
I can't seem to overcome that problem with my TV tuner card.
On long video captures, I get out-of-sync audio.

If you have irreplaceable video tapes I would go with a standalone DVD recorder.
If these are movies you have I would get a DVD burner for
the computer and rent each movie and copy it.
It is much easier this way and much better quality.

Pooh Bear
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This thread brings up a problem which I have ran into, so please forgive me if it looks like I am hi-jacking this thread, as that is not my intent. I bought a dvd/vhs recorder/player around Thanksgiving and used it to transfer home vhs video tapes to dvd+rw discs. The discs will play on my pc using various video programs. All went well until I tried to transfer the disc contents to my pc hard drive so that I could edit them. My pc has a 2 gig processor, 512 megs of ram, Win xp home with sp2 and a 160 gig HD with plenty of unused space. I downloaded a program called dvd shrink 3.2 hoping it would allow me to transfer the disc to HD. It was a no go as I keep getting various error messages. Does anyone know how to transfer files from a dvd disc to a pc hard drive? I'm baffled. Thanks in sdvance for any help.
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I was on the walmart site and there are 4 combo units and none list a TV tuner in the description like the one I have now did. Now I see in reading reviews people complained they could only be used with a cable box to record from TV so no basic cable or am I missing something? If I get just a DVD recorder will I run into the same problem or can you buy the tuner separate to make it work? If I get a new flat screen can I just use a Dvd recorder on basic cable with no box or do you just need a digital tuner no matter what to record from TV? Sorry I am just confused about recording from TV without a DVR box from the cable company. Mary Here is a link that might be useful: first 4 are combo models
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1. It is legal to make a back up of your tape; if you make a DVD from your VHS tape, I believe you would have to keep your tape as evidence that you legally own the rights to make a backup of the VHS original. 2. A device called Video CopyMaster was sold (a few years ago) that corrected the video stream. It was around $50. 3. That said, the quality of a VHS tape conversion is absolutely inferior to a purchased DVD.
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Comments (6)
I have the same issue. In looking at transfer it is far too expensive. I am not paying 20 bucks a tape to do this. Are you technically savy? There are transfer software programs available. You need your old VCR and the mini tape unit for it, plus a cable. Run a search on the net for transferring. There are some very good examples and steps for doing so. I didn't look up using a tape to DVD unit, but could copy this way also. Which is the way I am going to attempt. These would be old units, hard to find. Perhaps a pawn shop. Although Amazon had my mini tape unit for 8. And there are still tape to DVD units on their site, just more than I thought they would cost. The cost of all would depend on whether you wanted to do it yourself or have a business do so. If anyone else has a slick way to do this, specifically direct to the computer...would like to know also. There are mini cams using the small tapes again which transfer directly, but do not know if they would use the old ones or are the same.
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jeremytimco
19 years ago
I haven't left a capture alone for more than 10 minutes. I don't know. I edit all the home movies and put music to them....
Pooh Bear
19 years ago
If I go over about 20 minutes I start getting out of sync audio.
A few dropped frames is no big deal.
But drop 30 frames and your audio goes out of sync by 1 second.
After about 10 dropped frames it starts getting noticable.

Pooh Bear

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a good dvd recorder to copy vhs video tapes?

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jeremytimco

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