First things first. No matter how much you spend, what you record is not going to be any better than the original. Yeah, there might be a little tweaking you can do with contrast and the like, but you will not make a DVD copy of a VHS tape which will look much better than the tape. The keys there then become the quality of the VHS tape player and the tape itself, with the tape itself being the most limiting factor. Tape quality is affected by the original formulation of the tape, how the tapes were used and stored, etc. At this point, there is little you can do about any of that. Let's just assume that the tapes you have are good enough to view and to transfer. If you already have a VHS player which has a picture you like, I would use it. You won't gain much at all by buying a new combo unit. If you have to buy a VHS player, you could consider a combo unit (though I'd check the owner's manual just to make sure you can copy from tape to DVD without problems; I've never done this myself and I'm not sure what the tape copy protection [if any] might do when recorded onto a disk). One thing to consider is the quality of the DVD itself. There is a growing concern about the longevity of DVDs and CDs. "Bargain-basement" or "free-after-rebate" disks often won't hold a valid signal after as short as six months. This is too much work to repeat in a year or two. Make sure you buy high-quality disks from companies like Imation, TDK, Maxell, etc. That will help insure that your disk copies live longer. And get "record-once" DVDs, not rewritable ones. That will help them live longer, too. As for the unit at Target, I'd be leery of why it was returned. A decent name-brand DVD burner goes for about $100; there's little point IMHO to buying a returned one for $50 and spending more on an extended warranty.

Hello softball_80, Have you checked compatibility? Just an FYI for you. It is always best to check with the software manufacturer FIRST. They will tell you if they have tested the product and the version, as well as whether or not it will work with Windows 7. Check out the Windows 7 Compatibility site: (There you will find out about hardware and software compatibilty.) http://www.microsoft.com/windows/compatibility/en-us/default.aspx There is a pulldown from which you can choose "hardware" and "software". There are also some great articles, instructional videos and such to help with your Windows 7 at our Springboard site: http://technet.microsoft.com/en-us/windows/default.aspx In any event a lot of the times, Vista drivers will work in lieu of Windows 7 drivers, however, it's not 100%! As stated previously, it's best to have the Windows 7 certified drivers installed. Microsoft does have an official Windows 7 Support Forum located here http://social.technet.microsoft.com/Forums/en-US/category/w7itpro. It is supported by product specialists as well as engineers and support teams. You may want to check the threads available there for additional assitance and support. Thanks again, John M. Microsoft Windows Client Support

Alisande We had our old 8mm home movies from the 50's & 60's converted to DVD and VHS last year. In total there was about 1000 feet and the cost was about $200 however it was a worthwhile investment that I'm sorry we waited so long for as some of the film had began to deteriorate. If you check in your yellow pages under audio-visual you will probably find a local company who can do this for you saving you the angst of mailing the valuable films. That's how we found the place to do ours. The place we had ours done also had a pricing structure that dropped with the more feet of film you had reprocessed so ask about that.

Sometimes old film stock gets brittle. The big stores' processing is highly automated, someone not particularly knowledgeable loads the film on the machine and then may walk away. It might even be processed at something like a fast forward speed, a higher than normal film speed, which could lead to a greater risk of breakage. Yeah, film breaks can always be spliced, and missing a few frames in a sequence wouldn't be noticed. If capturing the films without damage is very important to you, I would pay extra to have them processed more manually (by a local shop). You'll probably not find anything suitable in a small town. Keep in mind, even a local shop could have one of the uber-automated machines, you may want to check around and ask first. Do you have a favorite camera store? That could be a good starting point.