Yes, I would agree that my kids are very tough on CDs and DVD's, one scratch will render a $20 movie useles. For this reason, I copy most of my CD's onto my hard drive, where I can either watch them on my computer, transfer them to my Ipod or burn to a DVDRW disk for a backup (for personal use within my own home, of course.) I found two programs that enable me to do this seemlessly. One is Slysoft, Any DVD, available at at www.slysoft.com. When installed, this pgm runs in the background, and it will "decode" any decription written into most store bought CDs to prevent copyright infringement. The other program is Vault 360, available at www.bambootech.com, which will format all your movies into the correct format to download and play on your ipod, PSP, or PDA device. Of course, be aware that copyright law prohibits the use of such software for any other use but backing up a dvd or cd to protect from wear or accidental damage, etc. --John

I burn Windows Movie Maker projects to DVD all the time. Under Step 3, I choose: SAVE TO MY COMPTUER. In the next window I type in the title of the movie and select it to save under MY VIDEOS. In the next window (MOVIE SETTINGS) I choose OTHER SETTINGS, and I select HIGH QUALITY (NTSC). After the movie has saved, I open up Roxio's DVD builder. I am using an older version, so it may be called something else in your version. I then import the Windows Movie Maker video file and add that to the DVD. You can add more than one WMM project to the DVD or just the one you have. I can answer any other questions if this doesn't make sense.

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.

I work in TV/film, and frankly, I think Costco will do a better job than a local camera store, simply because they do more transfers. If you live in LA or NYC or SF, there are professional post-production facilities that can do it, as well. DVD won't last forever, so do preserve the actual film as well. I've linked to recommendations from Home Movie Day, which is a great project, as well. Here is a link that might be useful: Home Movie Day