mishii

anybody know much about the all in one units that have a DVD recorder and VHS player? I have a bunch of home movies on VHS that I need to transfer to DVD. I borrowed a unit from a friend that you use to hook up your VCR to your computer to dump it to your hard drive. However, I was really disappointed with the quality. I saw a Sony RDR-VX535 at Costco for $200, but didn't know it is was any good (or are they all similar?).

Brian Shannon

The quality will only be as good as what the videotape is. Simply copying it to a different format wont improve that.

SoSpacey

i am in the process of doing this but going from my vcr to my computer and then burning it to dvd.

someone told me that there is software you can run the video through to clean it up but i havent gotten that far yet. if you find anything, let me know.

dx23

Does anyone know what is the best VHS/ DVD recorder to do this? I'm planning on transfering a lot of VHS home films to DVD and want to do it as easy and quickly as possible.

Spiky

The thing is, none of the companies put their best technology into these combo units. I seem to recall LG doing a slightly better job at keeping their combos at a higher level, according to user reports. But generally, you will do better with two separate machines. If these are precious to you, you may want to consider the PC routine, or even hiring it done.

mishii

I would be happy to maintain the quality of the original VHS tape. When I hooked my VCR to my pc to dump it to my hard drive, the quality of the picture greatly diminished from the original. What have other people used to do this and how much has the quality of the picture diminished from the original? Has anybody used the combo VHS/DVD recorders and how has the picture quality been? I have a bunch and I am not sure if I want to spend the money to have somebody else do it. I was thinking of buying the one at Costco and trying it. If the quality is crap, I figure I can always return it.

The Man with the Golden Doujinshi

I have a Lite-On DVD Recorder with hard drive. I downloaded modified firmware, easily found by searching on google, and the dvd has always come out looking like the tape.

Lite-On units usually always have a modified firmware to download that helps make it work better. You can also upgrade the DVD recorder drive with a regular IDE drive and if there's a hard drive, you can use a regular IDE drive. That means if you want to expand the drive or put a better dvd burning in, it's easy to do. If the hard drive dies after a few decades, put in a new one and you're good to go.

mishii

thanks Mister Peepers

JimRochester

When I did mine, the movies were on 8mm. I downloaded to the PC and then burnt to DVD using the Pinnacle software. What was nice was it gave me the opportunity to edit them down and remove alot of the dead space. You know the times it took 12 minutes for your 3 year old to open one Christmas present. It also enabled me to insert chapters, I was able to keep the identical quality of the 8mm tape.

To be honest that was such a pain in the balls because everything had to be done in real time. The result was nice though. So much better than rewinding the tape or looking for a spot on the tape.

Unless you really need another player in the house, I would drop the tapes off at your nearest audio video store that does it and have them do it for you. Or I would bite the bullet and edit it down using the software. By the time I played the 90 minute tape into the PC, edited it, then burned to DVD, it took a few hours for each tape. The nice part is though the stuff is actually watchable now. Plus it's easy to find exactly what I need.

mishii

JimRochester: How did you get the 8 mm on your pc? I have some of those and figured I would have to bite the bullet and have an outside place do it. Also, are you pretty happy with the Pinnacle software? I have Nero and was wondering if there was something better.

JimRochester

I had a SONY camera that hooked up via a firewire through the USB port. The only advantage to doing it yourself is the chance to edit the movie. If you're like me you might turn the camera on thinking the kid or the dog was going to do something cute then 2 minutes goes by before the money shot happens. Makes for some pretty boring watching. I didn't get real creative with the software because it was already so time consuming. All I did was edit down the movie and add gentle phase outs and phase ins between clips. I also added chapters so Icould jump righ to the karate tournament or the dance recital. It has some really fancy stuff but I didn't worry about anything else.

Since Pinnacle was the only thing I ever used I have no basis for comparison however it served my purpose and seemed user friendly.

It was just time consuming and and gobbled up space in the harddrive. First you load it in and save it, then edit and save it again. So each video is in there twice. I would also save them for future reference because if the DVD breaks or is scratched you don't want to have to go through that all over again. I ended up picking up an external HD for backup and leave the movies there. Hopefully that won't die anytime soon. But the other choice is hoping the tape is not lost or destroyed.