Reliable VHS/DVD Converter

[Crimsonday]

Hello Again

I'm trying to find a reliable VHS/DVD converter for my father-in law (birthday gift). Since we bought him a DVD player for Christmas, he hasn't used it!! He has these fifties-style vhs western movies; and the magnetic quality is still decent enough. I'd like to convert the copies, so he can watch his old favorites. Please kind people, give me your valued opinion on what I should look for price-wise Thanks for lookin' in

[Dark Horizon]

You could go here and take advantage of their lifetime return for full refund policy on all items they carry. In other words, use it to make all your copies and then send it back for a refund. They even refund your shipping charges.

[Curmudgeon]

Those combo units are crap.
I would search around and find the DVD version of the movies.
Alternately find a stand alone high quality VCR (if this is even possible now).
Unfortunately that also requires a video card with S-video or RCA inputs.

[Crimsonday]

Thanks for your suggestions guys! I looked at Dark Horizon's link, and the price is a little out of my budget at the moment. @Curmudgeon....will the technology improve soon?

What about hooking a good quality VCR up to my comp and using a program like Pinnacle or U lead Video Studio to burn them? Is that a reasonable possibility? Thanks again

[LD50%]

Is that a reasonable possibility

Yes it is, but as I would personally use a index to find all your (lets be honest, a bit iffy) videos, so would most here.

1. get them.
2. Convertxtodvd
3. happy Daze...........

4. STF...............(look it up)

[TorrentMama]

I'm guessing you can't find the old movies on p2p. it's a bit of a hassle to do what you want so you could
a.rent the dvds netflix/bloodsucker video and rip
b. take the tapes to a local business that will do the transfer for a nominal charge. it'd prob. be less than your time is worth anyway. plus you'll skip the hassle.

and LD, STF? wtf? that could mean anything.

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[Crimsonday]

Thanks a bunch people for all your replies. I really appreciate your feedback, and I'm learning so much from your input. btw, who embedded the following thread: "hiro81 wrote:" This article really should have been titled "Old guy wants Youtube off his lawn."????? This is not helpful. I'm not interested in Youtube or similar sites, or downloading for anything free! I pay my way, and don't judge those who prefer not to. Please don't be impatient with my lack of knowledge.

[TorrentMama]

Honey, if you look at my post carefully you'll notice that the quote is in my signature. Therefore it's attached to all my posts. It has nothing to do with this thread.

[Inksaver]

I have tried many methods to convert VHS to DVD over the years:
1) Phillips DVD Recorder when they first came out. The problem with this was it recorded directly to DVD and had a horrible menu, and did not allow editing. Also any VHS with Macrovision would refuse to copy.

2) Capture cards on PC. Work well and give the best results, but take a lot of time to copy the tape in real time, then convert to DVD using an authoring program. This was in the early days of DVD players, where they would only play fully authored DVDs and could not cope with raw MPEG1 MPEG2 or MPEG4 files, which most do now. Most capture cards ignore Macrovision.

3) Hybrid of the above, a Kiss networked DVD player with HDD recording capability. This allowed direct copy in MPEG2 format from any analogue source onto HDD, and the ability to transfer the captured files via FTP onto a PC, or play them back on the player.

From your comments about keeping the budget to a minimum, a simple capture device such as the Terratec Grabster for under 50 quid does a good job. If the DVD player you are using is capable of playing raw MPEG2 files then you do not need any software, just burn them direct to a DVD-R as data. If your Father-In-Law is not very tech savvy then the use of a HDD recorder is the easyest option, as he can record the tapes once, and play the files back direct off the recorder. Most come with a 160GB drive, and at a medium resolution of 2GB/Hour for MPEG2, would store around 80 hours of video. There is a cheap 80GB version here Here

[MrFredPFL]

/me waits for a video of a fish riding a bicycle across an old guy's lawn.

[Crimsonday]

Thanks a lot Inksaver, I'm working on your info!

@ TorrentMama...so sorry for misreading you. I'm so bad for jumping the gun here

[Curmudgeon]

@Curmudgeon....will the technology improve soon?

Sure......just as soon as VHS makes it's big comeback.')
The units to record direct to DVD are expensive,the alternative is time consuming.
If you can't find the movies on DVD,just watch them with a VHS player,or prepare to spend some quality time converting them.

[Ratt]

If you can't find the movies on DVD,just watch them with a VHS player,or prepare to spend some quality time converting them.

If you can't find the movies on DVD even after you've tried Ebay, I would say that you have a very good excuse to (try to) download them.

Although again, the chances of finding them on P2P aren't so good.

[ejonesss]

Not for use with copyrighted material

if the movies are protected with macrovision then the dvd recorder will not work.

you will need a video digitizer that connects to computer by firewire or usb since they seem to be immune to the protection.

i have the formac studio and i was able to digitize dvds into imovie for editing with no problems.

if you dont want to be bothered with video editing and conversion software you can get a video stabilizer witch is a black box that re generates the video sync signal minus the copy protection and put that inline between the vcr and dvd recorder.

or if you can get the movies on dvd then you can buy the dvds.

You could go here and take advantage of their lifetime return for full refund policy on all items they carry. In other words, use it to make all your copies and then send it back for a refund. They even refund your shipping charges.

[MrFredPFL]

there is no need to reply to year old threads just because a spammer bumped them. locked.