Transferring VHS to DVD ... was I told a load, or is it the truth?

[AuctorEcclesiae]

Went to the local electronics store to purchase a VHS/DVD combo machine for a friend's birthday, and while I was there, I was looking at some DVD recorders. They've really come down in price - about $125 will buy you a decent one.

I want to convert some of my VHS tapes to DVD to save space and to not have to pack so much when I move my stuff around. I was tempted to purchase the recorder and connect it into my VCR so that I could do just this. So I asked the "techie guy", and his response to my questions as to whether or not I could do this was, "Can't do it. Purchased VHS taped movies have this encryption algorithm in it, and the DVD's won't turn out if you try to copy them from the VHS tape. Only home movies will work."

I said, "OK ... thanks for the info.," knowing that I smelled something really funny here. I think he gave me a massive load, but I'm not sure. My brother-in-law had an all-in-one DVD writer/VHS device, and he converted ALL of his VHS tapes to DVD without an issue. I have also dubbed VHS-to-VHS tons of times, and have never had a problem copying stuff.

So did this guy give me a major load, or is there some element of truth to this situation?

Thanks,
Michael

[DuckMuck]

It is true...some VHS movie tapes have copy protection that will prevent you from copying it...it is called macrovision...but in order for it to be effective, the VCR that is playing it must also support macrovision...so VHS tapes with macrovision can still be copied if you have a VERY old VCR sitting around that was built before the macrovision copy protection was implemented...or you can buy this small device that sits between your DVD recorder and VHS player that will disable macrovision...but it is pricey...I think around $60~80US...and obviously, it won't work on the DVD/VCR combo units...

[kknudson]

I have not done this, but do plan too when I get some time.
Our old family 8mm movies were transfered to Video years ago, I want to move them to a DVD. Note I don't even have a DVD writer on my PC yet.

I did get a AverMedia DVD EZMaker card (no cost at the time after rebate) that should allow me to plug a VCR into my PC and eventually burn to a DVD.

So there are PC cards that will do it, maybe not a full movie easily anyhow, but home movies etc ?????

[DuckMuck]

If you have home movies, old VHS tapes of recorded television shows, old VHS movies that were released before macrovision, etc. you should have no problems transferring them to DVD...

[MTI]

Doing "video capture" from an analog source, like VHS tape and writing a digital file (DVD) has some technical issues. First, it helps if you have a decent VHS deck, preferably one with S-video out, for better picture quality.

Second, the PC that you're going to use, should be at a bare minimum a 800mhz P3, but that's a bare minimum and you'll likely have "lost frames" during the capture if your trying to get decent quality on the capture. Most systems recommend a 1.8Ghz P4 or better to avoid lost frames. The more memory the computer has the better, especially if the end product is going to be MPEG-4 files, which usually only is available if the system memory is 1GB or more.

[AuctorEcclesiae]

Well ... needless to say, these posts were all very intersting, and informative. I'm going to email my bro-in-law to see if he had to do anything to convert his movies. He has a VERY new VHS/DVD recorder device, and he converted like 70 VHS movies that you'd buy used at Blockbuster or at Suncoast Motion Picture Company. I'll post back with any findings of interest ...

[TwitchKitty]

Run some google searches with the info you got in this thead. There are forums on the web where people openly discuss these techniques.

If you use Windows XP, learn to shut down the services. The entertainment industry has their software running on your computer.