Video to DVD converter

sarahayes

We have lots of old videos (commercial ones, Disney movies and the like) but no functioning video player. I would like to transfer them onto dvd so my youngest can watch them. Is there a relatively cheap machine on the market that will do this, or am I better off binning them and buying dvd's on eBay? I'd be grateful for any advice.

flashg67

I don't know of a cheap way to do this. Whatever you use, you'll need a video player anyway. You can buy a capture card to connect the video player to your PC, but the quality is often poor and you have to do it in real time, so it's time consuming.
I used to do it using a video player & stand alone DVD recorder linked with a special scart cable that could bypass the macrovision copy protection that's on commercial DVDs - again, not cost effective, unless you have a load to do, and takes some time.

I'd suggest ebay or amazon market place for dvds will probably work out cheaper & easier in the long run - or buy a video player!

googler

Just buy a VHS player off eBay for small change and play them on that.

esuhl

I've no idea if it's any good, but it looks like a device like this will convert VHS videos to DVD, although you'd also need a VHS player:

http://www.maplin.co.uk/p/honestech-vhs-to-dvd-deluxe-a06jr

wary

I bought a VHS/DVD combi for this and spent a great many hours copying, editing & burning etc, restricted to those which aren't copy protected.

Bad mistake!

Most of these DVDs have now been discarded, the reason being that I joined LoveFilm. Instead I've hired them from here & ripped them, with the option of either watching them on the laptop, on the TV by connecting the laptop to it or by burning to DVD ... much better quality and much less hassle compared to copying from VHS.

You can get a month's free trial with LoveFilm, after which, if you rip & return speedily then it can work out to as little as 50p per DVD.

Fece1948

Do you have a DVD-Writer Drive?

swvillafan

wary wrote: »

I bought a VHS/DVD combi for this and spent a great many hours copying, editing & burning etc, restricted to those which aren't copy protected.

Bad mistake!

Most of these DVDs have now been discarded, the reason being that I joined LoveFilm. Instead I've hired them from here & ripped them, with the option of either watching them on the laptop, on the TV by connecting the laptop to it or by burning to DVD ... much better quality and much less hassle compared to copying from VHS.

You can get a month's free trial with LoveFilm, after which, if you rip & return speedily then it can work out to as little as 50p per DVD.

Surely thats illegal though isn't it???

googler

wary wrote: »

I bought a VHS/DVD combi for this and spent a great many hours copying, editing & burning etc, restricted to those which aren't copy protected.

I also have a VHS/DVD/HDD combi, and my experience, purely for research purposes, is that any commercial VHS that I've tried has copied without issue.

I always thought the copy-protection was designed to interfere with the scanning process on the receiving, copying VCR when doing a VHS to VHS copy, as it was designed in an era when DVD and HDD recording didn't exist, so the only way to copy was from VHS-VHS. Strikes me this would be unaffected by copying to HDD or DVD, neither of which work in the same way as a VHS recorder.

googler

googler wrote: »

Just buy a VHS player off eBay for small change and play them on that.

Going rate appears to be £10 - £30 for decent makes. I reckon the only caveat would be if your youngest is old enough to treat the tapes OK and not get jam etc all over them ....

wary

swvillafan wrote: »

Surely thats illegal though isn't it???

... whereas copying from VHS to DVD, as proposed by the Op, is perfectly legal?!?

wary

googler wrote: »

I also have a VHS/DVD/HDD combi, and my experience, purely for research purposes, is that any commercial VHS that I've tried has copied without issue.
I always thought the copy-protection was designed to interfere with the scanning process on the receiving, copying VCR when doing a VHS to VHS copy, as it was designed in an era when DVD and HDD recording didn't exist, so the only way to copy was from VHS-VHS. Strikes me this would be unaffected by copying to HDD or DVD, neither of which work in the same way as a VHS recorder.

Some VHS have definitely refused to copy to DVD due to inbuilt copy protection. Very few in number though, which may explain why you've personally never encountered the issue.