Video to DVD converter

wary

googler wrote: »

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 ....

Gave one away on Freecycle recently. Was a real struggle too - only one taker which is unusual for Freecycle. Says something about VHS players/records now if giving them away for free is difficult.

shaun_from_Africa

wary wrote: »

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

Not legal but provided that you own the media that you are copying, what you are doing will be ignored even if reported and there are ongoing talks to make this perfectly legal.
This is referred to as "format shifting" and provided that it isn't done with the I tention of selling the copies that you have made neither the ipo nor most of the big copywrite owners have too much of a problem with it.

What wary was talking about doing (hiring and copying dvd's) is totally different to what the op wants to do.

wary

shaun_from_Africa wrote: »

Not legal but provided that you own the media that you are copying, what you are doing will be ignored even if reported and there are ongoing talks to make this perfectly legal.
This is referred to as "format shifting" and provided that it isn't done with the I tention of selling the copies that you have made neither the ipo nor most of the big copywrite owners have too much of a problem with it.

What wary was talking about doing (hiring and copying dvd's) is totally different to what the op wants to do.

My post only talks of ripping DVDs for VHS videos that I own, not for any others. Both are technically illegal but both are achieving what is ultimately the same effect of shifting the format of what you own. My way is advantageous of being easier, avoids VHS copy protection and gives a better end-result than copying via a scart or combi, although neither are true DVD quality. (I rip to MP4 which is at the lower end, but greatly saves on space & rip time, and is compatible with an iPod.)

Uxb

wary wrote: »

My post only talks of ripping DVDs for VHS videos that I own, not for any others.

eh?
You talked in your post No 5 about hiring DVD from love film and then ripping them and then either watching them on your laptop or burning them to DVD.....before I presume speedily returning them.

shaun_from_Africa

wary wrote: »

My post only talks of ripping DVDs for VHS videos that I own, not for any others.

Just to refresh your memory as to what you actually stated:

wary wrote: »

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.

Quiet_Spark

wary wrote: »

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.

Why pay to break the law when there are plenty of sites that give access to much newer content than Lovefilm has to offer, and they are completely free to access?

esuhl

Quiet_Spark wrote: »

Why pay to break the law when there are plenty of sites that give access to much newer content than Lovefilm has to offer, and they are completely free to access?

There are free legal sites with newer content than Lovefilm...?! Are you sure they're legal? Care to share them?

Quiet_Spark

esuhl wrote: »

There are free legal sites with newer content than Lovefilm...?! Are you sure they're legal? Care to share them?

I never said they were legal, just free to access and watch there & then on the fly at pretty much near DVD quality.

esuhl

Quiet_Spark wrote: »

I never said they were legal, just free to access and watch there & then on the fly at pretty much near DVD quality.

Aha! I misread/misunderstood you!

Yeah... If you're gonna break the law, it hardly matters whether you do so from an infringing source or a legitimate one you have paid for... I used to say the same thing about people who bought CDs and ripped them to their iPod (when that kind of thing was unlawful).

Lifeforms

Making a copy of anything is pretty much illegal in the sense of dvd, film, music etc. But most people do it/did it. From way back to taping of the radio, to copying tapes for "mates" to even vhs to vhs recording. We used to get a double vhs player which allowed copying, and would do that too (at 2x speed! Couldn't even sit and watch the film whilst it play/recorded ). I rip my songs and put them on various media players, computer, ipod, phone etc. it's not legal, but they're more interested in the people who do this for profit (selling bootlegs at the market) or sharing them in vast quantities.

Back to the OP, it's not worth your time, or effort. The quality and sound would be poor compared to a DVD rip, and you'd probably have to spend time editing it to improve it. The chances are they're on DVD already at the very least, or blueray. Buy them either second hand, or rent, or new from ebay, amazon, etc.

If you then want them in one place all together, then you'll be looking at ripping them to your computer (or a media player etc) in that case, come back and ask for info with that, or search the forums. There's lots of information that will allow you to do it.