Cheap DVD Recorder

amyparr

I'm looking for a cheap DVD recorder to convert my old VHS onto DVDs which I can then put on my PC and edit.

I've found this one from Ebuyer which is £50 plus P&P and as a bonus also plays Divx and has USB connections.

Can anyone beat this? I'm willing to spend up to £70 if it will make a big difference quality-wise - I don't want to have to re-record them again later because the quality is bad!

Thanks!

donnajunkie

i'm no expert but with my little experience of them i wouldnt go for a cheap one. the picture isnt likely to be as good and they are less reliable. if i was going out and getting one myself my first choice would be panasonic or maybe sony or toshiba.

rambo43

Or you could get a little dongle which connects a VCR to your pc and you can burn them straight onto DVD. Works really well - have a look at argos

msaquib

rambo43 wrote: »

Or you could get a little dongle which connects a VCR to your pc and you can burn them straight onto DVD. Works really well - have a look at argos

That's interesting. Do u have a link to this item?

MS

clarkz

you could use the s-video connection if you have one? I did this a while back with one of these into the back of the video, then connected to the computers video card, then captured it with some video editing software.

amyparr

What video editing software would you recommend? I've bought the adaptor like you recommended so will give it a go as I have an S-Video cable already.

However, I'm thinking it might just be simpler to buy a DVD recorder as my PC isn't particularly high-spec and it would probably take forever to capture it, whereas I could just leave the DVD recorder to do its thing. Plus my DVD player has broken so I will no doubt need to buy a new one sometime soon anyway!

I'm thinking now I might spend a smidgen more on it just so that I don't get a really bad quality copy - I'm thinking something like this.

donnajunkie

beware i think s-video only carrys the picture and not the sound. for example when i connect anything to my tv with s-video i usually have to connect the red cable and the white cable for the sound.

clarkz

oh yeah, donnajunkie is right, you will need the rca cable to carry the sound. video editing wise, you could use something simple like windows movie maker (which should already be on your pc) or get your hands on a copy of adobe premiere for the more advanced editing, it depends what you want to do with the video.

if you just want something quick and easy to transfer vhs to dvd then a dvd recorder is the best bet. The dvd player you suggested seems like it will do the job, it migt be worth checking this out for better models tho because the model from argos is rated here.

amyparr

Hmm! Looks like I need to put in a few more hours doing AQA research before I can afford a semi-decent DVD recorder! In the meantime I'll use the dongle to transfer it to my PC and see how I get on with that!

buglawton

I got a £100 Samsung from Richer Sounds, has an analog TV tuner too and loads of formats. Now, many people warn that DVD-RW especially is unreliable but wanted to use it. What do you know, after 3 weeks DVD-RW replay became very erratic and it was getting fussy about normal DVDs too. Richer took it back and gave me a loan machine. After 3 weeks the original was fixed has been OK since. Impressed with Richer Sounds who always have some cheapish DVD recorders in stock.

PS recording from video is dead simple via a Scart cable.