Wanting to copy VHS home movies to DVD

[Syble]

I have a Sony Video 8 Handy cam CCD-TRV21 NTSC which uses the 8mm tapes. I'd like to get these tapes to DVD. I have already put some of them transferred to VHS tapes.

I bought a Panasonic DMR E75V VHS/DVD recorder, I now find out that it only accepts DVD-Ram and DVD-. it only came with DVD-Ram which I was able to transfer VHS tape to, but we've tried them on 3 other DVD players and neither will play the DVD-Ram. I also had some old Super 8 movies professionaly put on DVD, I wanted to transfer some of it over to VHS for different family members, and I haven't been able to get the DVD to transfer to the VHS, I called the place that made the DVD for me and he said there should be no problem transferring it.

Is there anyone that is familiar with this recorder? Or any suggestions for a recorder that accepts other formats?.........or any other suggestions as to what I should do.

[GMaq]

Syble,
Your Video life is about to get complicated, For your DVD RAM dilemma, You're either going to have to redo the home movie transfers to a DVD-R, or use a computer with a DVD RAM compatible DVD drive to re-author the disc and burn it to a regular DVD, Since you have a standalone DVD recorder I'm guessing that you want to avoid getting tangled up with Video editing and authoring on a PC. Your second problem of transferring the DVD to VHS is most likely caused by the DVD player sending a Macrovision encoded signal to your VCR, Most DVD players can detect when they are hooked up to a VCR, this is done intentionally to prevent people from copying commercial DVD's to VHS, Even if the DVD you are copying isn't protected with macrovision the player will still insert the macrovision into the video signal, There are gadgets that are available that remove the Macrovision signal and they vary in price from 50-1000 bucks with results to match, In my case I have A JVC 9911 S-VHS VCR that has a built in time base corrector that solves this problem most of the time. If you want to take the time there are many guides on this site, and many forum threads with info on what works best for getting around Macrovision. Hope this helps get you started, Good Luck

[louthewiz]

If your unit is able to record from vhs to dvd-r then its no big deal,and if you need to transfer from some of the dvds you own now you can just transfer them back and forth between dvd-r and vhs. So take your time and read the manual that came with the recorder and just do what it says to dub what you need ,also go to circuit city or best buy and get some dvd-r blanks and anothe blank dvd-ram i always use panasinic brand dvd blanks to do all my dvd transfers. And lastly when you do record to a dvd-r after finalizing it you will be able to play it on other dvd players with no problems.

[Syble]

Am I understanding correctly, the DVD-Ram aren't designed to play on other recorders, just the one that created it........strange. I read somewhere the DVD Ram was the highest quality. Would this be similiar to saving a scanned photo file in Tiff versus jpeg?

I would like to eventually transfer these home movies to the Computer to edit, so should I be transferring to the computer rather than through a VHS/DVD recorder? What DVD's work on the Computer. I do not have a DVD drive, just a CDRW, what should I know before adding a DVD drive to my computer. I have a Dell Dimension, Pentium IV.

[fmctm1sw]

If you want to do a lot of editing, you may not have wanted a standalone DVD recorder. You may have been better off with a cheap tv tuner so you can edit in avi format. You can pick up a multi format DVD writer these days for less than $150.

[Syble]

What is a TV tuner?

The Panasonic recorder I bought dubs from VHS to DVD and DVD to VHS, that is it is suppose to.

[louthewiz]

It also has a tv tuner so you can record off of cable or sattelite .

[monkeyking]

what should I know before adding a DVD drive to my computer. I have a Dell Dimension, Pentium IV.

It will cost you maybe $50-200 for hardware (video capture card in PC or capture box with USB/firewire). Add $50-100 for good video editting software although sometimes you will get serviceable software packaged with the card or DVD drive. You might want to add a second hard drive. And be prepared to spend hours learnng and doing. Oh yeah, $50-100 for the DVD drive.

However, results are far better than just copying to a DVD recorder. It's far easier to edit out that 5 minutes of the camera dangling from your shoulder and recording your feet. Or you can add a music sound track to that and make it semi-interesting.

[Syble]

" Quote....It will cost you maybe $50-200 for hardware (video capture card in PC or capture box with USB/firewire)." Which would your recommend? Do you know of an article or book about this?

What software would you recommend? Would this be like the new Premiere Elements?

[monkeyking]

" Quote....It will cost you maybe $50-200 for hardware (video capture card in PC or capture box with USB/firewire)." Which would your recommend? ?

Find a local store with a liberal return policy on their goods, so you don't get stuck with something you hate. Then look at products that fall in the price range that's comfortable with you. Then go to the reviews on this site and see what users have to say. In general, I think the forum reviews give a pretty good idea on a product's quality. Some of the hardware/software I have is no good and the reviews say "I told you so, you dummy". Wish I had found this forum before I bought them.

Another route is to upgrade that 8mm to a miniDV camera. You gain small camera size, far better video, and a way to get the video into a PC. You can also use the camera to copy VHS and some cameras will allow you to send the VCR video directly to the PC.