Question about VHS to DVD

[guitardan]

Do I actually have to get a VHS/DVD all in one unit to transfer my tapes, or could I connect my old VHS player to a standalone DVD recorder via scart? Someone in my local shop told me the former is the only way.

Cheers.

[hech54]

Do I actually have to get a VHS/DVD all in one unit to transfer my tapes, or could I connect my old VHS player to a standalone DVD recorder via scart? Someone in my local shop told me the former is the only way.

Cheers.

Your local shop worker is full of crap(to put it nicely) and a freakin' liar.
.....and combo units are notorious GARBAGE.

[guitardan]

That's what I thought, but I didn't want to waste money. So do I have to have a 2 scarts on the DVD recorder or anything? I'm presuming you just connect the VHS and DVD by scart.

Thanks.

[LCSHG]

Am not familiar with scart connections, however you should be able to connect your existing VHS to a DVD recorder, to dub VHS to DVD. All recorders I’ve seen have some sort if Input/Output connetions
[hesh54] is in Europe knows the UK situation
If you are dealing with any Commercial tapes you could run into MV copy protection.
I know of No combo VHC/DVD unit that will dub such a tape
If your old VHS is one that does not pass MV on you should be OK I think you will find that most if not all DVD sold today are compliant.
If this is a concern, there are some ways around this

[hech54]

Recorders usually have multiple ways of getting the video into them....scart, RCA(cinch) and maybe even S-Video...so that is a non-issue.
Like LCSHG mentioned....if they are commercial VHS tapes you will probaly run into a protection issue where the recorder will not allow you to record them....homemade family VHS tapes are not a problem.
Now you need to re-decide....which recorder to buy?...
I have an old Philips (NTSC model) that is still going but I'm eyeing up a Pioneer as my next purchase.
You may not need anything that fancy(with an internal hard drive) so there are MANY lower priced models to pick from. JVC, LG, LiteOn etc etc etc.

[guitardan]

thanks, yeah I saw a liteon one that looks fairly good. Most of the stuff is home taped stuff from tv so that should be ok?

Thanks a lot guys!