which dvd-vhs combo?

[kr236rk]

hi,

i need a reliable combo which can record dvd to vhs, and vhs to dvd. can anyone recommend such a combo, please - i have been looking at the Sanyo DVR-V100E ?

thanks,

ric

[hech54]

1) 99% of combos are complete garbage.
2) Copy Protection on factory made VHS tapes and DVD's will prevent you from copying in either direction(vhs to dvd or dvd to vhs).

[thecoalman]

The general consensus is that they are junk, usually the DVD recorder, VHS player or both are sub standard.

Having said that my personal opinion on purchasing such a unit is to get seperate ones but for a different reason. At some point in time one is going to fail which leaves you with half a working unit unless whatever fails is integral to both units in which case that leaves you with neither unit working. I'd consider that before purchasing a combo.

[mattso]

Depends what the OP wants to do. Factory-made VHS most likely is available on DVD anyway. VHS dubbed movies may be unavailable on DVD, or rare or OOP, or perhaps it's home video stuff. A combo may be a good choice for someone who doesn't want the hassle of converting to DVD, they're not "complete garbage".

Though personally, I recommend a good VCR rigged up to a good DVD recorder, with some processing hardware inbetween. Or, for bad quality VHS, passed through a camcorder into the PC and processed with Avisynth or VirtualDub, then frameserved into an encoder like TMPGEnc or HC.

[kr236rk]

thanks hech + coalman,

your response was why i asked!



- the Sanyo has mysteriously vanished from Amazon online: too many complaints / about all combos?

i recently managed to transfer a dvd from a Daytek standalone dvd player to an ancient Panasonic vcr with no worries at all - can't remember exactly how, just messin with the scarts?

if i do need to convert vhs to dvd i guess i can always plug the vcr into my dv/av edit PCI card, in the back of my pc?

just seemed simpler to get hold of a combo, but i will stay playing with the wires'n'plugs, instead!

bests,

ric

[kr236rk]

hi mattso,

yes, been thinking about software for transferring vhs / home movies . . .

I recommend a good VCR rigged up to a good DVD recorder, with some processing hardware inbetween. Or, for bad quality VHS, passed through a camcorder into the PC and processed with Avisynth or VirtualDub, then frameserved into an encoder like TMPGEnc or HC.

how does avisynth work, please - i downloaded it a while ago, but couldn't get it started - does avisynth have an anti-flicker filter; and what is the difference between TMPGEnc and DivX (compression)?

thanks,

ric

[hech54]

thanks hech + coalman,

your response was why i asked!



- the Sanyo has mysteriously vanished from Amazon online: too many complaints / about all combos?

i recently managed to transfer a dvd from a Daytek standalone dvd player to an ancient Panasonic vcr with no worries at all - can't remember exactly how, just messin with the scarts?

I have also had great success copying supposedly copyrighted VHS tapes via various scart connections from VHS to DVD Recorder. I am a firm believer that it is much easier here in PAL-Land than it is in NTSC-Land since I had absolutely no such luck doing this in America.
Why?
No idea...

[kr236rk]

thanks,

i was amazed re the dv > vhs transfer -

just plugged a dv appliance (dvd player) into an analogue vcr, and away it went - no intermediary interface, as far as i'm aware, and the vcr is pre-digital!

I have also had great success copying supposedly copyrighted VHS tapes via various scart connections from VHS to DVD Recorder. I am a firm believer that it is much easier here in PAL-Land than it is in NTSC-Land since I had absolutely no such luck doing this in America.
Why?
No idea...

[Bix]

Depends what the OP wants to do. Factory-made VHS most likely is available on DVD anyway.

There are many, many commercially released tapes with Macrovision that aren't available on DVD.

[mattso]

how does avisynth work, please - i downloaded it a while ago, but couldn't get it started - does avisynth have an anti-flicker filter; and what is the difference between TMPGEnc and DivX (compression)?

thanks,

ric

Ric, a good place to start with Avisynth is here.

Also check out Doom9's "Avisynth" forum if you want to go further with it. There are tons of filters available. This is the "definitive" capture guide IMO, well worth the study.

Read through the Avisynth [img=http://www.avisynth.org/]site[/img] itself, it has loads of info for newbies.

Avisynth isn't that difficult - FulciLives' guide (above) is a great starter package.

[kr236rk]

hi mattso,

pretty impressive!

i have been capturing ciné to dv then filtering it with VirtualDub - but the captured footage disintegrates when i try to save it to disc (dvd-rw), but why?

many thanks,

ric

[bldn10]

" 99% of combos are complete garbage."

Well, what separates do you recommend for the price of a decent combo? Most combos w/o HD are under $350 - what DVD recorder and VCR for a total of no more than $350 would be better? People looking at combos are not videophiles so they don't have to or need to spend top dollar for state of the art equipment.