I found a way to record my old commercial VHS tapes to my DMR-E30 recorder, bypassing any embedded copy protection. (I believe this would work with DVDs also but have not tried it.) I loop the signal through my Dazzle Video Creator II. I run my VCR output to the Dazzle input, the Dazzle output to the DMR-E30 input. Start the Movie Star program, the signal pass through the Dazzle system back to the recorder. No need to copy to the PC as the Movie Star program acts a monitor feeding the input right back to the output. I've made perfect copies so far.