Which recorder and video enhancer do I need to record my VHS tapes to DVD?

[cnyeco1]

I was going to buy a DVD VCR combo because I thought you could record VHS tape to DVD. Now I am told that the ones I can buy at wal mart won't work. My dad told me about a Sima video enhancer that is supposed to remove the copyright protection but I don't know if or how they work.

What do I need to record my movies? I have about 200 movies I want to record to DVD. What equipment do I need to buy to bypass this stuff?

[zoobie]

Well, a combo will usually work if you've recorded your movies yourself and they're not protected. If you've 200 factory produced movies with the protection, you've got different ways you can go. One is a device between your vcr and computer. Another is a capture card within your computer. Most if not all related questions have been answered here times 1000. If you simply start searching, you'll find all the answers.

PS - There probably aren't even 200 movies ever made that were deemed excellent. A lot of times, you'll start copying this crap then realize how much it sucked and what a waste of time and money it is transferring the inferior VHS to DVD. Therefore, another alternative is to simply pitch most of these horrible movies out (you won't even miss them) and simply buy a few of your favorites in the DVD or superior Blu-ray format (often including studio extras, interviews, and unseen footage not on your VHS) thereby omitting the time, effort, money, frustration, media, software, and equipment needed to DIY.

[oldfart13]

With movies at the pawn shop being $1 each on DVD why would you bother? I could see if it was a film not available on DVD or Blu Ray (there are a few of those) but capping from VHS to DVD and bypassing copy protection isn't as easy as it was when you could just go down to Best Buy and buy a defeater. Most manufacturers have been forced to stop producing those devices in the US market. There are a few alternatives but nothing cheap. Some older recorders could bypass the copy protection but those units haven't been sold in years.

[sanlyn]

Now I am told that the ones I can buy at wal mart won't work.

He's right. But for more reasons than the two of you think.

My dad told me about a Sima video enhancer that is supposed to remove the copyright protection but I don't know if or how they work.

Much of time, they don't work. When they do, the results are crap. I bought one of those brand-new several years ago when I first started recording my own 400 hours of tapes. Returned it the same day. Junk.

Even if some your tapes are not copy protected, captures made with DVD/VHS combos look worse than the tapes. For anti-copy devices, there are several ways to go. None are free, most aren't cheap. The better of the frame-level tbc's that can defeat macrovision would cost about $200 U.S. (AVT-8710 TBC). It works, and has a clunky but effective proc amp built-in. As for "video enhancers": stay away from them. Those that were worth using at consumer prices ($500 or so) are no longer made, and there are cheaper alternatives. The big-box store cheap "enhancers" are worthless and made it very easy to thoroughly make a mess of video with a simple twirl of a knob.

I would caution that as someone who is just beginning to get into VHS->DVD transfer, you unfortunately have a long way to go. The way those tapes look displayed on your old TV or even your new one will not be "seen" the same way by digital capture devices. The analog playback problems inherent in VHS will become ugly digital artifacts when digitally recorded. In particular, line timing and frame sync errors will add to your problems and are impossible to repair in digital form; they have to be corrected during playback, not later.

Basically, you start with a decent VCR. That automatically precludes DVD/VHS combos, whose tape players are horrible. It's possible to find one or two modern combo units whose DVD recorder sections are fairly decent, but capturing VHS directly to DVD -- even with a good tape player -- is one of the lowest-quality ways of doing it. There are two other, very basic requirements: time and patience. Some of the hardware that you can get today, most of it used, can be had without too great a cost; most of the software you would use is free. But there's a learning curve. Even as recently as 5 or 7 years ago, when a few decent DVD recorders were still around, this forum and others are heavily populated with posts from users who met with little but disappointment, shock and grief when they saw how VHS-to-DVD recordings looked.

I suggest that you start at a website where many members here first encountered the how-to and straight story on what analog transfer entails. While some sections on this site are somewhat dated, the hardware might have changed but the basic principles remain the same. Some hardware recommendations are pretty much dead links nowadays, but workarounds exist. You would do well to start here: http://www.digitalfaq.com/guides/video.htm

Besides a decent VCR, one of the most elemental requirements is some sort of line-sync correction device. These are called line-level TBC's. They correct the inherent problem of line timing errors in VHS players and can often help correct the wiggle, shimmer, and top-border rips or flagging that occur with tape playback. This must be corrected during play, not after. Many pass-thru units will also defeat copy protection (mine do). Some high-end VCR's were equipped with early line tbc circuits. Working models of these VCR's are difficult to find nowadays; many of them will not play damaged tapes, and many make disasters of tapes recorded at 6-hour speed. An external line tbc would be shop gear that few could afford, and they require associated shop gear and the expertise to use them. One popular workaround is the use of a DVD recorder as a pass-thru tbc. You don't record to these machines; rather, you "play" the tape through the machine and into another capture device. Some DVDR's can be used as pass-thru, some can't. The most effective are units from Panasonic and Toshiba circa 2000-2005. If you want to see a quickie demo of the kind of problems inherent in tape playback and how a pass-thru unit can correct them, try this post (it shows a mild typical problem, but in practise most VHS captures look much worse than seen here): https://forum.videohelp.com/threads/306272-Computer-video-capture-vs-vcr-to-dvd-combo?p...=1#post1882662 . Then, have a look at this long thread: https://forum.videohelp.com/threads/319420-Who-uses-a-DVD-recorder-as-a-line-TBC-and-wh...=1#post1983288

That's for starters.

For some recommendations and detailed notes on finding a good used VCR, look for forum posts by user name Orsetto.

[orsetto]

zoobie, samlyn and oldfart13 covered all the bases you need to know before embarking on your first VHS to DVD project.

The single most important thing to realize is that VHS playback looks absolutely disgusting on modern flat panel LCD and plasma televisions. VHS transferred to digital/dvd will nearly always look even worse, because the digitizing stupidly captures all the normally-invisible crap you don't see straight from the VCR to TV. This can be something of a culture shock at first: I was horrified to discover my careful selection of top-quality expensive VCRs and high quality blank tapes back in the day, which looked wonderful on a 27" Trinitron CRT, now look as revolting as most youTube clips when played on an LCD tv. When I think of the money and effort I put in to evaluating / buying VCRs in the 80s/90s, and how it all came to naught because modern TVs can't play standard def worth a damn, I'm sorry I ever bothered. HDTV came at the heavy price of completely destroying our ability to get decent playback of VHS.

At this late date, all the really good DVD/HDD recorders are long off the market. These made it relatively easy to copy VHS, do basic editing, and create optimized DVDs. Only two such units are still available: the Magnavox MDR533 at WalMart, and the grey-market import Panasonic DMR-EH59 at B&H. Both are compromise designs compared to what you could buy in 2006.

The Magnavox is optimized almost entirely for recording off-air programs from its built-in tuner: when used for VHS dubbing it manifests hidden quirks which can slow you down and bite you unexpectedly. It is very affordable at $228, and has quite good encoding quality at the XP and SP speeds, but you may find it unpredictable in dubbing. The design of these recorders was recently changed to cut corners in mfrg cost: parts have been cheapened and overall QC is not as good as it was. Still, a great value for the price.

The Panasonic EH59 is a much more "solid" choice for dubbing VHS, with several well-thought-out convenience features that ease editing and authoring of DVDs. Unfortunately the EH59 was not specifically designed for North America, so it comes with a few "gotchas." Its tuner does not work here, so it can only record from line inputs (which you would be using with a VCR anyway). And its video contrast level is set for Asia/Europe, which results in somewhat lighter-than-normal recordings when used with USA/Canada video input signals (such as a cable box or VCR). The effect is subtle, it bothers some people but not others, and depends on how you normally have your TV picture adjusted. The panasonic sells new for $324 but B&H often has open-box, like-new demos available for $239 (looks like they have one today).

The best way to remove the protection block (and beef up the signal quality) is to use the AVT-8710 TBC mentioned in previous posts. The 8710 costs approx $228 at B&H and other dealers, you might find one cheaper on eBay. The second most popular device is the Grex, which runs about $89 on Amazon. The Grex filters the protection but doesn't otherwise improve anything. The cheapest way to go in VHS filters would be an old-school black box like this one on Amazon for $27. These cheap boxes work most of the time, but occasionally not well enough to trick a picky computer capture system.

The VCR part of the equation is another headache. You can spend a small fortune, easily $200-500, to get your hands on one of the "legendary" JVC, Panasonic or Mitsubishi SVHS or DVHS with built-in noise reduction. The problem is, most are beaters, even at those prices, and don't perform well unless serviced properly. Competent VCR techs have dried up, those that remain are pricey and you often need to ship out of state. And for all that expense, you'll discover 1 out of 3 tapes are allergic to the fancy VCR and will play better on any random Panasonic you buy on Craigs List for $15.

So basically, you're talking a minimum $300 outlay for a Magnavox, cheap protection filter, and decent used VCR, or max $800-1000 for the Panasonic recorder, TBC and a high-end used VCR. Using a computer capture device instead of a DVD/HDD recorder would save perhaps $100 off the recorder cost, but be aware that VHS capture to a PC is the stuff of nightmares unless you have some clue about the software settings and an end goal of uncompressed files stored on HDD. If all you want is DVDs, the standalone recorder is much simpler and less prone to requiring troubleshooting for every individual tape.

That brings us back to zoobie's advice, with which I agree completely. For most people with collections of 200 tapes or less, you get a much better value and far better quality by just buying the studio DVD re-releases when you see them at cut prices on eBay, Amazon, movie collector websites, or bargain bins at superstores. A surprising number of movies made prior to 2011 can be had for less than $10, often less than $5 for movies in the marketing sweet spot between 1979 and 2011. Some "old" movies are considered collectible classics and are marketed as such, with prices in the $20 range- these I suggest buying used for half off. It may seem like a lot of money, but for the $500 you'd spend on good DIY hardware you could buy nearly 100 studio dvds. The video quality will be 1000% better than you'd get from a VHS dub, and you won't waste your time performing the task yourself or dealing with problems. Dubbing from VHS only makes sense now for people with insane quantities of tapes that would be too expensive to replace with studio DVDs, or rare material that hasn't been released commercially.

[lingyi]

Second the recommendation of searching for DVD releases. Search Ebay, half.com and Amazon for starters. Visit your local thrift stores and garage sales. Don't limit yourself to local searches only, especially if they're foreign films. Just because it wasn't released on DVD in the U.S., doesn't mean it's NEVER been released. I have some Asian collectibles that I would never have found in the U.S. I befriended and trusted some people overseas and they were able to get it locally in their country for me.

Set a limit on how much you'll spend on each movie so you don't overspend. I set a general limit of $10.00 per DVD, with $20.00 for that "must have, will never see it again" movie.

Think about it this way. Transferring those 200 movies to DVD will take 300-400 hours at least. Add to that the additional 300-400 hours you'll likely spend correcting those movies after you see how badly they look after the transfer and you'll find yourself spending more time transferring and correcting than you do watching!

I have 30 year old "collectible" tapes that I thought about transferring to DVD, but realized that if they truly were that great, I would have worn out the tape by now and if I "preserved" it for 30 years, it's unlikely I'd watch them now.

Finally, take your time collecting! Part of the fun is finding that "never released on DVD" movie.

Edit: Search YouTube and check the description and comments or contact uploader about the footage they've uploaded. I've found DVDs of "does not exist" footage of some of my favorite bands because of YouTube.

[Brad]

Many pass-thru units will also defeat copy protection (mine do).

Just a note for your future reference: the Toshiba D-KR4 recognizes and reinserts the Macrovision present on Titanic VHS.