What's the difference between the DVD Recorder copy and PC rip and burn?

[coody]

What is the difference in the copy between the DVD Recorder and PC rip and burn? Is the DVD Recorder more capable of copy than the computer rip and burn such as in the reading scratched disc?

[yoda313]

????

If you refer to a settop dvd recorder they can't copy protected movies off of a commercial dvd. They are useless for that.

That only leaves you the computer for doing a digital copy. There's no substitute. With dual layer discs you can do an exact copy of the dvd. Single layers can get most of the dvd depending on how much of the quality you want to sacrifice (or all if you don't care about quality and just want to jam the entire dvd onto a single).

The settop dvd recorder is great for ease of use since you get a usable dvd right away. (from tv sources of course).

Perhaps if you give a more detailed example of your question we can clarify our answers.

[Noahtuck]

If you refer to a settop dvd recorder they can't copy protected movies off of a commercial dvd. They are useless for that.

Unless you have the macrovision hacked/turned off on the players like i do all of mine 8)

[greymalkin]

for backing up dvd discs ripping and burning via pc is the way to go as you are essentially making a digital copy.

with a standalone you are playing on one player and recording on the recorder..there will be some degrading of the audio and video quality...the amount depending on the quality/type of cables you use.

[Noahtuck]

Plus it's not a true digital copy from player to recorder, you can't retain 5.1, dts, ect. audio tracks, sub's, menus, ect. ect.

99.9 % of the time i only use my recorder for TV, LD's, VHS.....

[wild4trv30]

For my system, I currently use my mini-DV camera as a passthrough to capture VHS to my PC (as AVI files) for editing and coverting to MPEG-2.

My friend wants to back up old commercial VHS tapes to DVD that are aging. He does not have a camcorder, and currently no capture card.

Would it be better to just buy a stand-alone DVD recorder and plug the VCR in to make copies, or buy a capture card for his PC?

Will the VHS tapes be blocked due to some copyright protection on the tapes (I know I don't have that problem with the pass through method on my camcorder)?

Thanks,

Wild4trv30

[guns1inger]

Yes, macrovision will probably stop it being copied. Another advantage of the pass-through method is that for many, the camera acts like a TBC, cleaning up the video signal and giving a better transfer.