dvd recorder - video combos

Surfer · 7 Dec 2007 at 13:47

My sister has hinted at one of these for xmas. The reason she says she needs the video combo is because she has a lot of kids films on video that she would like to transfer easily to dvd.

Should i get her one of these ?

or give her my old video recorder and get her a dvd recorder with a hard drive?

connect the two via scart and the second option seems a little bit more forward thinking?

Ideas on which to get? Cheapest but good quality preferred. She doesnt have a hdtv yet. Maybe in the future.

Surfer · 12 Dec 2007 at 18:36

after a bit of looking found this. any good?

Toshiba RDXV47 160Gb HDD/DVD/VHS Recorder

Hamster · 12 Dec 2007 at 22:42

I'd make sure you can definately copy vhs to dvd on the machine before you buy. VHS had copy protection and your machine may not allow it.

Surfer · 13 Dec 2007 at 15:43

according to reviews it does

though its only an analogue version not digital - thats bad right?

SexyGreyFox · 13 Dec 2007 at 22:52

Marmoset said:
I'd make sure you can definately copy vhs to dvd on the machine before you buy. VHS had copy protection and your machine may not allow it.

What he says.
Many people have been caught out by this.

Surfer · 14 Dec 2007 at 00:34

well cheers for the warning... i dont know any other way to tell other than going by other people who review it telling me(competitor and avforums sites), as its not available locally for me to go and look at. They said it does (called dubbing).

Hamster · 14 Dec 2007 at 01:03

Check whether you can copy original commercial vhs tapes - the copy protection is called macrovision and i would be surprised if a combi was made that could get round this legally. More than likely you will be able to transfer homemade recordings though.

If you are desperate to copy those tapes onto dvd, there are ways to do this (apparently) but you would need a vhs player and a separate dvd recorder, together connected with a certain device between them (apparently). I'll let you google that one!!