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General discussion

VHS to DVD?

Mar 10, 2005 3:20AM PST

I have a bunch of vhs tapes that I would like to transfer to DVD. What is the easiest and most economical way to do this? What equipment will I need?

Discussion is locked

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VHS to DVD
Mar 11, 2005 3:29AM PST
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Help?
Mar 11, 2005 11:05AM PST

O.k., went and got a GoVideo DVD/VHS rocorder. What waste, should have read the user reviews first! It's going back. Read the user reviews on Moviebox and that seems like a bust too. Anybody know a good, reliable and reasonable way to do this?

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help
Mar 12, 2005 1:22PM PST

Any one of the major brand( JVC, Sony etc) players will do. You can get either a combo vhs dvd burner, or opt for a stand alone burner. Figure out how much you want to spend and read the reviews, and the users reviews. Pay attention to ease of use, quality of dvds etc. And by all means check out the product first hand in the store. If it looks like garbage it probably is. I use a Sony GX300 and love it. I was going to go for a combo player but then I figured once I had burned my tapes to dvd the last thing I would need is another vcr. Good luck with whatever you buy.

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I am surprise...not about "go video", but...
Mar 12, 2005 2:40PM PST

about standalone dvd recorder. Mind telling us the reason/s why? I am curious, I have always thought that is the best way to for trouble free tape conversion.

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surprise
Mar 12, 2005 3:13PM PST

Art, I had heard or read the same thing, but was told by the sales guy that sold me my Sony, that it wasn't a big deal. He himself had a Panasonic that he used with tape and never had a problem. I've dealt with this sales guy for the past seven years and have never been steered wrong, or else I wouldn't still be dealing with him. Another plus is that more than likely you'll be playing back the tape on the unit it was recorded on, which means no head adjustments. I haven't had a problem at all, and as I said, I really doubt that I'll ever use the vcr again. I have two now,I really can't see buying a third to use to archive material from the other two. The only thing the combo unit has going for it over stand alone is that you don't have to hook up anything to it.

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govideo
Mar 12, 2005 9:45PM PST

Well, I tried recording a vcr tape to the dvd and the tape stopped, but it kept giving me some sort of message about it still recording. Having not used it before, I left it and it had the same message hours later. Then I tried to get the dvd out and the tray would not open. Finally, I tried to turn the power off and it would not even do that. I had to unplug it and promptly returned it after reading the user reviews. I definately will read some user reviews before purchasing and they seem to be the most reliable source of info.

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Rentway!
Mar 14, 2005 9:40AM PST

I went to a Rentway center and rented the DVD recorder. I think it was a Philips, I rented it for $23 per week. Had it 2 or 3 weeks. You can do a lot of recording over the weekends and evenings.