[NightSurfer]

I have a big collection of old VHS tapes, the majority of them have films that I have recorded off the TV, and some of them are pre-recorded I bought in the past. A few months ago my VCR of 18yrs packed in I really loved that old machine - despite its age it still looked and played real good. It's completely dead! I tried to look for a PSU for it, which, to my knowledge, would be the cause. E-mailed Sanyo and of course, as expected, that part is discontinued.

Anyway, I've been looking at some VCR/DVD recorders, so I can transfer the films from tape to DVD. I needn't bother with a DVD/VCR recorder or a video player itself if it haven't been for little bits of classic television I managed to caught on tape that I'll know I can never find on DVD or through downloadable media.

Cheers.

[Chris Frost]

I'd have thought that now would be a reasonable time to pick up a good used S-VHS deck and use that as a source in to your current DVD Recorder.

[MrGiles2]

I use a Toshiba DVD/VCR Recorder and have transferred copies of video tapes to the hard drive on the recorder and then copied to blank discs.

However, the picture quality suffers because the resolution on VHS tapes is not as good as DVD anyway. If you can live with that, then try copying using this machine. It is easy to use.

[Chasing Shadows]

A VCR/DVDR combi will usually work out very expensive - far more expensive than a standalone DVDR, and often more expensive than buying a standalone DVDR coupled with a second-hand working VCR bought from ebay or similar.

Cos once you've transferred your tapes over to DVD, you won't be using the video again will you? Certainly not for making any more recordings. That means you can relist the VCR on ebay once you've finished archiving, and get some of your money back.

[captainkremmen]

Bear in mind too that DVDR/VCR combi recorders wont defeat Macrovision copy protection, so if you intend to transfer any shop bought tapes that aren't available on DVD/BluRay and are protected, you're stuffed.

[Nostlagic]

I got hundreds of tapes lying around, but i think i'll wait until the prices of VHS/Blu-ray recorders come down. This would be more ideal as a bluray can hold several tapes on the one disc, whereas a DVD couldn't, unless compressed. Also those machines upscale the video!

[Nigel Goodwin]

Quote:

Originally Posted by Nostlagic

I got hundreds of tapes lying around, but i think i'll wait until the prices of VHS/Blu-ray recorders come down. This would be more ideal as a bluray can hold several tapes on the one disc, whereas a DVD couldn't, unless compressed. Also those machines upscale the video!

I wouldn't have thought such machines will be coming out?, VCR is long dead and gone.

Upscaling is nothing but a con - all it does it makes the picture fit the screen, and all TV's already do exactly that - it doesn't make the picture 'HD' or anything like it, and VCR pictures look pretty crappy.

[David (2)]

i can only speak for 2 examples of combi VHS/DVD recorders.

Our neighbour bought a cheaper model made by Sharp (about £150 at the time i think), and while it does do the job, its very awkward to use, difficult to understand what its doing. Picture quality on VHS and VHS-DVD transfers isnt great either, infact the only good thing that stands out is the DVD playback of pre-recorded discs.

We also had between us several stacks of VHS tapes. To begin with I linked an existing VHS machine (Sony) to a bog standard, DVD recorder (Goodmans) with a Scart cable. This was very messy, and everytime I wanted to make a transfer I had to set it up from scratch. The quality was average, with the scart link cable being the weak link-i changed the original one for a high quality one costing £25 which did help, not least it didnt feel like it would fall apart with all that plugging in and out of cables.......
.....the Goodmans DVD recorder gave up the ghost after just 18months, and I still had many transfers to do. So we replaced it with a Combi VHS/DVD recorder (no hard disc) made by Panasonic which was around £270 at the time (and most people I have spoke to re this say they wouldnt spend that much money on a Combi). But I have to say, its by far the best option. Its a single box on the shelf, no extra cables etc to worry about, no moving stuff about when we want to use it. The VHS-DVD transfers are by far the best I have seen, better than the other 2 options I have mentioned (i think Panasonic have some sort of extra circuit inside which some how maintains picture quality better, as seen on a certain well know shopping channel a few years back in a side by side demo with another machine that didnt have the same improvement). You can clearly see the difference on things like the end credits of a film. Its also the most easy to use, with a step by step guide as you work through the process. And it doesnt crash (which is what the Goodmans tended to do), and has lasted at least twice as long as the Goodmans and is still going strong. It also managed to copy many pre-recorded VHS tapes to dvd, without being stopped by macrovision. The only thing is, that as good as it is, its still not dvd quality at the end - you cant put in quality which isnt there on the original tape in the first place. Some people I know think that transfering VHS to DVD means they get bumped up to pre-recorded dvd quality, which ofcourse doesnt happen. So if you have any vhs that is important to you, I would say re purchase those on proper pre-recorded dvd or bluray. For the less important stuff, or stuff you cant get on dvd/bluray, use a panasinic combi to transfer them.

[Inkblot]

I bought a Panasonic one a couple of years ago and it works well. We mainly use it as a DVD player and to record terrestrial TV when there's a conflict with recording and watching programmes on Sky. But transferring old home movies from VHS to DVD works fine. I've never tried copying commercial VHS tapes to DVD but picture quality whilst watching them is good.

[jasonjimbob]

I bought a Toshiba RD-XV47 VCR/DVD/HDD Combi about 3 years ago, and it is a superb performer, which copies from vcr to dvd very well, I still use a Pace MSS 200 analogue satellite receiver and I sometimes record programmes from the Pace to the HDD in the Toshiba (via Scart for better picture and sound quality). I have a Pacific VCR/DVD combi linked to my mother's 42inch Toshiba LCD tv, We use that to watch Video's on, The DVD does not record so I put a stand alone DVD Recorder inline to copy if we want. A mate of mine gave me a VCR/DVD combi which recorded to either source but that failed and the picture quality was poor.

[radioman2]

Quote:

Originally Posted by jasonjimbob

I bought a Toshiba RD-XV47 VCR/DVD/HDD Combi about 3 years ago, and it is a superb performer, which copies from vcr to dvd very well, I still use a Pace MSS 200 analogue satellite receiver and I sometimes record programmes from the Pace to the HDD in the Toshiba (via Scart for better picture and sound quality). I have a Pacific VCR/DVD combi linked to my mother's 42inch Toshiba LCD tv, We use that to watch Video's on, The DVD does not record so I put a stand alone DVD Recorder inline to copy if we want. A mate of mine gave me a VCR/DVD combi which recorded to either source but that failed and the picture quality was poor.

I have the same model here,it's connected to my Standard Sky box and I use it to record stuff from Sky if I want to transfer to DVD,alos use it to transfer VHS tapes but always do this via the Hard Drive to make editing much easier.Never had a problem with machine,works every time even though it's analogue.An earlier JVC model I still have is also easy to use but there seems to be a firmware issue with the DVD/RW drive which causes problems for most other DVD players which can't read the discs.Needless to say JVC weren't all helpful when I was trying to sort it.

[jasonjimbob]

radioman 2, you are right about JVC not being very helpful. I have a S-VHS machine (HR-S6855). I lost the remote control for this machine when I last moved house, I contacted them to try and get a replacement but all they could say was, "That VCR is discontinued". I bought it about 10 years ago. I always thought I could get spares from them.

[Nigel Goodwin]

Quote:

Originally Posted by jasonjimbob

radioman 2, you are right about JVC not being very helpful. I have a S-VHS machine (HR-S6855). I lost the remote control for this machine when I last moved house, I contacted them to try and get a replacement but all they could say was, "That VCR is discontinued". I bought it about 10 years ago. I always thought I could get spares from them.

You're really been pretty unreasonable, it's probably more than ten years old, and is long obselete - as is video itself.

Once the inital order of spares are gone, that's it - do you seriously think JVC are going to spend tens of thousands of pounds to have new remotes made just so you can buy ONE!.

JVC aren't terribly good at service, but in this case they are just as good as everyone else.

[radioman2]

Quote:

Originally Posted by jasonjimbob

radioman 2, you are right about JVC not being very helpful. I have a S-VHS machine (HR-S6855). I lost the remote control for this machine when I last moved house, I contacted them to try and get a replacement but all they could say was, "That VCR is discontinued". I bought it about 10 years ago. I always thought I could get spares from them.

My problems with JVC were with a DRMX1 which was only a couple of years old when I tried to ask for support.Sadly these days almost nobody seems to support machines after a few years which isn't very green BUT in many instances you can obtain spares such as remote controls via the aftermarket route.Personally I feel that VCRs are still a valid format owing to the amount of material still lurking in many people's homes and the need for people to transfer it to whatever new format they see fit.I still have a large amount of material on VHS/S-VHS format and I have no intention of ditching it especially when many of the DVDs I used to "Archive "the tapes to won't play due to what I feel is a firmware fault.Keeping the source material means I can still consider transferring the material again once I'm happy that any new machine is reliable.Who knows VCRs may still be in use years from now,just look at all those people who ditched vinyl for CD only to find themselves wanting to return to vinyl again and this has led to a revival.

[Sideburns57]

If you look at my thread ("Video to DVD") you will see that my Sony one has not worked well. That said, I am sure there are some goon ones out there.

I may yet invest in another one.

[radioman2]

Quote:

Originally Posted by jasonjimbob

radioman 2, you are right about JVC not being very helpful. I have a S-VHS machine (HR-S6855). I lost the remote control for this machine when I last moved house, I contacted them to try and get a replacement but all they could say was, "That VCR is discontinued". I bought it about 10 years ago. I always thought I could get spares from them.

You should be able to buy a replacement remote from Partsmaster,I know it's part of the Dixon's group but beggars can't be choosers.
Follow this link:
http://www.partmaster.co.uk/cgi-bin/...09,44514,44571

They also have other spares for that machine as well.

[Sideburns57]

I am thinking of investing in this one (having been put of the Toshiba one). Any experiences of this out there.........

http://www.panasonic.co.uk/html/en_G...359/index.html

[David (2)]

...thats the near identical replacement for the model we have. The main difference is that the SD hdmi upscaler on ours is 720p/1080i, while the one in the link does 1080p as well.

[captainkremmen]

If you want to try and squeeze every inch of picture quality (or lack of it) from VHS tapes to transfer to DVD I would go for a second hand S-VHS machine as the source to be honest.

I have a JVC S-VHS machine with a built in TBC. Using it as the source it even manages to clean up some of my older VHS tapes. Picture quality is a definite step up from my other two ordinary VHS machines that still work well. Of course it's still not a patch on DVD but for very rare VHS tapes that haven't been released on DVD/BluRay, or for your own home videos, it does a decent enough job.

[DavyPaul]

... and this is what I would have done, had my S-VHS deck not failed. But, why waste hours and hours of your life on what would have to be, effectively, a real-time process?
I think I have my old ferguson 3v43 (linear & hi-fi stereo) inn the garage somewhere..!
.
I found that the easiest way was to

(a) give away any commercial VHS tapes to the charity shops and
(b) throw the rest of the self-recorded cassettes in the skip.

Why? Because in the multi-channels world, everything always seems to be on tv or Virgin catch-up. Also, blockbuster now do old series rentals on DVD.
Or, go to your local library.
Lots of audio and video content is available for streaming, so why keep the old cassettes laying around, taking up valuable space in your house?
Bin the lot - you'll feel better!

[John Currie]

The OP posted this 5 days ago...he has 19 replies and hasn't returned to the thread despite being active on the forum over the last couple of days.
I've noticed over the last couple of months he does this regularly after asking some pretty dumb questions...wouldn't you think someone with over 800 posts would have learned something by now?
Why bother replying to this queries?...look at post no 54 in this thread.

[mllfap]

Quote:

Originally Posted by DavyPaul

... and this is what I would have done, had my S-VHS deck not failed.

What on earth would be the point in copying VHS recordings to SVHS?

And its well worth keeping tapes of material that is not out on dvd yet and depending on what you have recorded there is a wealth of broadcast tv that will never come out on dvd

[captainkremmen]

Quote:

Originally Posted by mllfap

What on earth would be the point in copying VHS recordings to SVHS?

And its well worth keeping tapes of material that is not out on dvd yet and depending on what you have recorded there is a wealth of broadcast tv that will never come out on dvd

I don't think you understood.

He meant, as I did, use a S-VHS machine as the playback machine, even for your ordinary VHS tapes.

S-VHS recorders have extra circuitry that, although designed for recording and playback of higher quality S-VHS can usually manage to get the very best out of even VHS tapes.

My JVC for example, does a very good job of older VHS tapes. You don't see any of the shimmering/movement you normally see on large blocks of colour, the picture is more stable and very slightly sharper too than on my other two VCRs which are just normal VHS.

[Sideburns57]

Quote:

Originally Posted by John Currie

The OP posted this 5 days ago...he has 19 replies and hasn't returned to the thread despite being active on the forum over the last couple of days.
I've noticed over the last couple of months he does this regularly after asking some pretty dumb questions...wouldn't you think someone with over 800 posts would have learned something by now?
Why bother replying to this queries?...look at post no 54 in this thread.

And still he ain't been back!

[AidanLunn]

Quote:

Originally Posted by NightSurfer

I have a big collection of old VHS tapes, the majority of them have films that I have recorded off the TV, and some of them are pre-recorded I bought in the past. A few months ago my VCR of 18yrs packed in I really loved that old machine - despite its age it still looked and played real good. It's completely dead! I tried to look for a PSU for it, which, to my knowledge, would be the cause. E-mailed Sanyo and of course, as expected, that part is discontinued.

You don;t replace the PSU, you replace the faulty component within the PSU.