I'm looking for a DVD recorder to hook up to my VHS player and transfer some recordings.

I don't need a TV tuner, or anything except audio and video input sockets. The Toshiba DR430 looks ideal (and not too expensive), but it doesn't seem to be available in the UK. Is it? If not, is there an equivalent?

Some history (irrelevant): I tried to connect my VHS player to my computer (Windows Vista) using a Dazzle, and it sort of works, but my computer is not powerful enough, it seems, to keep up with the VHS player, and the transferred video staggers now and again and the sound lags behind. So it's either get a free-standing DVD recorder now, or wait until I need a new computer anyway. I'm amazed at the high price of most DVD recorders, but they have lots of features that I don't need. Or could I use a TV-to-hard-disk recorder? ie. do they have audio/video inputs, and can the hard disk be copied to a computer? They seem to be cheaper than DVD recorders.

I've also seen some talk of PAL vs NTSC in DVDs, which surprised me because I thought DVD formats were independent of that. Could this make the DR430 difficult to use in the UK? All I need is for the DVD recorded on this machine to be playable on a computer.

Thanks for your input.

PAL and NTSC is sort of relevant as it refers to the number of lines in each picture frame and the number of frames per second. Which are of course different between the two systems. And it might cause problems trying to record from a PAL VHS onto a NTSC recorder.

If by hard disk TV recorder you mean a PVR then they as a rule only record TV broadcasts, not from external sources. So a DVD recorder may be the only option.

Bit surprised you said capturing to PC didn't work too well. I used a Dazzle capture device years ago to copy some camcorder footage to a PC that by today's standards is seriously underpowered.

Mind you the Dazzle unit I was using took care of converting the raw video into MPEG 2 DVD friendly format before it hit the PC so the PC wasn't being overly stressed. Not sure if anything similar is available today.

It might be worth investigating the settings available on your unit to see if you can reduce the strain on the PC to allow it to capture more smoothly. After all it's coming from VHS so not exactly the highest quality to begin with

Two words - BUY USED!

Seriously, the charity shops that deal with electronics sell them dirt cheap. I picked up a Panasonic - mint condition with all accessories £25 and a lovely Pioneer with hard drive for£15. DVD/VHS combo decks are about £25 too.

Good luck.

Hmm that's strange. I've had a look around and theres nothing out there.

I bought one a few years back. It was about £60. (Lg DVD recorder)

It doesn't have freeview or anything like that, but its got a scart / video inputs.

There was loads of choice at the time, around the same price point.

Where have they all gone?

DVD, is going the way of VCR, and is effectively obsolete - it's been that way for a fair few years now.

PAL countries DVDs are 720 x 576 at 25fps, NTSC Countries use 480 x 720 x 29.97 fps (nominally 30). It's no coincidence 720 x 576 x 25 is the same number as 480 x 720 x 30.

Maybe, but it is still the cheapest way to record from Tv and keep the recording. the problem is technology is changing to fast these days, no sooner than you buy something it is out of date, we need to slow down a bit I think

I have got nothing against technology what ever some people think on here, but it gets a bit stupid sometimes.

Cheapest way is your PC with a DVB-T usb tuner.

http://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/like/22129...13=80&ff14=108

Once recorded you can copy to DVD using your PC DVD burner.

Changing so fast?.

Not so much with DVD recording. Stand alone DVD recorders have been around now for over 10 years, and the DVD recording technology itself even longer.

And why should the pace of technological change slow down just because some people have problems keeping up?. That's a view I have never understood to be honest.

There are still DVD recorders available if someone wants to buy one, and there are a huge range of second hand machines available too that should keep many folks happy for years to come.

And machines to play them on aren't going anywhere fast either. DVD and BluRay players will be around for a number of years yet.

Yep, disks will be around a long time I feel. I still buy a lot of disks, mostly BluRay these days and rip to hard drive then archive the disk. Standard DVD disks have dropped a lot in price so building your film collection is cheaper now than ever in real terms.

Graham, your right about those little USB Freeview tuners, they work very well for a very low cost alternative; not great on a blooming big telly but fine on laptop/tablet/smaller monitor.

The picture quality is identical to any SD source, including the one you will get from Freeview-SD on your TV no matter how large. In common with all pvrs they copy the actual digital data direct to a hard disk. On replay the picture is identical to the original transmission. The loss of quality involved in trying to copy analogue content to DVD is down to

1 Convert the analogue content to digital (ADC - Analogue to Digital Converter)

2 Compress the content using a real time mpeg2 encoder.

A digital pvr requires neither because the broadcast stream is already digital and mpeg2 compressed.

Once transferred to a DVD or even better a usb hard drive and connected to your TV by a cheap media player (if the TV does not have usb playback) it will look the same as the original broadcast.

Also, you can do some changes and while not able to change the quality as such, it is possible to make it look a bit better.

I have a TV card that can import from video, not that it is in this computer and i have not used it for a while, so not sure if it works now.

Is it that long? I suppose it is looking back when I got my first one.
Time flies.

If the old technology stays it is not so bad, it is when you are forced to buy new to do the same thing you been doing for years.

Look at Digital Tv, people was more or less forced to buy a box or a new Tv and then when they did that it changed again.

i still got a mini disk player and it still works fine, even if I have to use windows Xp to transfer the music to it. i love my little minidisk player.

But what I really love, is going to a friends place and hearing her old gramophone, ok the quality is not there, no amp for a start, but oh so nice to hear.

But coming back a bit more to date, I still like Vinyl's, but Cd is more convenient and MP3 is even more so as I can stick a load of them on my PS3 and connect that to my midi system and it can play for hours.

I recorded some music to tape last week, it been a long time since I done that. It is a good job I still got cassette on my midi.

With Digital TV I'd partially agree.

People certainly did need to buy a new TV, or at the very least a digibox that could plug into their old TV. But the other view is of course, that our analogue broadcast TV system was approaching 50 years old. But even then people had over 10 years to get round to buying a new TV or a digibox before analogue switch off.

The only major change since then has been the advent of HD. But people aren't "forced" to upgrade if they don't want to. If someone is perfectly happy with their current setup, again it will be around for many years yet. True the future is with HD, and eventually 4K, but that doesn't mean those happy with what they have now are forced to buy new equipment. Eventually there will come a time when standard SD DVB-T is finally switched off, and the space given over to DVB-T2 channels. But I have a feeling that is many years away yet, but yes at that time those who haven't upgraded will be "forced" to do so. One thing in their favour though is that the way prices come down so quickly, upgrading when DVB-T switch off finally happens wont be particularly expensive.

Oh and I'm a fan of minidsc too. I was an early adopter and still have quite a decent collection of minidiscs. I bought my first player in the mid 90s When you think of it, although it didn't take the World by storm it was still quite resilient and lasted for two decades before finally being killed off by Sony. Quite impressive really for a niche format that was under siege pretty quickly from recordable CD and MP3.

And my old collection of vinyl and cassettes are also still in regular use. I even managed to get hold of the exact same Technics separates I bought in the 80s when I first started working. £40 on Ebay. Boy does it sound superb, but then Technics made great kit back then. It absolutely knocks the spots off what passes for most hifi these days, especially for £40

Thanks, especially to those who addressed my question.

I've been looking around the charity shops for a used DVD recorder, but nothing so far. Few of them keep electrical goods at all. But it's worth persevering, rather than paying £250 for a new recorder.

Anyone got experience of the Toshiba DR430?

It was only a minor point, but I'm still unclear about whether a recorder aimed at the US market (like the DR430) could be problematic to use in the UK because of the PAL/NTSC thing. I could have this completely wrong, but it seems to me that a DVD recorder would just record the incoming data, whether it be PAL or NTSC. Only when the DVD is played back should it matter which encoding it uses. So when someone mentioned "a NTSC recorder", was this shorthand for "an encoding-independent recorder with NTSC-only playback"? Or have I completely misunderstood the position?

It matters not to me whether DVD is obsolete for recording from TV, as that's not what I'm doing. I want to transfer VHS tapes to DVD so I can play them on computer. I've tried direct transfer from VHS to computer, but the computer is not up to it. A stand-alone DVD recorder is the next option to try. And it seems PVRs are not a cheaper option as they would lack analogue AV input.

Don't forget the DVD recorder is converting an analogue signal into a digital format to store on the disk then reverses this process to send to the telly.

Thus it has to be able to recognise and understand the video format of the input signal in order to convert to digital and then back to analogue correctly. If it has no understanding of the differences between PAL and NTSC then it is not going to be able to record a PAL source.

I'm really surprised that your computer is not up to video capture. As I posted a while ago I successfully captured hours of camcorder footage on a machine that was far lower spec than anything you can buy today. So if that could do it I can't really see why your machine struggles. Thinking about it it was probably the thick end of ten years ago!

Which makes me think that it might be some set-up issue or duff capture hardware.

Look on eBay for vhs DVD recorders.

Be careful cheapest may only have DVD player. Quickly looked tonight and I saw several in 50 pound plus postage range.

These take all the hassle out of job.

Note: most of these type of units allow 1,2,4 and some 6 hours recording per disk.
for VCR copies 4hrs is fine.even 6 is normally OK.

My nearest Cash generators has a stack of Liteon DVD Recorders, all sealed and boxed, on sale for £19.99 each.

Liteon were never the most reliable in terms of their stand alone DVD recorders, but one of them should last long enough to convert your stuff to DVD. Plus they are generally very easy to take apart and the DVD drive can be replaced when it inevitably fails (lots of info online about which PC DVD writers can be used) as it is just a standard PATA DVD writer.

I agree and like yourself i also still use blank media and currently looking for a replacement DVD-HDD recorder.

Changes in Consumer goods are driven by purely by sales and little else and sometimes change is not always for the better either.

Magnetic tape which is God knows how old, still remains one of the best audio reproduction and remains in use in many professional recording studios, albeit not quite the same tape as your reel-to-reel! It's also the preference of many amateur musicians who, if they can afford one, will use a Revox, Teac or Tascam.

DVD's and blank media is still useful and a very simple, efficient and of course dirt cheap method of storage. The latter being one reason why manufacturers want rid of it!

That is true Nigel ..but..I sympathise with 'giomash' ...as the real issue is that the new Technology ignores the requirement to record personally generated images/videos ..other than from the TV or High Tech devices..which is what many people wish to do..
I use basic cameras for several of my diverse hobbies and have just encountered the reality of ?Progress?
My old [2006] Panasonic DVD could not be repaired..IT had some SIX inputs besides recording the Freeview channels..My new Top of the Range Pan735 has only ONE input and even that is NOT RGB enabled..YES it records 2 progs in HD brilliantly and deletes in a stroke ..one could drool over what it does..It even converts HD to about a dozen other types..and is seen over a simple network without lifting a finger..etc etc..
How are people whose hobby is their main interest supposed to input for recording to enjoy later? Is ownership of a top end PC now a requirement for them..?
However I have always valued the opinions of the Forum Gurus and wanted to know under what circumstances it would be beneficial to modify the Scart AV input with a device such that it takes S-video as the Pan does mention that it does accept that BUT only via a Normal Scart socket..For that matter does anyone know of any equipment sending out s-video via a Scart output please?.
Thanks

They aren't, domestic gear is aimed at the general public, not at a tiny number of enthusiasts who want to do unusual things.


The SCART specification was modified in later years, adding an option for S-Video (using the RGB pins), have a look at: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/SCART

However, it wasn't ever very popular, with most equipment using the standard S-Video connectors instead - Thomson/Ferguson gear was one of the few who used SCART.

You don't need a top end PC to do even HD video editing these days. When I needed a new power supply for my desktop I borrowed my mother's £350 laptop. It had absolutely no problems playing, streaming, editing or converting full HD video and that was with it's built in graphics chip.

The fact is most people who want to archive stuff have moved on and do it via their PCs.

The average consumer just wants a means to record their TV channels, so they can watch stuff later. The vast majority have no interest in archiving to disc.

If the demand was there from the average consumer then companies would still be producing such products, but it just isn't so they don't.

Of course enthusiasts and hobbyists still want to archive, but most of them (us) have moved on to using our PCs for that.

Mmmmm..
I bet others too wonder how on earth a World class producer like Panasonic ..for their Top of the range DVD model..can still be so totally unaware after more than Twenty years.. that the s-video system introduced in the late 80s was as Nigel says..

",, it wasn't ever very popular, with most equipment using the standard S-Video connectors instead"

And yet the ubiquitous.. until very recently.. RGB standard ....is no longer supported..
Does anyone know where this huge average customer demand is for which they are catering??