My grandfather has a collection of several hundreds of VHS tapes that he wants to transfer to DVD. He doesn't want anything to do with a computer (it's hard enough to teach him how to use a dvd player and a cable box). He's got a bottom-of-the-line computer from 4 years ago anyway, yet he's got it written in stone in his mind that a 4-year-old computer is not old. He recently purchased a VHS-to-DVD recorder combo, but we've found that even some of his recorded movies are coming up as unable to be recorded. I seem to be able to find tons of information on bypassing this with a computer, but I'm not going to personally go through his entire collection of boring old movies. So my question is: is there any sort of device that can be attached between the VCR and the DVD recorder to allow such a transfer?
hey, thanks for the reply! and I feel a little better knowing the hardware does exist, but the price kinda ruins it, about as much as a new computer. those would accomplish the task though? they would bypass the macrovision protection, I think it's called?
while searching for "time base corrector" I found information about video stabilizers that might be sold for 20-30 bucks at radio shack. do you think that's what the dvd red pro is? I read on some other forums that people were having trouble with the dvd red pro working for vhs-to-dvd but worked fine for dvd-to-dvd. also, my grandfather is afraid of purchasing things on the internet, afraid of people stealing his information and having to pay for shipping. really, he just likes being able yell at people when things don't work, walk into the store with the item, and demand a refund. he'll get something online if I tell him there's no other way, but it's gotta be a last resort.
oh, that link to the thread you posted had someone talking about putting tape over some hole. what hole? I tried putting tape over the indention that had the tab that you break off to prevent overwriting, but evidently that's not the right hole.
http://www.checkhere22.com/stabilizer/ I got a similar one from Radio Shack years ago to copy tape to tape. It still works fine for tape to DVD. Someone you know has one of these kicking around a closet.
excellent, that's what I wanted to hear. I'll take a trip to radio shack and get him a digital video stabilizer for christmas. thanks, guys.
