I'm trying to convert VHS tapes to DVD. I have been able to copy some of them but I have had the DVD recorder freeze up quite a bit with the message "Recording is closing. Please wait a moment." (This should show up when I choose to stop.) I have to unplug the recorder to be able to proceed. I have bought and returned (4) Sanyo DRW-1000's from Wal-Mart and (2) Zenith XBR413's from Best Buy. I've spoken to Sanyo and Zenith. They both assure me that it's the machine. It's hard to believe that all of these machines are defective. I'm using Sony -RW's. If anyone has had experience with this and any advice, I would be truly grateful. Thanks.
You say you keep getting bad machaines? I have a Panasonic Dmr-85 and I have been converting my VHS collection to dvd with out any complications except for one, due to copy right protection I had to purchase a sima go dvd video enhancer to get by the machine (they are more advanced than I thought) I was infromed that this is leagal as long as it was for my own use and not for resale.In short what I am saying is if you have tried two other brands give the panasonic a try.
Is the Panasonic DMR85 the one with a hard drive? It's hard to buy one since I purchased my computer last year to convert the vhs tapes to dvd BUT that has been another bad story. On top of this, my computer will not recognize the dvd's that I have produced (perhaps the recorder?). The computer gives an error message that The disk structure is corrupted and unreadable. I'm going to have to take the step to another recorder or give it up... It's good to hear that someone has had success with this. Thanks.
techgurl i also have a panasonic dmr-e85h. has 120 gig hard drive. you can check out the next one down with an 80 gig hdd at best buy. both are excellent. the only difference is that the 80 gig does not come with built in tv guide. ive converted my tapes and am convinced that this is the best way to go for vhs conversion to dvd. your tapes will keep. wait until you can afford a high quality recorder. the great results are worth it. richard
Richard, Thanks for sharing. I have made contact w/ someone who does this sort of stuff and he's going to check my tapes and dvds it out on his equipment - he has a pioneer w/ hard drive w/ no problems. He uses -R media. What do you use? Do you go from vhs to dvd directly or go to the hard drive first? What sort of modifications do you do? Like chapters... What media brand are you using? I have Sony. I wanted to use -RW so I could edit. He uses Memorex. The tapes can't wait. I started trying this w/ my computer 1 1/2 years ago and realized copies of the tapes were not going to give me a good video and, after a year of trying, got the originals from my ex.
I have an older version of the same recorder; the DMR-e50. It only takes -R so that's what I use. Now what I have found is that the discs the Panasonic put out only play in about 60% of all home DVD players, so I use DVD Shrink (which also gets rid of that annoying menu) and re-burn on my PC. Then the final discs play in about 90% of machines. I use cheap media to make the first copy, then good media for the final product. This process used to bug me when media was over $2 a disc. Now at 50ยข a disc it's not an issue.
Make sure your recorder in in a spot where the cooling fan is out of a confined space. If it over heats it won't record/Burn the DVD. I had my share of problems to. I have a Zenith XBR-413. It's a good recorder and performs well but I think all the bugs arn't worked out of DVD burning yet. I use Memorex DVD-R's. I stoped buying the 25 packs of DVD-R's because I found about 7 or 8 are usually bad, especially when there on top of each other. One thing I do now is let the recorder cool down before starting a 2nd recording, you shouldn't have to but it solved all of my problems. I never use DVD-RW's, don't care about editing. You can use the DVD-r's until there full. Good Luck.
techgirl i use either dvd-r or dvd-ram. used memorex for a long time, never had a coaster, never had a problem playing on other dvd players, but now i use "ritek ridata branded go4's" because afterdawns moderators convinced me that they will have a longer shelf life. editing is very easy, and when you finalize your disc, it creates a chapter every five minutes. editing on rw's or ram is different from editing on recorder hard drive. what i do is record from vhs to panasonic harddrive, then edit, then burn to dvd-ram. then i re-process the dvd-ram on pc with rebuilder/cce which gives me the best possible pic. then i burn to dvd-r. seems like a lot of work doesnt it, but i enjoy it. and the last thing you want to do with video that you value is use cheap media. richard
Thanks for all the comments. Went ahead and bought the Pansonic DMR-E85H. I'm able to bring in the video from the DVD-RWs I've already created(nice to not have to sort through what I want all over again). How do I create chapters so I can navigate the created DVD with the menu on the DVD player? I created chapters on a playlist and selected the items on the playlist to dub, but it copies as just one item on the menu... The only other way is to stop recording so it creates a new chapter (title?) at each selected spot. Thanks.
techgurl great!! you have a high end dvr/dvd recorder combo thats not going to give you any problems. you will love the tv guide part. ive never used the playlist, but i think youre right that it copies the playlist as one title. if you dub in high speed mode, the chapter points on the dvd you are dubbing will be recreated when you finalize. if dubing in sp, etc. it automatically creates chapters every five minutes. to dub from hdd to dvd-r in high speed mode, you first have to record in high speed mode. richard
Well, I'm disappointed about the playlist but I will be able to deal with it when I record from here on out. It doesn't make sense though why it allows you to create the chapter segments and then they don't copy over... Why even have the option? I must be missing something. I guess it does allow you to select different segments and create different combinations. THAT makes sense. And it would be nice to copy in high speed but I can live with the regular speed. I can't record in high speed mode from a DVD that has been recorded in sp mode, correct? How do you record in high speed mode initially? I don't really understand it... Thanks!!
techgurl to go into high speed mode, click on functions/setup then press enter. click the down button until you get to "disc". now click the right button, and the down button until you get to "dvd-r high speed recording". press enter and choose on. [bold]I can't record in high speed mode from a DVD that has been recorded in sp mode, correct?[/bold] no matter what your dvd has been recorded in, if you want to burn it to your hdd, first set up the high speed mode. then when you dub it, select high speed in the dubbing window. richard
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i have been using the hp dc4000 movie writer to convert vhs tapes to dvd,every attempt has been sucessfull except that i am finding quite a few vhs tapes are copyright protected and this machine will not copy them. copyright vhs tapes is a problem.any solution would be helpfull.
I thought it would be good to post something that has been working. I've been using the ACEDVio to capture from my VCR using the S-Video input. Using Vegas to capture and edit, have used Architect and DVD-Lab to author the DVD. All of this has been for sign language clips so I cannot comment on audio, but the video solution is perfect! Thanks Minion again for helping me to achieve this. Now I'm interested in branching out and working with audio and longer clips. My clips so far have only been 2 min. each so I have never had to burn a 2 hour movie or even use a bitrate calculator. Minion, if you can help me out again since you are familiar with Vegas, I do have a question about adjusting the bitrate. When do I do this and how?(using Vegas) Do I capture as usual then somehow adjust the bitrate when rendering my file to MPEG-2? If so, I have just used the standard MPEG-2 MainConcept option, how do i adjust the bitrate? I'd like to start capturing some full length home movies etc. Thanks again!
