Aloha, I own a Pioneer DVD Recorder/Player Model DVR-420HS with an 80 Gig Hard Drive. I would like to know is there any way to transfer a DVD movie(that you would buy in a store) directly onto the hard drive. All I would like to do is to be able to load the DVD into the recorder and then just transfer it to the hard drive. Currently when I try, it gives me a message that the function cannot be performed or that there is protection. Any help would be greatly appreciated.
你好 (meaning what aloha means *_*) DVD purchased usually cannot be saved to hard disk like ordinary data files. That's why we say 'burn'. Furthermore, most DVDs have CSS protection and cannot be 'burnt' directly. Fortunately, there are programs that can deal with the CSS problem AND burn DVDs directly to hard disk. You may want to begin with DVD Shrink and DVD Decryter, both free programs downloadable from this site. Just find them in the 'software' section. You may also want to read the relevant guides. Good luck!
DVD shrink is the best. I save them as ISO images files so if one disk scratch/break just toss it and burn another one. My kids like to step on them.
If I'm reading this right, this is a set top DVD burner. I don't see how you can use DVD Shrink since there is no computer involved. I don't believe there is any way to transfer CSS protected DVDs to the hard drive You can use another DVD player and have a video stabilizer between the two units and you may be able to do this with some loss in quality since you would be converting digital to analog and back to digital. If you are wanting to copy a DVD the best (and cheapest) method is to use a computer DVD burner. I have a Panasonic set top burner and it won't even allow me to transfer unencrypted DVDs to tha hard drive. It only allows TV programs and things on DVD RAM to be transferred to the hard drive. I use the hard drive more or less like a high quality VCR. I'm not familiar with the Pioneer unit that you have, but I don't think you can do what you want to do.
