I foudn this is looks nice Panasonic DVD RECORDER/VCR Combo http://www.nextag.com/Panasonic-DVD...rices-html?nxtg=10e20a1c052b-F0C1FA3FD99DEF8C do you think I would need a "stabilizer" to copy my VHS collection to DVD?
I wouldn't have thought so- if the videos are in decent condition you should be OK. One thing though- if you're aiming to copy commercial videos to DVD using just this machine I don't think you'll have much luck. Copy protection kicks in.
I agree with collarme, as long as you're not backing up commerical VHS tapes you're OK. But, if you want to copy commercial VHS tapes, then even buying a video stabilizer wouldn't help you defeat copy protection if you were using this Panasonic VHS/DVD combo model. With a combo unit there's no place to hook in the stabilizer. To use a stabilizer you need a single source VHS machine and a separate DVD recorder as the destination. Then your stabilizer goes between those two machines to remove the protection.
Some Combo models have all the ports on the outside HVS,DVD ect but I guess there not easily over riddled when you want to do full dubbing internally,what about DVR's and Combo drives with a HDD that the data is put not the HD before its put onto the DVD? and yes I want a "one click" sulution for backing up commercial VHS tapes to DVD. I dont see the media mafia offering a trade up program where I can spend a 1$ a DVD to get them replaced. from everyting I know if you want to tape commercial VHS tapes you need 1 player 1 recorder and 1 stablizer I take it this is still true even with DVRs?
I have that same recorder.It's ok for normal use but it works better hooked up to your computer with a tuner card for your comercial vhs I just use a cheap tuner card and s-video and rca audio splitter back to the sound card and had no issues I have a cheap norwood micro tv tuner card and this recorder hooked to the computer and just used the program with the card and had no issues whatsoever and burn with nero vision.Sometimes I have to split two discs and reauthor with dvd shrink to fit to one 4.7 dvd.If you record straight with nero vision It will block access to recording.
If you have a commercial VHS tape with copy protection and you want to convert it to DVD you have a couple of choices. The first choice is to use a standalone VHS player and a standalone DVD recorder with a video stablizer in between to filter out the Macrovision. You could also use your PC as the destination device if you wanted, assuming you have a capture card. Another choice is to use a PC capture card that specifically ignores Macrovision. Capture the VHS tape to your PC as an mpeg then burn a DVD. Hauppauge cards ignore Macrovision.
I would prefer a 1 or 2 button approach at it so VCR+stablizer+DVDR=tape to DVD. so even DVRs are affected by macrovision?
Transfering a VHS tape with Macrovison to digital all depends upon the hardware you are using. Any given DVR, DVD recorder, or PC capture card will succumb to Macrovision if that particular model supports Macrovision. It's not as simple as using DVR's vs. PC Capture cards to get around the protection. All analog to digital conversions will be stopped by Macrovision if the specific hardware you are using supports Macrovision, DVR, capture card, whatever. I can't help you with the 1 or 2 button approach. To backup a Macrovision protected tape you could use a video stabilizer or a TBC between your VCR and your destination (DVD recorder or PC). You could also capture your VHS tape to digital on your PC using a capture device that ignores Macrovision. For example, the Hauppauge PVR-150 or the Canopus ADVC-100 both work fine for that. There's probably other models as well.
