off topic- VHS to DVD

Old bones Ian · Post by **Old bones Ian** » 23 Sep 2005, 05:25

Help needed, i want to get my collection of boxing vhs tapes onto DVD, i've been looking at the dvd recorders and am unsure what i'm looking at.

What is it that i need? or does anyone know of a service that does this reasonably?

MightyWarrior · Post by **MightyWarrior** » 23 Sep 2005, 05:28

I've got a Sony DVD recorder, around £200. Comes with a cable that just plugs into a vhs recorder and you can record straight from VHS onto DVD.

Loynesy · Post by **Loynesy** » 23 Sep 2005, 05:37

Another question for the teccies - anyone know how to treansfer from Sky + to a DVD?

split_decision · Post by **split_decision** » 23 Sep 2005, 06:01

Loynesy wrote:Another question for the teccies - anyone know how to treansfer from Sky + to a DVD?

I could do with knowing this as I'm getting Sky+ in next week, but I'm sure I'll be able to figure it out.

I'm assuming its not as simple as the US Tivo system where you just play the item and record on to DVD as if it where TV.

split_decision · Post by **split_decision** » 23 Sep 2005, 06:04

topper123 wrote:Help needed, i want to get my collection of boxing vhs tapes onto DVD, i've been looking at the dvd recorders and am unsure what i'm looking at.

What is it that i need? or does anyone know of a service that does this reasonably?

It really is pretty easy but you are far better off paying the extra money for a panasonic / sony / toshiba (not phillips as they suck) as some of the cheaper ones on the market are cheap for a reason, they can record from TV well enough but the VHS to DVD transfer is pretty bad on most of the cheaper ones I've used.

just scart them up like you would VHS to VHS and away you go.

stujones · Post by **stujones** » 23 Sep 2005, 06:17

I've got a phillips machine, it has broken - but before it broke I was well impressed with it. Its long play picture was poor (poorer than the sony one) but I thought its standard play picture was better and functionality was easier.

Barryboy · Post by **Barryboy** » 23 Sep 2005, 10:01

Stay away from the LiteOn make, I've had 3 of those and they all broke down! I now have a Sony machine and it's great, instead of the usual SP(2hrs) to HQ(1hr) jump it has a HSP mode(90 mins) and that's what I usually use to record the fights cos if it goes 12 rounds with all the build up and analysis afterwards it lasts longer than an hour so the 90 min mode comes in handy and the quality is better than ordinary SP and have converted loads of my old tapes and it's totally fine.
I'd stick with Sony, even though they're the top of the tree price wise i've never heard any complaints about their machines.
Oh and get the cable with the yellow, white & red plugs on it to connect your video & dvd which helps with sound & picture, you usually get this with the dvd player but you can get better ones at P.C. World and places like that.

steve689 · Post by **steve689** » 23 Sep 2005, 10:06

I hear the Pioneer and JVC ones are good too, my LG is ok on 1 and 2 hours but long play 4 hours the quality is really poor. I am thinking of converting my tapes as well but want a recorder that is good quality up to 4 hours cause you don't want to watch the fights with huge pixel blocks and bad picture do you?

stepper · Post by **stepper** » 24 Sep 2005, 13:07

steve689 wrote:I hear the Pioneer and JVC ones are good too, my LG is ok on 1 and 2 hours but long play 4 hours the quality is really poor. I am thinking of converting my tapes as well but want a recorder that is good quality up to 4 hours cause you don't want to watch the fights with huge pixel blocks and bad picture do you?

My understanding is that most recordable DVD's are about 4.7GB which limits the user to just under 1hr 30 mins of recording. Commercial DVD's that run longer are double lattice (two circles of silver paper instead of one) and need big machines to record on them. The industry are bringing in new formats just now and are stuck in a VHS vs BETA war so I would suggest waiting till one sinks and buy with the winner. The new formats will record much more per disc.

split_decision · Post by **split_decision** » 24 Sep 2005, 14:59

stepper wrote:
steve689 wrote:I hear the Pioneer and JVC ones are good too, my LG is ok on 1 and 2 hours but long play 4 hours the quality is really poor. I am thinking of converting my tapes as well but want a recorder that is good quality up to 4 hours cause you don't want to watch the fights with huge pixel blocks and bad picture do you?
My understanding is that most recordable DVD's are about 4.7GB which limits the user to just under 1hr 30 mins of recording. Commercial DVD's that run longer are double lattice (two circles of silver paper instead of one) and need big machines to record on them. The industry are bringing in new formats just now and are stuck in a VHS vs BETA war so I would suggest waiting till one sinks and buy with the winner. The new formats will record much more per disc.

Well the size of the disc remains constant but on a standalone you can chose different modes of recording just like sp or lp on VHS and the longer you record, the quality depreciates. Mine can record up to 8 hrs on 1 4.7gb disc, but i would never do it as the quality is so poor.

stujones · Post by **stujones** » 24 Sep 2005, 15:00

steve689 wrote:I hear the Pioneer and JVC ones are good too, my LG is ok on 1 and 2 hours but long play 4 hours the quality is really poor. I am thinking of converting my tapes as well but want a recorder that is good quality up to 4 hours cause you don't want to watch the fights with huge pixel blocks and bad picture do you?

Steve, I have heard that the firmware products with Phillips, which will update the recorder, will improve the picture on a longer settting to very very close what would be a 2 hour picture. Don't quote me, just stuff I have read when looking around.

I believe that Pionner (Comets) are just a Phillips in a different packaging and comets sell them at cut price.

Edit: Sorry, I got my names a bit mixed up - of course Pionner are their own company with their own machines, Comets "own" brand is a proline. I bought a cheap proline DVD player and its fantastic as a player.

stepper · Post by **stepper** » 24 Sep 2005, 16:32

split_decision wrote:
stepper wrote:
steve689 wrote:I hear the Pioneer and JVC ones are good too, my LG is ok on 1 and 2 hours but long play 4 hours the quality is really poor. I am thinking of converting my tapes as well but want a recorder that is good quality up to 4 hours cause you don't want to watch the fights with huge pixel blocks and bad picture do you?
My understanding is that most recordable DVD's are about 4.7GB which limits the user to just under 1hr 30 mins of recording. Commercial DVD's that run longer are double lattice (two circles of silver paper instead of one) and need big machines to record on them. The industry are bringing in new formats just now and are stuck in a VHS vs BETA war so I would suggest waiting till one sinks and buy with the winner. The new formats will record much more per disc.
Well the size of the disc remains constant but on a standalone you can chose different modes of recording just like sp or lp on VHS and the longer you record, the quality depreciates. Mine can record up to 8 hrs on 1 4.7gb disc, but i would never do it as the quality is so poor.

The new systems are working with 2 new compression programmes, the Sony system looks worse but will prevail because the company has all the copyright options on the mainstream films. Shame really.

HeavyHitters · Post by **HeavyHitters** » 25 Sep 2005, 12:47

I've been recording my old "big" fights from VHS to DVD on my Mac Powerbook G4. but each one takes a while to make, and takes up hard sisc space on my Powerbook. But the results are outstanding! I'm able to make "moving" title pages and "moving" menus with music audio with each, it's just too cool!

The DVD's I've made of Douglas/Tyson, Williams/Tyson, Morrison/Ruddock are top notch!! Better than anything I've seen that you could buy commercial wise.

But I would like to get a DVD recorder for my TV and cable, but I want a big hard drive in the unit also. Like a 160 Gig hard drive. Can anyone let me know here, or better yet, e-mail me, what a good name brand and the model of the unit, that has these specs? Also, I would love to have one that records onto DVD-R, DVD+R, DVD-RW, DVD+RW, and maybe even DVD-RAM, DVD+RAM.

If you have any knowledge of this, please e-mail me at:

[email protected]

Thanks again, Fight fans!!

PS - Plus... . on these DVD recorders that hook up to the TV and cable... can you make "custom menus" on them? With added music and "moving-video" chapters?

off topic- VHS to DVD

off topic- VHS to DVD

Re: off topic- VHS to DVD

DVD Recorder With Hard Drive!?