Home audio & video forum: Best DVD Recorder for transfering VHS Tapes

One of the best units for doing this is the Panasonic DMR-E85H. This is a DVD recorder that you could connect to your home entertainment unit. One person suggested this type of unit but indicated that you couldnt edit when recording to the DVD disk. You indicated you wanted to edit out bad footage on the fly.

IMHO the last thing you want to do is edit on the fly, a laborious process at the best. If you get a unit of the type mentioned above (and I whole heartedly recommend the Panasonic unit-I have one myself), you will be able to connect your VCR to the unit, press record and walk away. The Panasonic unit has a 120 GIG drive to which your material would be recorded and after it is you can EASILY remove unwanted material.

There are numerous pluses. This would not be a one trick pony because you would use it as a DV recorder to record your TV programs in lieu of a VCR to the hard drive. Program selection is easy and you never have to determine if you have room on your tape because even in the high quality 2 hour mode of recording you can record about 50 hours of material.

The Panasonic has built in time base and quality correction circuitry that some have indicated make the results look better than the original tapes.

It has time slip features so that you can start recording a two hour movie while gone at 7:00 P.M and walk in at 7:30 P.M. And start the movie to watch while the hard drive is finishing the recording. You can reverse search while this is going on and reexamine sports games on the fly.

Making permanent DVD disks from your recorded movies with the commercials removed is a breeze. You can watch a completely different recorded program while another program is being recorded. You have a lot of flexibility which you will wonder how you did without.

Sorry for the long message but it is coming from someone who wondered how he got along all those years without this convenience.

Regarding whether you should look for a device that syncs with your computer or home entertainment system, I suggest opting for one that connects to your computer. IMO, it is the only way that you can truly have complete control over editing. And, of course, there are numerous shareware and freeware software programs on the internet that you can download in order to accomplish your task.

I appreciate your response as well. I have been thinking about the same unit, but had some reservations. This really helps me out on making a decision. This baby's gonna be mine!

Myself I use an ATI All-in-Wonder video board. That has TV, Video in and out. The newest one I believe has the IEEE 1394 connector. Wallmart has it for about $150. Being able to hook a VCR directly to your computer and computer to you stereo is a must. Radio Shack has a real nice audio/video switcher for about $150. It also has optical inputs and outputs. Most audio boards have optical out and the ATI video board has digital cable out. If you going to do just one tape send it out but if you going to do a lot get the right gear. As far as DVD burning programs, Nero is my favorate program with the most features. Adobe Premiere I find is the most advanced for editing not to go for a beginer. Ulead and Studio 9 are fine but very basic. When placing your video to disk I find the best quality is DV with 48k audio.

For $800, it BETTER work with any TV, LOL. Just kidding. I am not clear why you said that. Basicly the recorder doesn't have anything to do with the TV other than just to burn the dvd so that you can watch it on the tv. Maybe a little more as to what you have in mind; and maybe also the model number of the panasonic may also help some.

I am not too familiar with such tv system but do you see any video and audio output connection/s on the back of your tv? Of coarse if the dvd recorder don't have a vcr built-in then there's always the standalone vcr (I see some as low as $50). Just a thought.

I'm using my P4 computer, fast haddisk, lots of fast ram, internal DVD writer, Leadtek TV tuner card, it has progressive scan, SVHS in, all codecs and lots of editing software, my good old desktop video recorder plus a video enhancer between recorder and Leadtek card. First digitize the entire tape, unattended. The software finds start/end of scenes automatically, so it's very easy to cut, shift, paste, add sounds and so on. Burn only the editited results to DVD, once again unattended. Lots of time for shopping, washing, coffee and phone calls during this process, few buttons to press and mouse clicks to perform. Let your VCR and puter do the work.

Computer editing is the best, but also the hardest to learn and most expensive and time consuming. You have to go through the recording process twice, once to digitize the video on the hard drive and then dub the finished product to a DVD, only after you spent many hours "editing" and adding titles. Most people are happy just to copy their tapes directly to a DVD. I, as others who responded, recommend the Panasonic DVD recorder with the internal HD. You can create chapters, edit out bad camera work, commercials, etc. I go the computer route for a few personal and family video's but the majority of what I dub is with my Panasonic tabletop DVD recorder. Good Luck!

Maybe this will help. I just purchased the Panasonic DMR-E55 recorder and had the same problem of recorded DVD's not playing on my regular DVD player or computer. After reviewing the burning procedures again, I realized I had not 'finalized' the DVD recording. It's an extra step that you have to take under 'functions' in order to complete the recording process. Once finalized, I was then able to play the DVD on my Denon DVD player and Plextor internal DVD ROM player. Since I'd like to have the flexibility of using a VHS recorder in the same unit as the DVD recorder, I now plan on taking back the DVD recorder and getting the combo unit. Does anyone have any feedback on the combo unit?

I am intriqued by renting equipment to convert many VHS and VHSC tapes to DVD.
Will the Phillips recorder be an all in one machine? Any idea what type of store rents out gear like this?
Thank you.
cwda1@yahoo.com