Recording VHS from DVD Question

[spankyj]

I was wondering the feasibility of recording a few of my dvd's onto Vhs tapes. Anyone have any knowledge on the subject? I've tried hooking my DVD player into my VCR before to minimize inputs into tv(so I could keep my N64 hooked up at the same time),but the picture looks like crap! It's all distorted and stuff. If I were to hook my dvd up to the tv, then have output cables going into the vcr, would that work? Of course I don't have an extra set, but if it did, I might just go purchase.

Thanks again.

 

[Splork]

I don't think you can record from DVD's to VHS. Well, I'm sure you can but it's not easy. There's a security feature built in to every machine to prevent this. There might be some type of bypass but I'd have to read up on it. Sorry. Anyone know the answer?

-sp

 

[Nefrodite]

dvdplayers generally have macrovision copy protection so copying is a no go. why would you want to anyways, vhs is cr@p. your tv doesn't have rca jacks? vcr should be on lousy coax while dvd should be on atleast rca or higher. if you only have coax then you need a splitter.

 

[Parrotheader]

You'd have to have a DVD player which would allow you to disable Macrovision. Nearly every DVD player out there will NOT allow you to do this. The only major manufacturer that I know of which allows this is Apex (and they don't even advertise it; it's a hack you have to look for) I own one and I've got the macrovision and region encoding disabled on mine.

As for why one would record from DVD to VHS. You're right that the video quality sucks when going backwards like that (around 500 lines of resolution to something like 260.) But it does have its uses. I've used mine to make VHS copies of movies that I only have on DVD so I can play them on my VCR upstairs or when we go somewhere on a trip where a DVD player is not available. That's a legitimate reason IMO and I've used it for that purpose many times. However, most of the reasoning is to simply copy DVDs you rent or borrow. Yes, it's technically illegal but so is speeding and all the file swapping going on on Morpheus. That doesn't make it any better, but I think there are bigger crimes in the world. Even though I have this option available I hardly ever use it since there aren't that many movies I want to bother recording. Usually if I'm recording something it means it's good enough that I'll want to watch it again. But if it's that good, I'm probably willing to plunk down the money to buy it on DVD anyway.

And I was personally able to minimize any loss any picture quality when copying from a DVD. I was fortunate enough to pickup a SuperVHS VCR awhile back which I've used to copy Gladiator and Tomorrow Never Dies which my friend let me borrow. There is some loss in picture and sound quality, but it's nowhere near as great since you're going from ~500 lines of resolution to ~400 lines of resolution.

 

[Nefrodite]

However, most of the reasoning is to simply copy DVDs you rent or borrow

well its a matter of how much your time is worth. if a movie is good enough to rewatch, you might as well see it in all its glory instead of wasting the time to copy it and lose picture/sound/and bonus features lifes too short to kill time watching movies that look like a$$ to save a few bucks

and yea i've tried it before. a while back when i had a creative decoder card in my comp i copied successfully. no protection on that card

 

[Parrotheader]

<< well its a matter of how much your time is worth. if a movie is good enough to rewatch, you might as well see it in all its glory instead of wasting the time to copy it and lose picture/sound/and bonus features lifes too short to kill time watching movies that look like a$$ to save a few bucks >>

Agreed. Which is why I said almost the exact same thing further down in the same paragraph Of course conversely, life's too short to sit around whining because we're having to settle for something that's not the latest and the greatest. At the end of the day, it doesn't really matter if I saw a movie like Airplane on DVD or VHS. All that matters is that I get to see/hear this and this.

 

[spankyj]

I appreciate all of your help everyone. Parrot was pretty much on for the reason I am using it. I only have 1 dvd player, but sometimes when my wife is using our living room, I'll watch a vhs in the bedroom. I don't see a problem if I'm using it for personal entertainment in my own home, and quality, although important to me, could be compromised if it allows me to watch a semi-good picture of Crocodile Dundee 3. (Yes, I am "one" of those.) Again thanks for your help, you've given me some research to undertake.

 

[RayH]

I've been using a Sima SCC for a couple years which works pretty well. I use it adjust output to a projector but it also filters dvd macrovision.

Got it from cameraworld.com.