Hello! I have all 4 "Amazing Figure Modeler (How to Videos)" on VHS and "Explorations In Painting" with Tom Gilliand of Sideshow which was put out by Horizon. All are mint and viewed once so that they would make great transfers. I am looking to get one copy of each (In Best Quality) transfered to DVD. If anybody is interested I would be willing to trade these origional tapes for one set in DVD format. If you are interested and can deliver quality to dvd as good as seen on the tapes themselves please email me at celica621@juno.com.

Thanks,
Steve

Go to Target or Walmart. Home stand-alone DVD recorders are down to $100 on sale. Hook up the cables, buy some blanks and copy them yourself.

Yes, most helpful as usual, Ziz. Did you take in to consideration that maybe actias is on a limited budget, thus the request for a trade...? :rolleyes:

[edited] Imporper language.

Yes, most helpful as usual, Ziz. Did you take in to consideration that maybe actias is on a limited budget, thus the request for a trade...? :rolleyes:

On the other hand, maybe he just doesn't want to deal with tapes anymore. I would trade just about all of my tapes to anyone who would transfer them to DVD. That would eliminate the need to have a VCR hooked up anymore. I have tons of stuff I taped back in from 1978 to the late 90s that I don't watch anymore because of the inconvenience of having to fast forward through recorded bits that I no longer need nor want to watch to get to segments that will probably never be released.

I've taped many musical portions of the Midnight Special, Don Kirshner's Rock Concert, Rock World, Night Flight, Saturday Night Live, Fridays (copy of SNL on ABC), Second City (1/2 hour early seasons NOT Network 90) , specials (making of various films documentaries, Steve Martin, Wings Over the World [Simulcast on FM-Radio], WWF (not WWE!) shows (remember the Rock 'N' Wrestling Connection? MTV VJ Alan Hunter almost gets pummeled by Rowdy Roddy and Mr. Wonderful!), Chicago-only local programming such as the (Bob Bell) Bozo at Chicagofest and his farewell special, etc......I even have a segment of A.M. Chicago hosted by Oprah when she interviewed Paul McCartney! I also have PAL tapes with British pop shows like the Top of the Pops and the Old Grey Whistle Test, Dr. Who, Eastenders(!), (Terry) Wogan, The Prince's Trust Rock Concert, etc. that I taped during the 3 years I was stationed at Royal Air Force Base Mildenhall from 1986-1989.

There are so many items I wish I could get transfered, but the time and energy to do it is something I wouldn't want to dedicate---even though I wouldn't hesitate to watch many of these things again if they were on DVD.

I wouldn't hesitate giving my tapes to anyone who offered to transfer everything over to DVD for me---as long as they followed through with it!

Mr. actias, I do believe (if you have one in your area) that Walgreens has the type of service that you are looking for. :thumbsup:

Thanks for the suggestions. I knew dvd recorders came down in price but I have two friends that have the recorders but no way to get the tape data to the DVD recorder to record to the dvd itself.

Mr. actias, I do believe (if you have one in your area) that Walgreens has the type of service that you are looking for. :thumbsup:

Good idea JGG1701! However, Walgreens and other such public VHS to DVD transfer folks will not handle licensed materials.

Actias,

E-mail or PM me. I have a VCR to DVD recorder. Please, don't expect a rapid turnaround but I can probably get them done during January.

The recorder's a piece of cake to use, BTW.

Jim

I've taped many musical portions of the Midnight Special, Don Kirshner's Rock Concert, Rock World, Night Flight, Saturday Night Live, Fridays (copy of SNL on ABC),
I also have PAL tapes with British pop shows like the Top of the Pops and the Old Grey Whistle Test, Dr. Who, Eastenders(!), (Terry) Wogan, The Prince's Trust Rock Concert, etc. that I taped during the 3 years I was stationed at Royal Air Force Base Mildenhall from 1986-1989.



Do you have a list of what all you have as far as music stuff?
I know several people that might be interested enough to do the transfers for you.

Do you have a list of what all you have as far as music stuff?
I know several people that might be interested enough to do the transfers for you.

I wish I did. I have some of the stuff written down in binders, but in the olden days, the tape counters weren't standardized. It made me sort of lose interest in keeping up with documenting what was on each tape when I replaced a malfunctioning vcr with a newer model. All of the numbering I'd carefully kept track of was way off. I found there was a formula I could use to approximate the equivalent tape counter numbers on the new vcr, but it was always off by a bit. After awhile, I just stopped keeping track of the tape counter numbers. When the price of tapes dropped significantly, I bought so many tapes, that I started taping less things on each tape and I usually only wrote down the main thing that was on it. I didn't go into detail like I had in the beginning. So that's what I'm up against!

I've found that roughly a third of my home recorded VHS tapes have degraded to the point that they don't track properly anymore. Most of my stuff was theatrical movies that have since been released on DVD so those aren't a problem but I did have a few unique things recorded directly from TV that I would like to save.

I haven't had that problem at all. Maybe the climate in the Chicago area is more conducive for storing tapes.

I've noticed that Walmart carries a Video to Dvd recorder made by Emmerson for about $200.00. It has a port for your VHS tapes and another port for your Dvd-r's and is supposedly very simple to operate. I've been tempted to purchase one with the intention of transferring all of the movies, shows, etc... from my video library ( that I haven't already gotten from the store on dvd ).

The vast majority of my video collection is B&W stuff recorded at the 6 hour speed. I'm assuming that I wouldn't be able to transfer an entire 6 hour video to one disk, however.

Anyone have any experience with this type of machine? What kind of things should I consider before purchasing one? I'd like to transfer all of the stuff I have and get rid of those tapes that take up so much storage space!

- GJS

I haven't had that problem at all. Maybe the climate in the Chicago area is more conducive for storing tapes.

I have no clue. I generally used high grade tape - though not always. No big loss in the grand scheme of things. Off to the landfill.

Ya know, Scott, I've sometimes had the same problem of not being able to get an older tape to track correctly. But, often this has proved to be a problem with the machine rather than the tape! At least, in some cases.

You probably don't want to invest money in another VIDEOTAPE player at this point but, if you have friends or family with video machines, it might be worth a try to run such a tape in their machine to see if it will track any better!

- GJS

i have all lost in space episodes recorded in the SP mode, from 1997. i was thinking of transferring them to dvd also.

They'll probably come out looking about the same as the commercially available DVDs. :)

my copies look very good still after 9 years i keep the tapes stored and fastforward and rewind them every now and then

The vast majority of my video collection is B&W stuff recorded at the 6 hour speed. I'm assuming that I wouldn't be able to transfer an entire 6 hour video to one disk, however.


My VHS to DVD recorder has four speed options including a 6 hour option.

Jim

And just like a 6 hour recording on VHS, a 6 hour recorded DVD will be of lower image quality than 2 hour.

mine have 2 episodes per tape in the SP mode

While I am not an expert, I have been doing this sort of conversion for myself already at home.

I only know about my own machine (DVD disk recorder only with no hard drive, just like a VCR), but the ones with both a tape and dvd player/recorder which say you can record from one to the other should work just fine. That's all I'm doing when I plug my VCR into the DVD recorder to convert my tapes. I have looked at several brands and models. I just bought the dvd recorder by itself because it was about $100 cheaper (and I saw it in Costco while there shopping).

You can record a 1 hour, 2 hour, 4 hour and 6 hour DVD, just like the VHS recordings (other than the 1 hour setting on the DVD). To convert the tape to DVD, you have to connect the player to the dvd recorder (if they are separate), and play the tape all the way through whatever programs you want to record off it. The elapsed time is real time, and the recording speed is equal 1, regardless of what the maximum disk recording speed of the DVD and/or the disks used are under other circumstances.

The tracking problems I have with my own tapes are tapes recorded on one VCR and now being played on a different VCR. I have had a couple of VCR's I had to scrap over the years, and the ones I have left are different makes and models. A rental tape or one I bought years ago normally plays all right, but anything I have recorded on other VCR's might be a problem. Most are OK, but some will barely play even after tracking adjustments are made.

I just recently converted the few family videotapes I had to DVD before it gets to the point where I cannot play them at all, or else they won't track right. And I can make a backup quicker and more easily now with my PC DVD recorder.

If I have a problem with playing a tape in the player hooked to my DVD recorder, I try the tape in one of the other VCRs. I can usually find one that works better, at least.

I know there are some experts who read the forums, so maybe they will have better info on this.

a dvd holds 6 hours right ? do dvd recorders have different speeds like vcrs do ? my tapes are in the SP mode so it will hold only 2 hours but comes out nicer than ep mode where you can squeeze 6 episodes on a tape, i tried it that way the first time but realized that i couldn't make good copies of them, so i waited till the sci fi channel started them over from season 1 and redid all of them in the SP mode, they came out a lot better the second time. i hear the LIS dvds that came out have poor picture quality, i haven't seen them for myself so i don't know how they look.

my back closet had maybe 300 tv recorded moives i had saved, no room left for any thing, got a sont stand alone machine a burned all my vhs tapes to disk now the closet is mine again. my dvd recorder has 3 differant speeds. buy all my blank disc's from shop tech4 like the vid king, cheep and they come out great.

You should always record the best possible signal from your original VHS tapes when converting them to DVD. I personally use an auto-tracking S-VHS VCR with a built-in timebase corrector and digital noise reduction as the source deck for my own set up.

The DVD recorder also has a built-n TBC, additional color-correction and noise-reduction circuitry, and a hard disk drive for recording material to before committing it to DVD. My laserdisc player also feeds into the DVD recorder as well as my computer edit system and digital tape deck.

DVD copies from this system look amazingly good, as any luma and/or chroma noise from analog tapes or laserdiscs is drastically reduced or virtually eliminated, producing a clean, stable picture for digitizing.

If at all possible, do not go below the SP quality mode when recording onto DVD. It is better to have your programs spread over a number of DVDs with better quality than to try to squeeze too many programs onto a single disc and introduce unwanted compression artifacts into the picture.

yep, thats what i did on my vhs tapes,looks better and copies better what brand is a good quality dvd recorder and which ones should i avoid ?

If I remember correctly, aren't there some systems / set-ups that let you base the compression on the time?
Instead of being locked into 1-2-4-6 hour modes it will fit your recording to the DVD. For example, if you have a 2 hour 10 minute show, it will compress just enough to fit that much on to the DVD.

I bought a cheap DVD recorder last weekend. Playing around with it, I would say use the 6-hour mode only if you really like the security camera look.

a dvd holds 6 hours right ? do dvd recorders have different speeds like vcrs do ? my tapes are in the SP mode so it will hold only 2 hours but comes out nicer than ep mode where you can squeeze 6 episodes on a tape

Same general idea. The technicals of how it happens are different but the end result is the same - lower recording time=better video quality.

When I got mine, I hooked up my LaserDisc player (LD's aren't copy protected) and recorded the same few minutes from a disc over and over at the different quality levels so I had a reference to where the difference became noticeable.

Also remember that discs come as R and RW, just like CD's. R's are cheaper but you can only use them once. RW's are re-usable, but unlike tape, you have to erase the disc first before you can reclaim the recording time available on it.

Don't forget there are
-R
and
+R

Or have the finally standardized things?

No, there's still both + and - around, but more and more recorders can handle both, so it's not as much of an issue anymore.

Pits and Lands....Lands and Pits...

Yes...

No, there's still both + and - around, but more and more recorders can handle both, so it's not as much of an issue anymore.

Except that some players have a problem with one or the other occasionally.
Not so much on the newer ones, but some of the older ones will only play one type.