johng

I'm sorry Narabdela but I do not agree. I am at least glad to see others agree with me and there is a similar thread also running at this time.

I can assure you that I need neither new specs or equipmen!

If the source material is a modern high quality digital recording then I would be the first to agree with you that given a good transfer without compression then the DVD could yield better quality than VHS.

What we are talking about however are old analogue recordings made on VT or 16mm long before digital was ever heard of.

By merely copying these on to a digital medium such as a DVD, this is not going to produce any better quality. You cannot put into a recording something which was not there in the first place.

Digital remastering can often improve the quality although if used at all it is more likely to be used to eliminate faults on a poor or well worn tape or film.

The method of transfer is certainly all important whether to VHS or DVD but with an even playing field copying an old analogue recording on to VHS or DVD is unlikely to make any difference.

The fact remains that many of these old VHS tapes will never be re-issued on DVD and therefore you either accept the video or do without.

The myth about DVDs versus VHS is something akin to broadcasting where we were made to believe how much better the picture quality is on digital as compared to analogue.

When satellite changed over to digital there was a period when stations were broadcasting on both mediums. I have compared an analogue and digital picture of the same programme side by side and could detect no difference whatsoever.

Digital is merely a means of giving broadcasters the opportunity to squeeze in more channels and at the same time twist our arms into buying new equipment.

johng

Someone advised caution on buying MV removers. tt is true that some are useless and others cause other problems. I certainly have never experienced any darkening effect or anything else. When you get various controls whilst they may allow you to make some adjustments this is usually at the expense of something else.

Mine cost around £45, not sure if this is considered cheap or dear. It comes in the form of a special scart lead with the electronics inside one of the scart plugs. I can recommend it to any one who cares to send me a PM. It is still currently available.

It also works with most DVDs

autolycus

I copied a vhs to dvd for another member recently and was quite surprised how good the quality was. I have a Targa (Lidl) 160gb hdd recorder and was lucky enough to find free firmware on the web which allows me to record MV PAL tapes for archive purposes. You can pick these machines up for about £35 on ebay, but they are not that common.

spinalman

I'd agree with Fellwanderer -simplest and best. Combo units may be a quality compromise and of course if one bit fails you have an inflexible combo unit. I standalone DVD recorder is a good investment - and will be able to record from other formats if you get the appropriate player..ie DV via firewire (if DVD recorder has Firewire in). Spend more effort on choice of leads, and connection method...composite poorest, S-Video next, RGB, then firewire (not for VHS).

Also a DVD recording is only as good as the compression setting YOU set. DVDs will be as good as but not better than the original VHS.

Paul

johng

Paul - I think you have hit the nail on the head. At least with home equipment you cannot put in what was not there in the first place so the best you are going to get from your DVD R is a copy which is at least as good as the VHS provided the sampling rate is not compromised.

Individual units are always better than combos not so much in relation to the quality butv with repairers being difficult to find and pay these days it must make sense to buy separate units when if one goes down you do not lose the lot.

vetchbook

I would like to transfer some some Vhs cartoons for my daughter onto dvds but don't know how to do it.

I have a dvd recorder and tried to apply a scart from the video to the dvd rec but it just doesn't work...it simply recorded a digital channel instead...

hope somebody may be able to share some info.

spinalman

The key is to monitor the DVD recorder..then you can be sure you are recording the correct feed. It may auto sense the feeds from the scarts on the back, and see a digital channel and assume that is your desired content. I would take your sky/freeview box temporarily out of the equation and remove the SCARTs that connect to it to the DVD. Then connect your DVD recorder to the TV. Ensure it plays back a DVD on the TV screen. Then connect a scart to scart lead between the VHS and DVD. Cycle through the input settings on the DVD until a picture of the VHS content occurs on the screen. Press record and confirm that is recording the correct content.

Paul

Gazza

Spinalman, I think (I hope) we're thinking along the same lines

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