Redstar

Being way behind with my technology and having many vhs tapes I am going to buy a dvd recorder so I can link up my vhs and hopefully transfer as many as possible onto DVD. However just to put myself at ease what types of discs are best to record onto? I want ones that will play back on the dvd and my computer.

many thanks

Richard

ChristineCB

Ultimately, "what works for you" becomes the Best. I suggest buying a 2-3 or 5-pack of DVD-R Discs and see if those work on your system. If all of them fail to produce a Playable Video-DVD, then try some DVD+R discs and see if those work.

I recommend burning your DVDs at the slowest possible speed because this was a common "compatibility tactic" during the early days of DVD Burner Drives and DVD Blanks. There has been a lot of new marketing text that says they've improved everything, la de da da - as if marketing hype equals any real event in the Universe.

If you can produce a playable DVD at 1x or 2x, then try 4x.

sippog

I second CB's advice about burning speed - don't be tempted to burn fast just because you can. I never burn faster than x4.

You don't say which recorder you're buying. Some are happier with DVD-R, some DVD+R, a few do both. Panasonic also does DVD Ram discs which are rewritable and editable. There's a bit of a format war between DVD-R & DVD+R (like VHS vs Betamax). DVD-R has a slight edge with compatibility.

IMHO - Panasonic and Verbatim are the most reliable brand discs; Maxell and Memorex, the least. Brands like Ritek and Datawrite are mid-range. Of course a real techno geek will tell you they're all made by the same factories and branding has little to do with - but I'm just a gullible consumer.

Finally - nothing is a 100% reliable. Make several backups of anything precious.

Fellwanderer

You might also want to check which discs are compatible with your pc's dvd drive before buying a dvd recorder. You can get fairly cheap dvd drives that will play almost anything.

All the best
FELL

A signature is no substitute for a life

caferacer63

I've found that some of the best discs are manufactured by Taiyo Yuden. They make discs for Panasonic, Datasafe, etc. I find very little, if any, compatiblity problems with them. Take at look at the following link.

UKDVDR Ltd

Wolfgang

I use Maxell disks and have had no problems so far. Most players these days will play + and - so compatibility is probably not that important now (+ is supposed to give you better signal to noise ratios). You are probably better off choosing your player irrespective of format and then getting whichever disks work on it. Your main concern is probably macrovision, because if your player has this enabled and there is no hack to turn it off then you might not be able to back-up some of your tapes.

ChristineCB

GOOD POINT, Wolf. I always forget that Macrovision encrypted some VHS tapes with this signal and most VHS players observe this.

Maybe folks here can supply a list of those DVD-VHS decks that have hacks to turn off Macrovision observance.

Or a google phrase to search on, in case you haven't purchased yours?

stevedr

I use ritek dvd-r white printable...
they cost about £10.00 for a 50 drum.
I used then for 32 weddings last year..
no complaints..

DB7

Are you an Arab sheikh?:

stevedr

Ha! Ha!....I wish!!!!

wed just once.. 20th anniversary next year..

I should of course have said I filmed 32 weddings last year..and to be honest..Im still recovering from the experience...

Dave Edwards

Red

I agree with both Christine and Sip, but will add.....

Regardless of what brand of DVD/VHS combo recorder you buy, buy yourself a couple of DVD-RW's.
Whack your VHS tape in, and record onto those. (DVD-RW's can be formatted/wiped, and used over and over)
If you stuff up somewhere along the line, you wipe/scrub/format the -RW and simply start again, and haven't wasted a disc.

I transfer a heap of VHS's onto DVD, and i will only ever use DVD-R.
For a start, they could be considered newer technology than DVD+R, and they are cheap.
As i do a lot of copying, i buy spindles of 100 DVD-R, and i only ever use the TDK brand.
The "TY" (aka Taiyo Yuden) brand is also very good, probably the best in fact, but are a bit more expensive.

Re burn speeds, what Chris and Sip have said is true, but the burn speed should also be dependent upon the speed of your burner.

For example, if your burner is 16 speed, i suggest doing the actual burn at no more than 8 speed.
If you go full throttle at 16 speed burning on a 16 speed burner, you will more than likely find glitches/hiccups/skips etc on the resultant disc.
Never burn at more than half the speed of which your burner is capable.

rjd0309

Echoing what others have already said, I never write to a disc at a speed greater than 4x.

It's a good idea to also make sure that your computer's DVD burner has been updated with the latest version of firmware, available for download here for just about any model.

Some firmware updates also include a PDF document containing disc compatibility tables. These tables list disc types, manufacturers, and maximum write speeds for all discs that can be written by the drive.

Even if a disc is not listed in the compatibility tables, many drives will still be able to write data to the disc at a write speed of 4x (the universal common-denominator write speed).

I have had good luck with several brands of discs, namely Sony, Taiyo Yuden, TDK, Verbatim, Ritek. However, a disc that plays well in your machine may totally freeze in mine, and vice versa. (My player upchucks on Emtec discs, for example, while other folks swear by them.)

It will surely happen that a disc you send to a friend will not play in their player, and they'll grouse at you for sending them a "crap disc". When that happens, the best solution that I've found is to send them the title on a Read/Write disc. There is something about a DVD-RW disc that seems to mollify finicky players. (Go figure.) I'd use R/W discs all the time if they weren't so expensive.

I haven't yet found a plain-vanilla disc that would play on EVERY finicky DVD player, but the Ritek DVD-R white printables come close. I use them all the time now.

Wolfgang

I always give my recorded disks test drive in my old samsung 709. It is so old now I consider it my baseline for compatibility.

Tony Pendrey

My two penneth. Agree with all that has been posted here. And it is worth remembering that it isn't always reliable just to consider the brand name. I was happy using Datawrite disks, and then everything went ti......, pear-shaped.

I used a piece of software that reveals technical stuff about the disk and found that they second batch I had bought had been manufactured by a different maker.

I gave them to a mate who has no trouble at all. So it is all down to the writer/disk happiness thingy (That's the technical term)

Ah Yes, the Soviet Union. All them wheatfields and ballet in the evenings

cletus awreetus

Woolworth's "Worth It" discs, very cheap and cheerful, but have never let me down.