Will a combo VCR/DVD unit record DTV on VHS?
 

I'm trying to help someone who recently bought a flatscreen and has separate VCR and DVD player components. No DVD recorder, cable, TIVO etc. They can't record anything off the TV onto VHS anymore because it's all digital - no converter box or analogue output from the TV. So, we could get a converter box just for the VCR, or I thought about those combo DVD/VCR units. I've never used one. Would they have a digital-analogue converter inside, so a DTV signal could be recorded onto VHS tape, or are they only meant to record your old VHS tapes onto DVDs? Anyone who's used one please chime in with your experience.

Answering the question asked in the title of this thread, no--an ordinary combo video recorder/player (VCR/DVD) will not, under any circumstances, record digital TV signals in high definition, but such a unit will record DTV to VHS or to DVD in standard definition. I am not sure, however, if there are combos that will record (on DVD) in HD. If such units in fact exist today and are available for sale, I would think they would be very expensive, not unlike the first VHS VCRs in the early nineteen seventies.

All VHS/DVD combos (except playback-only units) are now required by law to have a digital ATSC (digital) TV tuner, so they may be used in place of the analog tuner (effectively replacing that tuner) in older sets. The only thing that needs to be done at the analog TV is to set the channel selector on channel 3 or 4 (whichever is not used for broadcasting in the area in which the TV is located) and leave it there, using the channel up/down buttons on the video player (or the remote) to change channels.

VHS/DVD combos without built-in ATSC tuners may be used to record TV programs onto DVD; however, since there is no built-in tuner, the video signal must be supplied from an external source by means of the line-input jack on the back of the unit. The signal can be from a cable box, a direct cable feed, or possibly even from an ATSC/NTSC converter box. I say "possibly" because I am not sure whether OTA converter boxes (if they are still available) will work with combo VHS/DVD systems. These boxes (as well as DVD recorders, including DVD/VHS combinations) may have special circuitry that will block recording of programs in which a broadcast "flag" is used. The broadcast flag is a special signal transmitted, IIRC, in the vertical blanking interval, that effectively prevents recording on DVD of the TV program in question.

This flag will have no effect, however, on recording of programs on VHS videocassettes, as VHS is an analog format not affected by current video copyright laws (except, of course, the one against selling or showing publicly commercially-recorded tapes or home recordings of copyrighted TV shows). I have successfully time-shifted programs with my VCR that may well be (probably are) flagged against recording by digital means, so I am reasonably sure that the broadcast flag is all but ignored by VCRs and other analog video recording equipment.

The broadcast flag is a digital signal signaling that redistribution (via internet, for example) is prohibited. It does not appear in the NTSC analog output of a DTV converter box. A DTV converter box NTSC output will be recordable on a DVD recorder.

The "analog hole" that the studios are concerned about is the high definition analog output of a blu-ray player. There, the plan is to gradually deny the use of analog high definition outputs.

Haven't been by for awhile to get your responses! Thanks for the extensive analysis guys. This was very helpful.