Venting on a DVD recorder purchase - Videokarma.org TV - Video

jstout66 · #1 10-14-2006, 09:18 AM

Not sure if this is the right forum to post this in, but I just wanted to vent how CRAPPY my new VHS DVD recorder unit is. Doesn't anybody make anything worth a CRAP anymore? I suppose you get what you pay for tho, and since I got the cheapest unit I shouldn't be surprised, but still..... I bought a Magnavox MWR20V6 DVD recorder with Video cassette recorder. I am a TV junkie and have some stuff on VHS that I thought I'd transfer to DVD. These all in one units have 1 touch dub so I wanted to go the easy route. My complaint on the unit is that the VHS portion does not care for tapes recorded on another unit. It keeps going into auto tracking and the picture isn't that good. It plays back okay on tapes recorded on it. So for that feature what the hell good is the dubbing feature if you can't play back tapes that have been recorded on another unit? Also the remote control has to be the cheapest horrid design I've ever seen. And finally, it's a crappy FUNAI. Does anyone make a VCR now that is not farmed out to Funai? And finally..... is there a way to hook a VCR to a computer to dub?

Chad Hauris · #2 10-14-2006, 09:32 AM

Yes there are cards which you can input composite video and audio to and interface it to the computer. A friend of mine has recorded his home video tapes to DVD this way...I don't think my computers/hard drives are new enough to be up to the task though so I haven't done it personally.

Here is one that hooks up to the USB port (can't vouch for its performance but this gives you an idea of what is available)
http://www.costcentral.com/proddetai...13978/froogle/

I would really vote for the computer due to the much better control you have over the video such as editing/cueing it up before burning to DVD as opposed to a stand-alone device.
The best VCR's are probably older HI-Fi units that have been refurbished with new power supply components/mechanical parts as needed. Pretty much all new VCR's I have seen have been the cheap funai design.
Have you tried adjusting the channel buttons if present to adjust the tracking...some of these VCR's will override the auto tracking if a manual adjustment is made.

jstout66 · #3 10-14-2006, 09:59 AM

Hey Chad! Thanks for the info. That Belkin device looks interesting and I may have to get it. It seems a tad pricey BUT is half the price of the unit I just bought. And yes.. it seems to work a bit better if I override the auto tracking but will still have "picture roll" on occasion. And I hear ya and agree on the older HI FI VCR's. Even the units that were made in the mid to late 90's are better than what's out there now. I have a few new Toshiba VHS/DVD combo units that don't seem too bad. I have an older Sony HI VCR and a Panasonic VCR that is fantastic. I also still have my first VCR. It's a mono RCA that I bought in the early 90's for $300.00. I used the hell out of that sucker and it just keeps going and going and going...... I have never had it worked on. I don't use it much now tho, but it is still hooked up on my basement tv and I have taped some stuff on it once in awhile.

dr.ido · #4 10-14-2006, 10:31 AM

Before going for a USB adapter such as the one linked above make sure your computer is fast enough to encode video in realtime in DVD quality. The system requirements listed on the box of those adapter are typically overly optimistic to say the least if you want to encode your video at the highest quality possible. The USB interface can be a bottleneck in some computers that are otherwise fast enough.

kx250rider · #5 10-14-2006, 01:11 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by jstout66

My complaint on the unit is that the VHS portion does not care for tapes recorded on another unit. It keeps going into auto tracking and the picture isn't that good. It plays back okay on tapes recorded on it.

Sounds like a classic case of the new machine leaving the factory (Oops; I mean Asian childrens' slave camp) with poor alignment. I'd return it for another of the same model, or take your tape to the store and try it in the demo on the shelf. I started seeing new out-of-alignment VCRs on a regular basis in the late 90s.

Charles

Bill R · #6 10-14-2006, 06:58 PM

I have had good luck with video capture cards. The quality of the usb devices was never very good. If you have a firewire port on your computer Sony and Canopus have encoders that convert video to firewire. The computer will need to be fast, and have lots of disk space. The key to speed will be having the computer optimized for video. That means on a slower machine it should only do video. Most modern computers are fine for video. I however still use a 200mhz pentium box with 7200rpm eide disk drives (47gb) and have captured and edited video using a pinnacle dc10+ capture card. That computer is not fast enough for dvd though, I output back to tape.
I have a p3 800mhz computer here that came from the studio and it will edit video and author DVD just fine.

Bill R

andy · #7 10-14-2006, 09:33 PM

You should be able to use your regular VCR to play the tapes. This would be best if it was used to record the tapes.

***Eric H*** · #8 10-15-2006, 08:54 PM

There's always the possibility that the machine the tapes were recorded on had tracking issues rather than the new machine, have you tried a tape from a different source? otherwise I would return it and try another.

I picked up a Panasonic this morning and so far it's working OK, autotracked for a couple seconds then was fine.

They all look like Funai inside, (including my 5 year old low buck Sony which still works fine) , one difference I noted was the LG and Samsung only had a 3 month warranty while the Sony and Panasonic had 1 year.
If they don't trust their product to last more than 3 months then neither do I.

andy · #9 10-15-2006, 10:00 PM

Funai supplied the tape transports for some Sony VCRs (although that was more than 5 years ago).

jstout66 · #10 10-15-2006, 10:11 PM

Eric, I tried tapes that were recorded on different machines and even tried a pre-recorded movie. It would either auto track continually or not play at all. I decided I will take it back for a refund, as I hate the remote on this unit as well. I'll have to look and see if they have some "higher-end" models.

dr.ido · #11 10-16-2006, 04:09 AM

I'd get a refund on the combo unit then get a stand alone DVD recorder and a good used VCR. These days the value of VCRs has dropped so much that you can get what were once expensive TOTL decks for almost nothing.

Last week I picked up a stack of VCRs for $9. A Panasonic, 2 Sanyos and a JVC. All made in Japan, no Funai (so they are still actually worth repairing) in sight. The JVC and one of the Sanyos are S-VHS.

Any one of them would better the VHS side of a combo unit.

Geoff Bourquin · #12 10-16-2006, 08:31 PM

New VCRs are CRAP!

I have not seen anything from the last 5 years that I would let in my house. I have people bringing them to me for repair when they are only 6 months old. I refuse to work on them. The only guarantee I can give is that they aren't going to work well. Nobody is willing to spend more than about $40.00 to fix them, because the combo machines are well under $100.00 now. It just isn't worth it to me to even try. I advise people to dig out their 20 year old machine and bring it it. If I can get the parts, they're usually worth fixing and they'll last. The problem is that the parts are getting hard to find. It is clear that the industry wants to stop making VCRs, whether the public wants that or not.

Am I ranting yet?

I have compaired the picture quality of my JVC VCR in 6 hour speed against my (I can't remember the brand!) DVD recorder in 6 hour mode. The VCR is better, NO QUESTION ABOUT IT. The compression to make 6 hours fit on a disk drives me crazy. 2 HR. speed is OK, about the same as my VHS.

OK, now I know I'm ranting, because I'm not sure where I'm going with this. But the new VCRs are almost useless.

Fast_Eddie · #13 10-16-2006, 08:37 PM

1. this is why I never buy "combo" units.

2. I bought a $99 DVD recorded at Target. Worked great! For about three months. I just got a new Sony that so far is workng great. Thing I hate is I've already learned this lesson a dozen times.

jstout66 · #14 10-16-2006, 09:12 PM

well... I got this unit to dub VHS to DVD as the DVD side was a recorder. I do have a few combo units that I use on my vintage sets as they do not have inputs for a DVD player, I mainly use my vintage Panasonic VCR on my newer set....

ha1156w · #15 10-16-2006, 11:15 PM

I have to jump in on this thread. I recently went through the horror of searching for the "perfect" video digitizer for DVD transfers. What I wanted to do was take the VHS and Beta input and edit it using iMovie on my Macintosh. Turns out that most everyone has a "gotcha" with performance. Several had low actual resolution (anything by Dazzle), and others had problems on less-than-perfect sync (ie videotape. Laserdisc works perfect, but forget about VHS). I learned alot about the limitations about each of the vendors' products, and settled on a Canopus ADVC-100. Pricy for its size (I gave about $200 for this little 5x5x1 critter) but totally worth it. What it does it converts composite or S-video with audio to Firewire DV video streams. The computer thinks it's a featureless DV camcorder, so it works with no drivers, and works with every software product. I was able to use it on my Win2000 box and it tested well. Even works on Linux too! A good way to overload your brain with more than you ever wanted to know is videohelp.com. They have a great how-to section.

HA1156W