DVD/VCR Recorder Recommendations

[Oscarfan]

I need a little input from you guys. About a year ago, our VCR/DVD player went kaput. More accurately, the DVD drive wouldn't stay shut, there'd be errors when transferring tape to DVD and then it wouldn't read discs at all. I'm thinking of getting a new one for Christmas, but does anyone have a good recommendation on a cheap, practical one?

 

[Yorick]

I know WalMart has one under $200 (I think it's like $150) that lets you records your VHS to DVD and vice versa, on top of the usual "play" feature of both Magnavox is the company.

Hope you find it!

 

[D'Snowth]

I think the one Yorick is talking about is the one I told you about earlier in the year; the problem is that there's no INput for TV or cable, etc (there's OUTput obviously), so basically, it's useless for actually recording something off of your television set, or from cable, it's basically just for transfering from one format to another, and vice versa.

 

[Yorick]

I think the one Yorick is talking about is the one I told you about earlier in the year

it's useless for actually recording something off of your television set, or from cable, it's basically just for transfering from one format to another, and vice versa.

This may be true, since I didn't buy the one I saw recently. But the one I got from there a few years back that did record from the TV/cable/satellite was by Magnavox. So hopefully the new one is still the same.

But there were drawbacks -

1 It doesn't let you pause to remove commercials when you copy VHS to DVD...you'd have to let it keep recording, or hit stop on the VCR - which would create a new box on your menu for the second part of your show, (rather than a new chapter in the same box, which I'd prefer) and who wants that? But at least it'd let you pause to remove commercials if you were recording straight from the TV (rather than VHS).

2 Won't copy any copyguarded VHS tapes you bought and didn't feel you should be expected to buy again on DVD...no luck there...but then, what did we expect?

3 Sometimes things taped off TV to VHS wouldn't copy to DVD either, becuase (from what I read online) it was mistaking an innocent (I guess) TV signal for a copyguard signal...this didn't happen often, but it can...

Sorry I didn't think of any of that before...but over all, if you didn't care about removing commercials when copying VHS to DVD, then it was perfect after all)

So bottom line, be aware of the warnings I give about the (otherwise good) one, and beware of the one D'Snowth told us about, because obviously you'd want a DVD recorder to record from both TV and VCR...good luck!

PS I admit I didn't read the manual, so if I am accidentally saying a few things (in my overall positive review) that are negative that aren't true about my Magnavox, I apologize to the fine makers of Magnavox - and I'm being sincere here when I say this.

 

[D'Snowth]

I think the main thing about why DVD/VCR recorders no longer have inputs for TV/cable is because DVR is probably trying to make them obsolete.

This isn't really a good idea, however... a DVD/VCR is something you can pay for, but a DVR is something you have to make payments ON; a DVD/VCR is yours once you've bought it, but a DVR belongs to the cable company, so if you miss payments and such, they can repo it, and then you'll lose all of the stuff you recorded.

Not that that's ever happened to me, but I'm just pointing out the pros and cons of the whole thing.

The BEST one I've ever had was my first one, made by an off-brand company owned by Walmart called iLo, but they got shut down, because it was discovered a lot of the parts that went into manufacturing their products were "stolen" from other big-name companies like Magnavox and such.