I'm trying to get a setup for my parents where they can copy their old vhs movies to dvd and bypass the macrovision. I've read many posts on this board about it, but all are several years old. I've gathered that the filters like the grex are overpriced and the quality is hit and miss. I'd hate to spend almost $100 and have the dvd's look even worse then the vhs.

Would anyone happen to know of a fairly inexpensive way to go about this? They have a Samsung dvd recorder (forgive me I don't know the model off hand) and a Sony VHS player. I've read that the "old polaroid" units have a good filter built in that would enable me to pass the video through to bypass macrovision (at least that's what I gathered from what I read). I don't know which model to search for though.

Any guidence on this would be greatly appreciated.

Is this a taboo question?

Is this a taboo question?

Be patient, it's been a quiet day in Lake Wobegone . . .

Yes - there's someone who regulary posts here that can link you to one of those Polaroids for under a hundred dollars. I'm sure when he sees it, he'll do just that.

The video filters are mostly good, too, though. There's a big thread somewhere around here that has the most up-to-date information on them. Just search under "Grex" and 'threads", and it should come up (jjeff usually can link you right to it, if he gets to seeing this, too).

I'm not sure where you read the Grex doesn't produce a good picture but like virtually all filters it does degrade the picture slightly, mostly by brightening up the black level. That is in a dark room(and with a TV capable of showing black black) you'll notice the blacks are more grey than black.
That said if all you want to do is VHS you don't need to spend the $100+ for a filter, Citibear has posted a link to a simple VHS filter that I believe is less than $30. A DVD filter like the Grex will do both DVDs and VHS but the cheaper <$30 filters will only do VHS. I'll try and search around and see if I can find Citibears post, or maybe he'll see this post.

Don't have a need for DVD to DVD. Just VHS. I already have a like the grex thing, but that's 80 bucks. What about a time base corrector? Do any of these come on the cheap?

I already have a like the grex thing,

:confused:

What is a "like the grex thing"?

I'm trying to get a setup for my parents where they can copy their old vhs movies to dvd and bypass the macrovision. I've read many posts on this board about it, but all are several years old. I've gathered that the filters like the grex are overpriced and the quality is hit and miss. I'd hate to spend almost $100 and have the dvd's look even worse then the vhs.

Would anyone happen to know of a fairly inexpensive way to go about this? They have a Samsung dvd recorder (forgive me I don't know the model off hand) and a Sony VHS player. I've read that the "old polaroid" units have a good filter built in that would enable me to pass the video through to bypass macrovision (at least that's what I gathered from what I read). I don't know which model to search for though.

Any guidence on this would be greatly appreciated.
Let's start at the beginning. I know this isn't your question, BUT, how many tapes are we talking about? If it is only a few, or even a few dozen, it would likely be much easier to look on eBay and the used DVD sales rack at Best Buy for the titles. Some of these disks can be bought for only a few dollars, and they would be MUCH, MUCH better quality than the VHS tapes.

You are concerned about the quality of the copies being worse than the video quality of the tapes. Well, I can assure you that they won't be better, and even with the best, most expensive equipment out there, they will only be about the same. Every filtering operation will have some, though possibly slight, effect on the video quality.

Claiming the GREX and Sima (and other) devices are overpriced is just wrong. These things are attempting to make very subtile changes in a live video stream without actually altering the content itself. (If you think they are too expensive, try buying the parts to build one yourself.:eek:) As far as quality goes, that is a matter of opinion. Most of them do pretty well, but none of them can make a VHS tape match the quality of a commercially pressed DVD.

If you have so many tapes that purchasing them is not an option, then consider what they would cost to replace and decide how much you want to spend on a filter. The thread that Rammitinski mentioned has been going on for quite a while, but the informaton is still good, and the last posts are very current. I just bought a tank of gas for my truck. These things are what, the price of three tanks of gas, and the filter will last a lot longer than the gas.:D

:confused:

What is a "like the grex thing"?

This:

http://www.xdimax.com/grex/grex.html

My main reason to backup from VHS > DVD was archive VHS's unavailable to DVD. I was pleasantly surprised with the quality and ease of transfer.

Equipment I have a Philips 3575 and DPX-7000.

Archived at least 20 tapes, also converted programs that I had taped that aren't available on DVD (i.e. - Hollywood 80's series about early Motion Pictures) I recorded from WOR.

Steve

Low cost alternative (VHS to DVD only)
http://www.checkhere22.com/stabilizer/