Hello,

I have a video tape and would like to transfer into a DVD disc so that I can upload into a website. (youtube.com). Any suggestion of a good machine? I know nothing about these machines. I saw a couple machines (Sony, Panasonic) at Costco and they are between $200 to $300. And I have a 61" HDTV at home. Thanks.

You haven't mentioned the most important part. What is the content of the video tape? None of the combo machines will work if your video tape is a commercially made tape that contains Macrovision anti-copy signals. If your tape is a homemade video then all of the combo units should work fine and none of them will be much better than the others.

Dave

One thing to watch out for w/combo units, if you plan on keeping it for awhile, is that the "cheaper" ones have a program timer that must be deactivated to watch a tape, then reactivated for the next day's programs. You can usually tell these by the "Timer Set" button on the remote (or whatever it really says).

The "more expensive" units have the more normal timer, which remains set and you don't have to remember to "activate" it after watching what you've recorded. Their remotes don't have the Timer Set button.

I think the $200-300 price range units should be the auto-timer models...the good ones.

Hi,

It is just a segment of a morning TV show of me being interviewed by the host. I orginally recorded it in Tivo then transfered it to a blank Sony VHS tape and now eveyone I know wants to see the tape. I figure instead of massively producing more tapes to distribute, uploading the segment to youtube or some other website media is better. So will this work?

Thanks.

So will this work?

You bet it will work. A lot of newbies want to make copies of movie clips and rental tapes and are not aware of Macrovision and how well todays DVD recorders respond to that signal. In your case you shouldn't have a problem with any of them.

The thing I am not sure about is the TIVO. I don't have one but as far as I know, TIVO doesn't add an anti-copy signal to it's recorded video. Maybe a TIVO owner will correct me if I am wrong. Since you have already made a VHS copy from the TIVO I think you are safe.

You tube would not be a good option for folks like me with a dial-up connection. But I get the feeling I may be the last person in the world that still has a dial-up connection.

Dave

I get the feeling I may be the last person in the world that still has a dial-up connection.
Yup, you are! I was the next-to-last and I converted to DSL just last week! :)

Yup, you are! I was the next-to-last and I converted to DSL just last week!
He he...I thought so. I am so used to 26.4K that I am afraid I might suffer whip-lash with something faster. My ISP has been after me to switch to DSL but I am so far from the switching office that my 56K runs at 26.4K. They won't tell me what speed I can expect on DSL. They only guaranty it won't exceed 1.5MB. I don't need a guaranty on the maximum end. Give me a guaranty on the low end. If I pay for 1.5MB, I don't want 256K.

Dave

Just adding that for combo units I would only buy a Panasonic as my main unit.

DaveC, Your not alone I'm still a Dial Up Customer :) & also a Non-Digital Cable user with no Cable Box. But I guess when the analog signal disappears I will be forced to rent a cable box even just for the basic service :(

Thanks all for the info. :)

David