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I hope I've got the correct board for this question.

I have a lot of VHS videos from the USA (country stuff) which I'd like to transfer to DVD. Most of the videos are encoded with macrovision which under my current VHS > DVD recorder > TV set up, gives me an error message, which prevents me being able to record them.

I don't have any other reason than 'back up' for copying, as my VHS player might pack in and also the VHS tapes may degenerate (or denegrade) with time, so a more dependable 'back up' copy is what I'm trying to achieve.

Can anyone offer me a workable way of copying from one format to the other please?

Hi, Alan.

If you are recording to DVD-R via a PC, see: http://www.biline.ca/ati_macrovision.htm

If you're copying direct to a DVD-R/HDD recorder, see: http://www.velocityreviews.com/forums/t271160-vhs-to-dvd.html

There are hardware units available (or used to be) which were claimed to strip out the Macrovision signal on pass-through.

Best of luck.

JN

With your setup - VHS to DVD recorder to TV you will need a pass through box which strips out the Macrovision signals.

These boxes are sometimes called Digital Video Stabilizers and can cost anywhere between £15 and £60.
It is connected by means of SCART leads from the VHS player to the DVD recorder.

The success rate is varied - some units work some only work in certain circumstances - I have one made by CYP which has served well.

Good luck

Geoff

I bought a DVD Xpress converter box which allows me to connect my VHS player to a PC (USB) for backup purposes. It seems that Macrovision coded VHS can be copied without any problems.

Didier

Do what Brian Robinson did....... point a current camcorder at the TV screen.

If you can find a Panasonic AVE5 or AVE7 video mixer (on eBay, maybe) or know of someone with one, then that will remove Macrovision and re-insert clean syncs.

Ray

I was surprised to find that my Panasonic HDD/DVD/VHS (model DMR-EX95V) allowed me to copy over 95% of of my commercial VHS tapes.

Alan

Hi Ray, what would one expext to pay for the Panasonic AVE5? There is one on eBay at the moment, but I know nothing about the unit.