Dilemma: Making DVD backups of the kids' Disney tapes, which are well encrypted against copying.
Equipment: Bought a Toshiba R-D4 recorder off eBay, 8x DVD-R blank disks, and a cheapo 13" color TV ($59) from Walmart for monitoring. Sima CT-2 GoDVD image stabilizer, also off eBay.
Process: Audio out from VCR directly to recorder. Video out from VCR to Sima to recorder. Video out from recorder to TV for menu availability.
Results: A perfect, noise-free copy onto DVD. First disk was finalized and played back on my home theater DVD and it played perfectly. Now we all know how to copy those pesky Disney tapes, or any other store-bought tape for that matter.
Just wanted to share my results as I had many questions and concerns about how to do it, what equipment to use, etc. Special thanks to David Massey for his numerous, very helpful emails and guidance on the DVD recorder to get and which blank disks were the best to use.
Thank you! I will be trying this in the next couple of days! I just figured out how to record some stuff from On Demand on my VCR, and want to copy it onto DVD. I will post back if/when it works!
There is no channel to set it to. You're thinking of a TV. Once all connections were made, I started the tape, Q'd it up to where I wanted the recording to begin, then hit the record button on the recorder.
Remember, all you are doing is playing the tape and sending the A/V outputs to the recorder. Its really that simple. Put the GoDVD inline with the VCR video out and you're set.