Posted by The Wizard on 01/01/07 16:25

"- Bobb -" <bobb@noemail.123> wrote in message
news:N7WdndEbH_4btgTYnZ2dnUVZ_silnZ2d@comcast.com...
> On these stand-alone ( non-PC ) recorders ... The ones I've seen have a
> button that you press and it copies the VHS to DVD. What do I do when I
> have a 6 hr VHS and it won't fit onto DVD ? would it "fail" or would it
> record only 4 hrs ( or whatever fits) then close the DVD so that at least
> the first 4 hrs is usable ? How to capture that last 2 hrs ? Any 6 hr DVD
> media out there yet ?

Well firstly, I think you're forgetting most DVD Recorders have a LP/XP etc
mode Usually 1 hour,2 hour,4 hour and 6 hour.
To be honest the 6 hour mode is pretty poor, I usually use the 4 hour mode
on mine (2 hour for a normal movie)

The quality goes down as you select the longer mode, 1,2 and 4 hour are o-k
but the 6 hour is definately noticably poor!

> I also have a lot of camcorder ( VHS-C ) video. Rather than buying full
> size 4 hr DVDs , could I buy physically smaller DVD's for less money ? (
> do they exist ?) The point in asking is this is a LOT of family video (
> boxes full) that are maybe 20-30 minutes long and I'm wondering if cheaper
> /easier to store the smaller dvd's since even one the "full sized 4 hr
> DVD'd" it's still only gonna store only one vhs tape when I hit the VCR
> =>DVD "record button". So it'll record 20 minutes then "waste" the rest of
> the DVD.

No need to to, The Standalone DVD recorders won't play in a normal player
until you have finalised them, So you can make several short recordings on
one disc :-)
Depending on the recorder, It makes a simple menu for each recording and on
most can be renamed to wahtever you like,Some have a simple thumbnail type
menu,The more expensive ones have animated pics of the movie you've
recorded.
I'd just record as normal from tape to DVD, press stop,Let it write to the
disc then record again on the same disc only finalising when you've filled
the disc, Assuming you have 8 hours to record, I'd split it to 2 x 4 hours
or for better quality 4 x 2 hours.
Just imagine the standalone recorders as a disc based VHS system with LP
mode just lowering the quality as it does with tape.

T.W.

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