RECORDING from DVD to VHS
 

Can it be done? Tell me what I need to do to make it happen. Yes, I do have a DVD player and a VCR.

'Preciate it. :)

Yes it can be done, but sometimes the color on the DVD will fade from light to dark thorughout the movie, making your copy kind of dizzying to watch.

ok now tell me HOW. :D

Go down to Radioshack and pick up one of those GoVideo VHS/DVD players. They have a "copy" button on them.

UMM no, I already have a DVD player and a VCR. . . is there a cord or sometging I can buy instead.

Legally, you can't with Region 1 DVD players. (Thank the Hollywood establishment for that.) You can connect a DVD's output to the VCR input but you'll get the results sororitygirl2 described in her post on this thread.

Most commercial DVDs (and VHS tapes) have a form of copy protection called Macrovision. It discourages casual copying of movies by distorting the brightness and/or color balance of the recorded movie, essentially rendering the recording unplayable.

Just in case you wanted to know... commercial DVDs sold in the US and Canada are 'Region 1 encoded'. Region encoding prevents the viewing of DVDs intended for other regions. (Example: big movie in the USA is out on DVD (Region 1), but not yet released to Lower Slobovia (which is in Region 2). A Region 2 only DVD player will refuse to play any DVDs that are not R2 encoded. The reverse is true; if you happen to like this little art-house film released to DVD in Lower Slobovia, but no plans are made to release it in Region 1, the R2 disc will not play on a R1 DVD player.) However, region locking can be hacked either via software or hardware (which voids your warranty). You can even unlock the region lock capability by doing a little handjive with the DVD's remote control on some DVD players. There's several pages on the web that go into much more detail on region code unlocking, even one that will tell you if the specific DVD player you own has a hack to it.

Also.. if you have a DVD reader on your CPU the codec (the thing that converts digital to analog) is floating around on the internet.

That won't do you a hell of a lot of good getting it to VHS though without a D/A converter.

There is really no cable or anything !BUT! it is possible now. Some manufacturers do not build this stuff in since a court case that said that people have the right to make copies of clips, etc. for their own personal use.

Can you burn the DVD? Save a copy on your hard drive?

Sure.. If you can get the DVD codec and the proper utility.

If you want to actually burn a DVD you'll need a DVD burner. They've come WAY down but the media is fairly cheap.

Try pricewatch.com

Thanks. I can burn DVDs for music, etc. but I have never tried to do so for movies. I keep getting these e-mails that tell me to buy blah blah blah and I can burn movies.

Don't worry about those. Look for a DVD Codec.

Thanks. I'll look into it when the sun is out. :)