What's a good way to go VCR -> DVD ?

[tashirosgt]

I bought an RCA DCR8320N DVR recorder several years ago. It has a video cassette player. Last year I tried using the VCR part to transfer a tape to DVD for the first time and the tape jammed. I took the unit apart and the tape carriage mechanism is so doofus, I don't know how any engineer ever thought it would function.

Anyway, my reasoning is that the VCR-DVD combination is becoming more rare and the machines that have it are expensive, so why not get a plain VCR (hoping that a plain VCR is cheap and actually designed to read tapes) and use the DVD writer on a computer to transfer the tape. I assume people have already done this. What is the normal procedure?

[lauwers]

Not in that way but I have a HD DVD recorder and VCR
The tape a like to keep play it and record it on HD DVD recorder and than record it on a DVD
HD DVD recorder are rather cheap now

[tw56]

I have a dazzle by pinnacle which just seems to be a piece of hardware and the software. Just plug the rca cables from the vcr into it and it changes them to usb and then plug it into your computer and capture the video. I have only done it with the included windows software however and have not looked to see if it will work in linux.

[stoat]

Yeah, I have a Dazzle, too. It's especially good for use with a laptop. But I most often use a Pinnacle PCI video capture card that came with Studio 9 to receive the VCR RCA outputs directly with a desktop. Any video capture card will do that. If you notice hum being introduced into the captured audio, an inexpensive ground loop isolator between the VCR and the video capture card will filter it out.