copying vhs tapes

[Emperor Harkonnen]

Hi, I was woundering if anyone knew how to make the quality of copied vhs tapes better?

I try to copy the tape, by normal recording with two vhs players, but the quality is so much worse than on the original tape. does anyone know how I can make it better?

(and just so you know, I am not copying copyrighted vhs tapes, only recorded ones from tv ;) )

[Terror]

hmm i don't know. I did it in the past with tapes i rented, well until they started protecting those tapes ofcourse, but i didn't have any problems in copying them, same quality as the original

[Nyarlathotep]

How are you copying it ? I mean, coaxial cable or scart (not sure if it's called scart abroad, but I'm referring to the somewhat wide plug) ?

If you're trying it via coaxial cable, you might give the second option a try.

[Terror]

I know we did it with a scart cable.

[Kiyouta]

I think VCRs have this thing called Macro Vision, which is a form of copy protection. (At least in the UK we do...)

When you try and copy a tape to another video, you will probably notice that the brightness of the copied tape keeps jumping up and down. This is because of this protection. I think there are devices available which you connect inline with your Scart cable which removes this protection, but I don't know if they work.

[Emperor Harkonnen]

well I just have this problem on some vhs tapes. I use scart cable.

the brightness keeps jumping up and down yes, but that is not a major problem, because it was like this some places on the original tapes. problems are with colors, and irritating streams in the middle of the screen.

[Atomic Mitten]

What you need is an old Video recorder, they don't have this problem with the copy protection because the filters in them have a much wider bandwidth.

There are also programs around that overcome this too.

Try Google search(copy protection was around it) ;)

[Nyarlathotep]

What you need is an old Video recorder, they don't have this problem with the copy protection because the filters in them have a much wider bandwidth.

I know Philips had a few recorders that somehow "ignore" the copy protection..

[Emperor Harkonnen]

What you need is an old Video recorder, they don't have this problem with the copy protection because the filters in them have a much wider bandwidth.

There are also programs around that overcome this too.

Try Google search(copy protection was around it) ;)

I have one old and one new videoplayer/recorder. I record with the old one, and play with the new one, should I do something else?

[Kiyouta]

Actually I think you should also try playing with the old one and recording with the new, because the copy-protection normally originates from the playing source... (don't quote me on that though :O)

Which ever way, you just pick the best method that gives the best quality copy.

[Emperor Harkonnen]

okay will try that. thanks for the help guys. I really appreciate that you take time helping me with the problem. ;)

[Mahdi]

If you have a DVD player, there are many places that will copy VHS to it.  No idea of the quality, not havign doen it myself.