Copying old vhs tapes to dvd

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brianzubek

New member
I was wondering if I take tapes that were studio made and copy them to dvd would this be legal? I'm not selling them this is just for me to save them for future viewing. I probably already know the answer that if I don't sell them this is fine. The tapes I'm copying over are Rocko's Modern Life vhs tapes from the mid90s, Rugrats tapes from the mid90s and all other animated shows I have on vhs that aren't on dvd or incase of Nicktoons not on a studio released set.
 
As long as you aren't selling them for profit and are just making them for your own private use, then the companies won't really care.
 
That can be a problem, but some don't have it. Over the last few years, I've put at least a few store-bought tapes on DVD-R for easier viewing, and I never had a problem with not being able to transfer it. You just don't know until you try.
 
No the tapes were made by Nickelodeon.

Would tapes made in the 90s really have a lock for copying them to dvd since dvd didn't exsist then?
 
I have one VHS player and one VHS/DVD player, so copying DVDs onto videos is easy for me. I suggest you use the SP format for your recordings, so you can have better picture and sound quality. I tape many shows onto videocassettes and DVDs; in fact, I'm taping Victorious onto DVDs as well.
 
Like I said, it just depends. Some tapes have copy-protection and others don't. You just won't know until you try it.


Lacking any standalone recording units, I do mine the crude (and more time-consuming) way: I play the tape in my VCR while recording it to my camcorder, then from my camcorder to the computer, then from there burn it to DVD-R. Like I said, more time-consuming since you have to let whatever it is play about twice, but it's the only way I can currently do it and, well, it works just fine for me. :)
 
If you've got a tv tuner card with composite or coaxial jacks you can connect your VCR into the PC and record through its tv interface. Then burn the file to DVD, or even edit it with programs like Ulead Moviefactory to divide it into chapters, cut out commercials, and compress the video file.
 
It probably even varies by studio, too. Several years ago I made a fan trailer for Scrooged and had to record various selections from our old VHS copy, and it was a Paramount title and recorded just fine.
 
I've copied a few tapes and the one company that I've had the most trouble with is Disney because, ever since at least 1983, they've encoded their tapes with Macrovision to prevent people from copying them for illegal distribution. I think most computers are able to deal with the Macrovision, but most standalone DVD-recorders are programmed to stop recording if they detect a Macro-encoded signal.
 
I still have lots of VHS tapes I'll still occasionally watch. I'm not real big on technology change. So I waited until VHS was no longer available before making the switch to DVD. Tapes that are SP will seriously last for YEARS. So I really don't feel the need to switch them to DVD since they still work just fine.
 
I've found that the tapes that are recorded in SP HI-FI are the ones that usually last the longest. I've got some SP tapes where they were recorded in MONO and I'm usually having to adjust the tracking manually during the time that the tape is playing.
 
Well I successfully taped over my 2 Rocko videos to dvd. The dvd is really great quality. The vhs tapes I taped over are With Friends Like These which included; Bedfellows, No Pain No Gain, The Good the Bad and the Wallaby, Wimp on the Barbie and With Friends Like These and Machine Madness which included; Trash O Madness, Sucker for the Suck O Matic, Unbalanced Load, Boob Tubed and Fatal Contraption. Possibly tomorrow I will tape over my two Catdog videos. But sometime I want to tackle my Rugrats videos which I have about 10 of which should fit on 5 dvds. Eventually I will put all my cartoon vhs tapes on dvd since they are all from the 90s.
 
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