Recording on old VCR

[Jeffhs]

Originally Posted by Dave A

As long as you feed any kind of NTSC video to the deck it will record. The deck and the tape does not know the difference between camera, off-air tuner, DVD, etc.

I don't think it is possible to record a DVD onto NTSC video tape, since DVDs are digital media and NTSC VHS is an analog format -- not to mention the copy-protection schemes (Macrovision, to name one) used to prevent such copying. If an NTSC analog VCR records at all from a DVD, I'd be surprised if the recording was anywhere near watchable. The incompatibility of the two formats, in addition to Macrovision and whatever else is used to thwart copying, also prevents illegal copying of DVDs onto NTSC VHS, etc. video tape. The same schemes also prevent such copying of commercial DVDs onto blank ones, using a DVD recorder.

It would not surprise me if DVD recorders are eventually outlawed, although the elimination of analog video inputs/outputs on new Blu-ray players is a step in that direction. The motion-picture industry will not allow itself to be put out of business by people who think they can copy DVDs at will and get away with it. It is a business, after all, and every illegal copy of a legitimate, purchased DVD, multiplied by tens or hundreds of thousands (!), means that much less in revenues for the production companies. If you want a certain DVD, purchase it from a store or rent it from Netflix, Blockbuster, et al.