Hey all, i'm new to the forums so go easy ok hehehe. I need some DVD Recording advice and hope someone here can help me out. First let me explain what i'm doing and who it's for. I work for a non profit organization. We are a culture center and have produced many VHS movies of various cultures. About 6 months ago we decided to send away our VHS tapes and have them converted into DVD. We just got them all back and we now have a master copy DVD for each movie. What I need to do now is make 10 DVD copies for each DVD movie. This is where I need some help. The centre wants to buy a DVD recorder so we can make copies as we need them. I have been looking online for a solution for this, but have come up with nothing. I have found a few DVD recorders that have 80 GB HDD in them, but the cost is to high for us because we are non profit. I have looked at maybe getting a cheaper DVD recorder and hooking another dvd player to it and recording that way, but after looking at the cost it's again to high. I have also been looking at maybe getting a DVD/VCR Combo recording system and make copies of the all the DVD's that way, but then the ones we already have made would be lost money . If anyone here has a cost effective way to make DVD Copies of DVD's that are already made please let me know. most of the DVD's we have are educational and are made for schools, nothing i am going to copy is illegal, we own it. Thanks Mookers
It sounds like you are searching for a standalone box to hook to an existing A/V system. However, a fairly easy and inexpensive way to accomplish this task would be purchasing a DVD recorder for your PC. They tend to be less expensive than external components. Then, using DVDShrink (free) and Nero (under 100 dollars) or some other program like Roxio), you can make an image of your DVD, then burn that image to a DVD-R. It works just fine for me. Now if you need a VCR combination for some reason or don't have a dedicated PC for this task, then my idea will not help you. You also need a PC with fairly decent horsepower, because encoding DVDs takes time and uses most system resources. I know Go Video makes a number of combination VCR/DVD-recorders and they aren't the only ones. HTH, P
Thanks for the info. One small Problem is that this office uses IMACS not PC's The reason I was looking for a stand alone recorder is because im only on a 1 year contract, then im gone. They want to make the DVD's once i'm gone and i know they will never do it from a PC, lol. I'll take a look at Go Video though and see what they have.
You can put a DVD burner in a Mac as well. If you can't use either a burner or a standalone recorder I'm not sure what you're wanting. You can't burn a DVD without one or the other. It's like asking how you can record to a video tape without a VCR - you can't.
yeah i understand all that,lol. What i'm looking for is either a DVD burning machine that will have 2 dvd drives on it and will record from one DVD to the other. OR A machine that will take the conents from the dvd and store it so it can be burned to a blank DVD. Either machine would have to be easy enough to use so that the secertary here could do it her self when im not here any longer. I have seen both online, but what im looking for is something good and still cheap. we are a non profit organization and money is hard to come by Thanks Mookers
I don't think you will find anything inexpensive as a standalone recorder that will do what you want in this application. I am not even aware of any dual DVD boxes that exist. There *are* DVD recorders with hard drives, and I think you can copy unprotected video tape to the hard drive and then burn it to DVD. BUt again, you are looking at several hundred dollars (I've seen models for around 450 and the prices continue to drop). To avoid complexity, this might be your best bet. Your other option is finding a burner for the Mac along with a copy of Toast or some similar program. However, I cannot say whether your secretary could handle this or not. HTH, P
Okay, I understand what you're looking for now. The bad news is that you're unlikely to find a standalone duplicator for less than about $350. I'd recommend Googling for "DVD Duplicator" to look for yourself.
Ok thx for the info I'll search around some more and see what I can find. If I can't find anything I guess we could send the Orignial DVD's back to the guy who made them and pay him to make copies, but that's a last resort. Thanks for the help all EDIT: I just went looking for DVD Duplicator on google and I think I found a fairly cheap solution. Thx everyone!!!! Here is the link http://www.octave.com/cgi-bin/shop/shop.cgi/act/specs/item/1060363509 _X_X_X_X_X_[small]Do or Do not, there is no try.[/small]
