Need some advice about my DVD recorder--recording from external source

[joeybee12]

I've set up my VCR to my DVD recorder to transfer a lot of my tapes, but am unable to copy some because they'e copyrighted somehow. The DVD recorder won't record with these--I hit the record button and a gray box comes up on the screen and says the material is copyrighted, yada, yada, yada.

Is there a way to get around this? I'm thinking I can run my VCR to my TV, and then the DVD recorder from the TV, so I'm copying from the TV, and not directly from the VCR. I think this will get around it, but I'm having trouble figuring out the connections.

Any video-philes out ther know what I'm talking about and can help?

Thanks!:-)

[Liberal In Texas]

1. Yes. Some tapes are encoded so they will play on your TV or

monitor fine, but not record on another machine.

The DVD recorder is not so different from a VCR.

I have a business that is capable of duplicating DVD's, DV tape, VHS's and combinations thereof.

I ran into a strange problem just last week, a friend brought over a VHS tape of home movies that had been transferred at a commercial business in Omaha, Nebraska.

My DV recorder would not go into record. I kept getting a "record lock" indication.

The only thing we could think of, was the dubbing house encoded a lock-out into it.

Sorry to make this so long, but the answer is pretty much no. I know of no way to defeat the encoding that does not involve transferring the video into your computer and then using a program that will strip the encode.

Generally the copyright coding is there for a very good reason. It prevents piracy. In your case, just trying to make a perfectly legitimate fair-use copy is frustrating.

As it was when I was trying to make a copy of my friends home movies to preserve on DV.

[joeybee12]

2. Thanks for the info..

...I really want to get these copied, and clear up some space. DVD's are so much more compact.

Anyway, I still think that if the tape is playing, and basically I have the connections for the DVD recorder hooked up to the television, there should be a way to get around this.....

[joeybee12]

3. I'm kickin' this and goin' to bed! Dobrou Noc!

[Liberal In Texas]

4. I'll kick once more to see if anybody has any other thoughts...

If you can get hold of another VCR to patch in...??? Maybe, who know.

Good luck.

[joeybee12]

5. I've got two VCR's so..................

but hey, it's too late to do it now--I'll take a look in the morning when I'm fresh!