OT: GoDVD - allows copying of VHS, DVD

Chanimal wrote on 2/1/2006, 10:49 AM

I recently purchase a small box for $99 (with $20 rebate) at CompUSA from SIMA called GoDVD. It was advertised as allowing users to back up their their VHS and DVDs that had copy protection.

I have a VHS tape series from the 80's that has Macrovision. The tapes are starting to go bad and are no longer made. I wanted to drop them to DVD.

With a 21 day return policy, I thought I would give it a try. It has SVideo and Composite in and out and connects between your DVD or VHS players. I hooked it in between my Panasonic VHS/DVD burner to the SVHS and Composite input of my ATI All-in-Wonder. Prior to the device, ATI with it's protection would not record the signal. Now it records great.

It is also supposed to strengthen the signal and has a few basic fixes (brighter, dimmer, etc.). It is also supposed to convert between NTSC and PAL.

I'm sure there will be some abuse (although VHS tapes are 5 for $20 at Hollywood now--so no use copying them), but it is a great way to convert the old VHS library to DVD, or back up a DVD or games that my five kids have a habit of breaking.

I've seen it online elseware for as low as $69. I've also seen it compared to high-end devices costing $400 to $600 that help stabilize all VHS video.

Anyone else have any experience with this?

Comments

Frenchy wrote on 2/1/2006, 11:19 AM

How much you used it so far? I just searched on the local CompUSA store, and there's another $30 "instant savings", bringing the price down to $50!

That will make it a worthwhile tool to back up my old VHS collection.

Thanks

Frenchy

goshep wrote on 2/1/2006, 11:39 AM

Am I missing something? I've been backing up VHS for quite some time with a digital8 with pass-thru. Is this not as common as I think it is? I've always assumed those who ddn't want to spring for Canopus simply used pass-thru.

Just curious.

Chienworks wrote on 2/1/2006, 12:07 PM

I use a SONY A/V->DV converter box and it passes the signal through quite clearly even when the tapes have Macrovision. I use Pan/Crop to remove the top 4 to 6 scanlines and thereby remove the Macrovision signal before burning to DVD or printing back to tape. No special decoder/filter is required.

Frenchy wrote on 2/1/2006, 12:23 PM

I've used my Sony D8 pass-through as well, and it worked ok, but for the time it takes. Since one has to play the VHS in real time anyway, time is saved by not needing to go through the PC for editing, rendering, authoring and burning, IMHO. This would allow you to back up your VHS to a set-top DVD burner directly, and a little quicker, at least on the surface. Unless I'm missing something, (capture time) = (DVD creation time)

goshep wrote on 2/1/2006, 12:30 PM

Alright, that makes sense. Thanks for clarifying.

Chanimal wrote on 2/1/2006, 2:53 PM

Frenchy,

I picked it up last Saturday. It is within the 21 days so I should be price protected and get a $30 rebate by bringing my receipt back in.

Thanks.

P.S. I thought the $99 was high, but the $20 rebate made it worthwhile. Now, at $49, I wouldn't hesitate at all. That's almost the cost for the DVD copy software.

DVDeviations wrote on 2/1/2006, 3:18 PM

Buyer beware; a few people have told me that when you burn a DVD on the Go DVD system, there are compatibility issues with playing DVDs burned on the Go DVD system and playing them on other DVD burners. Actually, an aquaintance of mine works at Costco and told me that customers are constantly returning the GoDVD systems because they were so unhappy with them.

This information is a few months old, so perhaps these systems are better now. I use the Sony RDR VX500 and have not had any compatibility issues. It is more expensive than the Go DVD system, though.

Chanimal wrote on 2/1/2006, 3:26 PM

I heard of several incompatibilities, but it was with the 1.0 version. These are the 2.0 (200) series and has worked very well for me (and others that gave reviews).

johnmeyer wrote on 2/1/2006, 4:06 PM

I tend to go overboard on VHS transfers.

1. If you are transferring your own personal videos, especially if they are starting to deteriorate, you definitely want to look into doing some serious chroma and at least a little temporal cleaning. If you are familiar with AVISynth, here's a script that works wonders:

#Serve RGB32 from Vegas and convert back to RGB32 in this script if going into Mainconcept MPEG encoder.

#Check the RGB 16-235 box in the Mainconcept encoder.



#For use in Virtualdub, BOTH RGB 16:235 boxes must be checked AND YUY2 Disable must be checked in MC DV codec.



loadPlugin("c:\Program Files\AviSynth 2.5\plugins\CNR\Cnr2.dll")

AVISource("D:\Your video file.avi")



#These plugins require color space conversion

converttoYV12(interlaced=true)



assumebff()

a = separatefields()

even = a.SelectEven().fluxsmoothT(5).Cnr2("oxx",8,16,191,100,255,32,255,false)

odd = a.SelectOdd().fluxsmoothT(5).Cnr2("oxx",8,16,191,100,255,32,255,false)

Interleave(even, odd) 

weave() 



ConvertToRGB24(interlaced=true)

2. If you are transferring from VHS tapes that contain movies (i.e., 24 fps film telecined to 29.97 NTSC), then you will get vastly better DVD encoding if you first do an inverse telecine, then encode at 24 fps and set the film flag when encoding from DVDA. I have scripts for that as well, but it is too long to post here. The difference in results is stunning.

R0cky wrote on 2/1/2006, 4:45 PM

john can you post a pointer to your intc scripts?

johnmeyer wrote on 2/1/2006, 5:43 PM

I'll email them to you.