Where can I transfer my home movies onto DVDs?

Home movies onto DVD

• VHS to DVD: I am thinking about getting a DVD burner but want to determine which is best for my goal - that is, I would like to transfer my home movies from VHS, digital 8 and miniDV onto DVDs. What DVD burner should I buy?

• Answer:

  There are two different types of DVD burners: standalone VCR-style units and drives you attach to your personal computer. Proponents of the standalone units point to ease of use and speed as the main advantages. Advocates of the personal computer approach point to lower cost and superior editing features. For a discussion of the merits of each approach, see this Usenet discussion: http://groups.google.com/groups?hl=en&lr=&client=googlet&threadm=3cdf0c3a_4%40corp-news.newsgroups.com&rnum=7&prev=/groups%3Fhl%3Den%26lr%3D%26client%3Dgooglet%26scoring%3Dd%26q%3DPanasonic%2BDMR-E20%26btnG%3DGoogle%2BSearch Since your question talks primarily about transferring, a standalone unit may be the better solution for you. There are three makers of standalone DVD-burners: Pioneer, Panasonic and Philips. Here is a review of the Panasonic and Philips units by Dave Getz, President of Satellite & Sound, Inc. (May 8, 2002): http://www.satsound.com/DVDRreview.html SMR home theatre provides information about audio and video products. Their web site offers this article about Panasonic, Philips and Pioneer DVD recorders: http://www.smr-home-theatre.org/ces2002/technologies/page_03.shtml Information from Pioneer's web site: http://www.pioneerelectronics.com/Pioneer/CDA/HomeProducts/HomeProductDetails/0,1422,20922,00.html Information about the Panasonic DMR-T2020 DVD Video Recorder: http://www.panasonic.com/PBDS/subcat/Products/dvd/specs/s_dmr-t2020.html Information about the Philips DVDR 985 unit: http://www.dvdrecorder.philips.com/tell.html Information about tranferring your old videos to DVD with the Philips unit: http://www.dvdrecorder.philips.com/archive_tell.html About.com's Robert Silva wrote this review of the Philips unit: http://hometheater.about.com/library/weekly/aafprphilipsdvdr985.htm Silva also wrote this article about DVD recorders: http://hometheater.about.com/library/weekly/aa012302a.htm These USA today article on the subject may also be useful: http://www.usatoday.com/life/cyber/2001/11/14/baig.htm http://www.usatoday.com/life/cyber/tech/review/2002/4/09/dvd-rec.htm If you prefer to go with a DVD-recorder that you attach to your computer, and use video editing software, there are dozens of burners available. Andrew Brown of TechReport (March 11, 2002) wrote this in-depth review of units from Philips and Pioneer: http://www.tech-report.com/reviews/2002q1/dvdrw/index.x?pg=1 In an article entitled, "DVD Burners, Six External SuperDrive Stand-ins Connect via FireWire," (Macworld, December 2001), Jim Heid compares six external DVD burners that are compatible with both Windows and Mac computers equipped with FireWire ports. MacWorld gave its highest ratings (4 mice) to both EZQuest's Boa FireWire DVD-R/RW and the QPS Que Fire DVDBurner Pro. http://www.macworld.com/2001/12/reviews/dvburners.html Google search terms used: dvd burner reviews ://www.google.com/search?hl=en&lr=&client=googlet&q=dvd+burner+reviews&btnG=Google+Search Google groups search terms: panasonic philips dvd recorders http://groups.google.com/groups?q=panasonic+philips+dvd+recorders&btnG=Google+Search&hl=en&lr=&ie=UTF8&oe=UTF8 I hope this helps. Good luck.