The Combo Problem

David Shamah, The Jerusalem Post January 10, 2006

So now you all are experts at copying videos to your computer, and then authoring and producing DVD ready movies – both on Macs and PCs. I mean, you have been practicing, haven't you?

But silly me – I haven't told you how to connect your videos to your computer in order to get your movies onto the computer, in order to accomplish this miracle! Actually, I did mention it, throwing around the term “firewire” with reckless abandon, but I haven't clued you in on any details.

Why wait? Well, it turns out that I've got a soft spot for your pocketbook. I care, dammit! The software and techniques that I've recommended until now haven't cost too much money, ranging from free to a few dozen dollars. Unfortunately, though, unless you already own equipment capable of communicating with a computer, like a firewire equipped video camera, you're going to have to shell out if you want to get into recording. Hopefully, though, I'll be able to describe the cheapest ways possible of connecting your video and your PC – with one solution actually being free, providing you can get your hands on an old, outmoded PC that can serve as a recorder/player when connected to your TV (similar to the American TiVo or the local “Yes Max” system).

But that's later. Let's say, though, you decide you want to get into video to DVD recording and don't own any equipment. Let's also say that you'd be satisfied with the basic program, movie or show itself, and don't have a need to edit out extraneous material. So what if there are a bunch of circa 1991 commercials on your TV recorded videotapes of the Honeymooners' Marathon you taped before making Aliyah? It's an anthropological experience watching those old Crazy Eddie “Christmas in August” commercials (non-New Yorkers should maybe just skip that last paragraph).

Anyway, all you want to do is record directly to DVD; why go through the rigmarole of transferring from video to DVD via a computer? Are there no direct to DVD recorders? Yes there are; known as combo models, these units allow you to play a video and record it onto a DVD, and, if attached to a TV, allow you to record from TV to DVD as well.

Problem solved, right? Well, not quite – otherwise I'd have to find something else to write about! If you're recording home videos to DVD, things should work out alright (but often doesn't, as I will describe below). But let's not beat around the bush; you're not going to spend upwards of $350 (the price for the cheapest serviceable models) for a unit that cannot record the slew of old VHS movies you have sitting around the house. I once mentioned the “conspiracy” organized by the music companies that has forced us to pay two, three, or even four times for our favorite music – on LP (providing you're old enough), cassette, CD, and now MP3 – simply by seeing to it that the equipment to play old media disappear from the marketplace. Any consumer who's gone shopping in the last year or so for a VHS video player knows the score; some stores still sell them, but the vast majority sell DVD players strictly. Very soon – within two years or so, I predict – you'll have to shop at a specialty store to get a video player, or even a combo player that plays both videos and DVDs.

Of course you want to head off the need to buy a DVD copy of Barney's Camping Adventure for the grandchildren, when your kids finally get married. But listen well; you are not going to be able to record that video to a DVD using any of the commercially available consumer DVD combo recorders. Such videos carry a boatload of copy protection schemes, most notably Macrovision (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Macrovision), which effectively forces you to limit your recording activities to non-commercial videos.

And that doesn't always work either. I have found that a number of DVD recorders DO NOT allow you to copy even personal videos! The reasons, based on the information I have dug up, have to do either with the tracking settings on the original video camera used to take the film, the idiosyncrasy of the specific combo recorder, or other unidentified phenomena. The same holds true, I have found, for independent VCRs connected to DVD recorders or combos; sometimes they work on some tapes, and other times they don't. And there's almost no way of knowing in advance what will work when.

In addition, keep in mind that DVDs are still sold with region codes that ostensibly will only play back discs manufactured for the region in which they are sold. Israel is in region 2, while the U.S. And Canada are region 1; meaning that if you buy a DVD player or combo recorder here in Israel, you will not be able to play back discs you bought in the U.S.!

Of course, there is a way out of this, and that is by disabling the region code for your DVD player. Manufacturers generally fulfill the letter of the law by including regional encoding as part of the devices' internal “software,” and then release on the sly a code that allows consumers to break that code and play all region DVDs on their devices. It's relatively easy to find your devices' codebreaker by searching on Google for information on your device (something like “Samsung V64” + “regional code,” for example). Some sites purport to provide a code for disabling Macrovision protection, allowing you to copy directly from commercial video to DVD on combo recorders, but I haven't been able to confirm the success of any of these suggestions.

Bottom line: If you are going to invest in recording equipment, you're much better off with separate units for playback and recording – and you are almost definitely not going to be able to bypass your computer. Which leads up to the next step, to be described next time: How to connect your playback device to your PC or Mac.

Ds@newzgeek.com