Any Success Reports on VHS to DVD Converter Machines?

I have a Sony DCR-TRV340 Digital8 camcorder that doubles as a firewire bridge and have captured several dozen hours of tape with it.

The problem with these machines is that the VCR portion of the machine is usually pretty cheap -- lowering the overall quality.

There are many ways to go, of course. I use two methods: VCR to ADVC-100 to Mac -- then edit the resulting digital file -- then to DVD.

A faster method which has resulted in good results: VCR to Toshiba DVD recorder. The Toshiba DVD recorder allows me to vary the bit rate resulting in better quality for files under 2 hours, lesser quality for material slightly over two hours, and even better quality for longer files where I split the file onto two DVDs.

I think the key to the whole process in the quality of video coming from the source -- not necessarily the bridge or end. If you are getting ugly video from the VCR there is absolutely nothing you can do to improve things. Good clean images from old video tapes and old players is rare.

If you can afford one, and you have the space, the set-top DVD recorders are really the best solution. I started transfering my old VHS tapes into my Mac, editing in iMovie and burning in iDVD. As you know, this is a long process. I've done about 6 tapes but I have about 20 more to go. Now I'm waiting to buy a DVD recorder.

The DVD recorders with HD allow for some basic editing too. There are much cheaper units but these will not contain a HD and I think will only provide a one-for-one copy.

Check http://ww.avsforum.com for good discussions on DVD recorders.