[Vintage-Audio] OT Video DVD By Touch?

[Duane Fischer, W8DBF]

Hi All,

I was advised by a highly talented Ham + computer + audio/video pro, that 
Panasonic built the best stand alone unit. This particular deck did allow 
the user to convert and transfer a VHS film to a DVD product. However, 
several years have elapsed since his reccommendation.

One of you, as well as an engineer at an Icelandic TV station, has suggested 
to me that I should use the MGA Super VHS deck that I have to play the VHS 
video on and feed it to a stand alone DVD deck that will change the format 
automatically and burn it to a DVD. I am told that doing it this way will 
generate a higher quality end product DVD with superior resolution then 
using one machine that plays VHS and records a DVD.

Now here is where I really need your candid observations and operational 
thoughts!

1. I am very familiar with recording and remastering, as most of you are 
aware of. All of which I am able to do "without" needing to use the remote 
control. Once my set up is completed, it stays that way. It is very rare 
that any change is ever made.

2. I am told that some DVD decks now require the user to finalize the DVD by 
using the remote, going into the menus etc. This I would prefer to avoid! 
However, if I must do it to get the quality resolution that I want, then we 
will have to devise a means by which a blind man can do it.

3. I have about twenty-five VHS tapes that I need to convert to DVD for 
storage and possible use in the creation of PR promotional DVD's. Some were 
created by a professional film crew who filmed me performing with a live 
audience. Such video tapes were "NOT" edited! Most booking agencies reject 
any PR material that has any possibility of having been tampered with! 
Because of todays film trickery technology, a good film editor can make an 
awful actor/actress look sensational, an off key vocalist sound like Julie 
Andrews or transform some childrens birthday party clown who does a few 
magic tricks into David Copperfield! Hence, all film submissions to Agents 
must be not edited!

4. Most TV stations will "NOT" give you a copy of the edited final footage 
they plan to show! You must videotape it yourself at home on your own VCR 
etc. Not very useful when one is in Louisville, KY and lives four hundred 
miles north of the auditorium or TV station! So one gets someone in the 
local area to make you a video tape, you pay them, thank them and go on the 
road again ... Hoping you did not just purchase a copy of Snoopy Kidnaps 
Snow White!

5. I need your suggestions for a DVD deck that will allow me to set a 
default conversion speed and so forth. I want to input the VHS in stereo and 
record to DVD at the fastest speed. I am interested in high resolution, 
color clarity and clean/clear audio and/or music! I am not interested in a 
DVD that plays more then eighty minutes.

I would like one that I can control from the front panel of the DVD deck and 
NOT have to use the remote control! The exception being: to initially set up 
the DVD deck! Every VHS to DVD will be done the same way, so there is no 
need to change the basic format and change function settings!

If I must use the remote control to finalize the video, then the procedure I 
must follow needs to be such that I can do it by touch! That means, press 
the third button from the left side of the remote in the second horizontal 
row. Menu is now on. Press the down arrow button, (usually up/down and 
left/right buttons are pointed on one end), four times to get to the 
finalize screen. Then press #5 on the remote number key pad. Then count down 
from the right top corner to the sixth button, which is square shaped. Press 
it once to start the finalize procedure. And so forth.

Because I can not see, I must be positive what I do by the sense of touch is 
correct. As I have no way to "see" what the menu is showing on the CRT!

All the help you can give me will be most appreciated. Thank you very much!
Duane

Duane Fischer, W8DBF - WPE8CXO
E-Mail: dfischer at usol.com
Hallicrafters web site: www.w9wze.net
HHRP web site: hhrp.w9wze.net