Here's how you can use a DVD player or a computer to copy DVDs to VHS tapes.
But you can't do that if you're trying to make a copy of a commercial Hollywood-type movie, since those aren't actually your DVD movies - you don't have the rights to copy them in the United States. Nearly all the studios have contracted with Macrovision to copy protect the movies, and that means when the DVD player starts up its internal electronics create a signal that will cause the VCR to record an unwatchable image with alternating changes of brightness and color flashes.
The way the U.S. law is set up, regardless of why you're making the copy, any attempt to thwart the copy protection scheme is illegal. So we won't discuss the hardware and software hacks available for DVD players, video stabilizers, color correctors, and sync generators that have appeared in the underground markets to defeat the copy protection. If it's legal where you are go ahead and check around. And you can always legally make copies of any DVD movies you've created and thus have the rights to.
The rest of this article will assume you're not breaking the law and the DVD is not copy-protected.
Since VHS is an analog format, there will be a significant quality loss when making any copy; VHS under any circumstance is incapable of looking as good as DVD. Under the best of conditions, the VHS copy will look as good as VHS ever looks, and that made people happy for a long time, so don't hesitate for that reason. You also won't get the DVD features of instant chapter selection, menu navigation, the additional languages, and so forth on the VHS copy.
If you're planning to do a lot of DVD to VHS copies, one simple solution is a machine with both a DVD and VHS recorder in the same box. These machines have been around for years, and once you load the DVD and tape into the slots copying is basically a one-button operation. The other advantage from these machines is that the signal is processed to make the copy look and sound as good as possible, and correctly handle the synchronization and other invisible control signals.
If you don't want to get a specialized device for the copies, you can usually use any DVD player and VHS recorder. A patch cable from any store that sells video accessories goes from the player's video output to the input of the VHS recorder. If both machines provide "S-Video" jacks, use that with a matching cable and you'll get better quality copies than by using the "composite" video jacks.
Most DVD players have something called "component video" jacks but most VHS recorders don't so you can't use those directly.
For the audio, use a stereo audio patch cord can be run from the audio output of the DVD player that's usually labeled "Front Speaker" to the VHS recorder's audio input. If you have a monaural VHS machine, you'll need a Y-adapter from the electronics store to get both channels. You won't be able to record the 5.1 channel DVD audio, it'll just be regular stereo.
That's the basic setup. Some folks have more complicated arrangements with digital outputs and variants for other countries, and if you have a receiver that handles video switching and conversion you can take the VHS recorder's signal from there. The permutations are endless but you can learn more by looking at home theatre pages on the Internet.
With the DVD player connected to the VHS recorder, just put the media into the machines, press "record" on the VHS machine and then "play" and that's all there is to it. If you have a TV receiver connected to the VHS machine in the normal fashion you can see the progress. Naturally you'll have to select the VHS recording speed and make sure the tape doesn't end before the DVD does.
In some cases, even with non copy protected DVDs, stability problems may evidence themselves. A simple video stabilizer is an add-on box that can correct these problems and can be purchased for well under $US 100.
If you don't want to use a DVD player, the other way to record DVDs to VHS uses a computer. You'll need a computer with DVD drive and a video output. The computer's video output can come from the same video card that also drives the computer's display, it can be a separate video card that goes into the computer, or an external box that connects to the computer via USB or FireWire, which is the Apple Computer trademark for what is also known as the IEEE 1394 protocol.
These external video devices are available in a very wide range of prices, and work well for this application. They're all designed to output video from the computer to a conventional TV, but you can easily connect them to a VHS recorder or a video camera.
All it takes is to connect the VHS recorder to the computer's video and sound card outputs, press "record" on the VHS machine, and play the DVD as one normally does using any DVD display software, such as Windows Media Player that comes with Windows systems.
This is a very good way of making VHS recordings since once you have the computer involved you can first record the video to the computer's hard disk, then use software video editing packages to edit the images or add features, such as making it brighter, changing the audio track, titles and many other things.
If you have a use for VHS copies of DVDs, setting up the copy operation is probably going to be easier than finding the time to run the copies!
