DVD Recorder question (1 Viewer)

[PatH]

My brother just bought a Sony DVR/VCR combo (model is irrelevant to my question) and I suppose I'll do the same sooner rather than later. But I'm considering models that have built in hard drives and I really want to know if I can do what I've dreamed of doing with these. I want to dump a VHS to the hard drive, speed through the program on the hard drive to isolate commercials, delete these and then have the machine either resequence the pointers on the programs to provide a commercial free program for transfer to DVR or at least ignore the commercial segments when transferring to DVD-R. None of these programs will be for sale, but will free up tons of space in my home. I've been taping TV and old movies since 1977 so you can imagine how much VHS I have (I was overjoyed when I saw Castaway since I knew that if I ever needed to build a raft, I'd have plenty of binding material). Put another way, Captain Kirk was right, but not in the way he imagined: Space is the final frontier. Anyway, if I can't do this with one of these machines, what are the advantages of having the hard drive? And, if I can't do this with one of these machines, surely I can do it with a properly equipped PC (moderators, feel free to dupe message in the PC forum if you'd like). Thanks! PatH

 

[Doug Brewster]

Yes, you can do this kind of editing on most DVDR's equipped with a hard drive. The obvious exceptions tend to be those that are equipped with Tivo.

One thing you may not be aware of, those commercials tend to provide as much entertainment (and history) as the shows themselves. Sometimes you'll want to leave them in or leave a few of them in. You'd be surprised at the amount of nostalgia they generate.

 

[PatH]

Doug:

I agree with you. I'd probably zap most of them, but occasionally I do find a gem and I would leave that in. Jessica Savitch who's dead now comes to mind. I know I have number of her newsbriefs among my tapes.

PatH