We're planning a move across country in about 18 months. We have a rather extensive collection of commercial VHS tapes and we want to preserve our favorites without buying the DVD versions. Packing and moving this large collection would run into hundreds of dollars.

I understand that most (if not all) have some sort of copy protection built in though I've certainly been able to make copies from one tape deck to another.

In researching the different VHS - DVD machines available, it appears that the only dubbing allowed is from tapes of old home videos or tapes of TV shows; they won't dub commercial tapes.

Based on other research I find that as the original owner of a commercial video or piece of software I am entitled to make an archival backup. Yet there really doesn't seem to be a way of archiving commercial tapes to DVD, which would be the ideal backup.

Can anyone point me in the direction of locating the proper equipment to legally make my own copy of each of my tapes? Would like it to be inexpensive ($200 or less), and fairly simple to connect and operate. Or would I need a "black box" type of setup?

I have a Macintosh 1.5Ghz Powerbook and would ideally like something that can be connected between a tape deck and my Mac via FireWire or USB 2.0. I don't necessarily need a device that connects to the TV but will accept it if that's the best way to go.

Any tips and advice would be greatly appreciated.

-Tod

Sima CT-2 or CT-200 should do the trick.

I guess I would purchase a dedicated home DVD Recorder to compliment whatever VHS player you have, plug the Sima in the video line and recorde from VHS to your DVD Recorder.

A Liteon LVW5005 FW 0098 hacked no Macrovision