I have a bunch of old video tapes that I need to convert to data/dvd and I was wondering if it was possible to hook a dvd recorder up to a computer to record, instead of just recording straight to dvd.  If it's not possible to go straight to data then is there a good program out there that I could use to rip video from a dvd?

If you're looking to convert VIDEO TAPES, you can hook that up to your machine and use some programs to rip that in, though it might need a TV Tuner card (I know my brother's done it, just not sure on the specifics).

Your post is confusing because then it mentions ripping from a DVD and I'm not sure what you're trying to rip from.

Ok, sorry about it being confusing.  I need to copy the video from the tapes either to dvd or to my computer.  Either is fine, but copying to my computer is preferable.  I'm going to buy a dvd recorder to do this as the video camera is from 1997 and doesn't have usb or firewire out.  I'm just wondering if there's dvd recorders out there that I can hook up to my computer so I can go Camera -> DVD Recorder -> Computer.

Hmm, that's interesting, I didn't think of doing it that way.  Thanks for the suggestion, I'll look into pricings.  But I'm still curious as to whether I could do that with a dvd recorder.

AFAIK, you would not be able to do it with just a DVD recorder alone, you would need the DVD recorder, and the TV Tuner card (to get the video from the DVD recorder).  So if you already have a VHS player, it would be cheaper to just use that with a TV Tuner card.

Alright, cool.  Thanks for the information.

If the tapes you have are like home movies, places like blockbuster offer a service to put vhs and other kinds of tapes onto DVDs. It's something that would be more convenient if you're just doing this as a one time thing, and you won't have to mess with capturing/converting/burning. It would save a tremendous amount of time if we're talking about a large volume of videos.

Actually, it's a small amount of home videos.  Not even two hours total.  But my aunt wants to get a dvd recorder so I was just wondering what my options would be.  I've found a few local places that do video transfer but she's not intersted in that so I guess she has plans to copy over more home videos in the future or something.

Edit: My aunt has decided to buy something like this.  She only wants to spend enough money to get the lower end model, so that means I'm going to need a ripping program to get the video off of the dvds and into an editable format.  Are there any freeware ones out there?  Or is this something that's fairly illegal, even when used in this manner?

She only wants to spend enough money to get the lower end model, so that means I'm going to need a ripping program to get the video off of the dvds and into an editable format.

What does ripping DVDs have to do with what model you get?

I was under the impression that certain models would only be able to copy video from a source and put it straight to dvd.  More expensive models copy the video to your computer and save it in an editable format letting you do whatever you want with it.  So if my aunt bought a model that puts the video straight to dvd then I'd need a program to rip the video off of the dvd in order to edit it.  Although if I'm wrong and all models let you save the video in an editable format then I'll be fine.

Yes, they all save it to your computer first. No video capture programs can burn to DVD on the fly.

Ah, ok cool.  In that case, I already have everything else I'll need to edit it with.