Digital Bits Technology Column QnA

Question:

When our son played high school football during 1987 & 1988 I recorded the FM radio broadcast of each game on to VHS tapes and then I added TV highlights at the end.  As a present to him I would like to transfer these tapes, 20 more or less, to preferably DVD’s.  With 20 years plus age on these tapes I would like to do so while they are in reasonably good condition.  I have a Sony RDR-GX7 DVD recorder which I have used to copy VHS tapes that have both audio and video as well as tapes from my Sony Hi-8 camcorder to DVD’s with much success.  However, my dilemma is that my VCR will not produce a recognizable sound track of the audio only portions of the tapes to transfer.  I have a Dell Dimension 8400 with plenty of capacity with CD and DVD burners, Sonic programs as well as Pinnacle software.  Also I am considering buying DVD/VCR combo to replace one of my VCR’s that just died.  Can you offer a procedure including equipment to complete my task?
 
Thank you for any advice you may be able give me.

Continue reading ‘VHS to DVD conversion questions’ »

Question:

I have bought a Honda civic 1997 make with factory built CD player system ( make: Gathers). it plays only original CD not MP3 format, wav format or any other.

Continue reading ‘How to burn CDs so they’ll work in older CD players’ »

Question:

Why do so many (older) DVD ROM players balk at playing DVD+R discs?

Dubbing my old VHS tapes to DVD format (new sony dubbing deck that will record on ALL DVD formats) and although I had heard the safest bet was to use -R to insure compatibility with most DVD ROM units I had some +R lying around. Both of my DVD ROM players are a few years old but one did come with Cyberlink Power DVDxp so it isn’t THAT old. Both of my boxes stall whenever I try to play one of these +R discs and I usually have to restart.

Continue reading ‘Older DVD and CD ROM players can’t play newer discs’ »

Question:

After recording a casette and transfering the album into ITunes, I burn a CD. When I play it back in my car player, I cannot select tracks. If I click the player to advance to the next track, it justs advances the track I am playing. Is this normal?

Continue reading ‘Problems playing iTunes CDs in a car CD player’ »

Question:

I have read your tips about spotting a pirated DVDs but I still have unaswered questions:
 
1) I have seen many single DVDs containing from 5 up to more than 10 movies, with captions like ‘5 in one’, ‘8 in one’, ‘13 in one’ etc. Are there legitimate DVDs like those?

Continue reading ‘Pirated DVD movie identification’ »