The other day a close friend of mine told me a story about his father. His father has hundreds of hours of video that he recorded on VHS tapes and wants to preserve these recordings for long term archival purposes. My friend said his father would like to convert these tapes to DVD and he was on the verge of recommending that his father invest in a home theater PC, despite the fact that his father has never been a computer user.
I started looking around, and there are a number of options short of buying a home theater PC that will probably do the job quite well.
One of the more interesting options I found is the Sony VRD-VC10 DVDirect External DVD Recorder. This is a device designed simply to convert incoming video feeds to DVDs. You can connect a videocamera or VCR, insert a recordable DVD disc, punch a couple of buttons, and the DVDirect starts the conversion process.
The DVDirect converts video in real time. This means that converting a 30 minute program on a VHS tape to DVD takes 30 minutes.
I think the key to the value of a device like the DVDirect is the simplicity of it. There is a very limited number of options that can be selected from the front panel. You can do conversions with the DVDirect without having to connect the device to your TV and your A/V receiver. I think this is an advantage for people who have sophisticated home theaters but are not themselves technical.
On the other hand, the DVDirect is a fairly limited device in the sense that it does only one thing well. Some people may balk at paying over $250 for a device that they may use for a month or two, then put aside. If you are planning to continue recording programs and archiving them, you probably need something more sophisticated like a DVD recorder component or a home theater PC.
I’m not sure my friend will be happy to hear that a device like the DVDirect is available and is so simple compared to home theater components with DVD recording capabilities. I think deep down he wanted to find a reason to get his father using a computer, even if it’s a home theater PC. The truth of the matter is that devices like DVDirect make a computer unnecessary. Whether his father wants to get a PC anyway is another issue.