Sharp DV-HR300U DVD Player/Recorder with 80-GB Drive
Cannot convert VHS to DVDs - very user-UNfriendly manual
I bought this primarily to convert old VHS tapes to digital format - to DVDs or on hard drive before going to DVDs. Seems it is useless for that so I am bummed. What should one do if one wants to preserve old VHS tapes - they seem to have some kind of copy protection system that doesn't allow you to use your own tapes to be converted to DVDs. SharpUSA.com website says you cannot connect this DVD recorder to a video recorder. What a shame - and by the way the manual is VERY hard to make sense of - fine if you have tons of time but not user-friendly at all. No INDEX, nothing. I am very disappointed. I am seriously thinking of returning product unless some guru can tell me how to make DVD out of your old VHS tapes using THIS RECORDER (or give tested advice on a different recorder). My eperience with DVDs has been bad - just as generally with computers - extremely shoddy technology with a mountain of hype - waste of time and money. I may revise this review later - but so far my recommendation is to research more and go with something else. Panasonic quality is better though they have format issues. This one causes flicker on TV whereas Panasonic did not, on the same TV screen. Also, don't buy Lasonic products - very cheap with tons of functions but useless junk.