Transfer from video tape to DVD

Hi everyone

I don't know if what I need to do is legal - so please bear with me. If it's not, I assure you that I'll not go any further with this.

I had a Video Tape bought for me at Christmas and it doesn't come in DVD format. My video player is dying and I'd like to transfer the tape to DVD. A friend has a modern video player and, whilst I can watch the video there, I need to make reference to it frequently as it's an instructional video.

I have a Vaio laptop (XP Pro SP2) with built-in DVD writer so can I just get a lead from the back of the video player to the laptop and copy over that way? What software would I need?

As I said above, if this isn't legal then I'll stop before I start but I figure that, as I have the orginal tape that was purchased and I just want to make one copy for my own use, it *should* be OK. A DVD format of the tape doesn't exist and, so far as I'm aware, there are no plans to release one.

Thanks in anticipation.

you'd have to ask pemission of the copyright owner of the tape first, that's what i'd suggest

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Actually, I believe this is covered under fair-use.
So, does your laptop have a video in connector? They usually don't-most come with some form of Tv-Out, but few have an in connector.

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I don't see a video in connector anywhere but there is a firewire, two USBs and a serial port. Does that mean that I can't do it via my laptop? Is there any sort of adapter - perhaps via a PCMCIA card - that I could use, assuming that you're correct regarding the legal situation. I'm in the UK and am not familiar with "fair-use". I assume that this is something that's well-known in the US.

Well actually, in the UK 'fair use' is even broader.
See, back in the early 80's there was a court case, where a bunch of television studios got together and sued the VHS manufacturers because people were taping their programs, which irritated them because they could fast forward through commercials. So, they sued. And the long and short of it was that the judges made a decision that people were well within their right to make copies of broadcast programs, and also, that people could copy movies they already owned with the caveat that these videos were only used for personal entertainment/reference, what you will. NOT to be resold, re-broadcast, or publicaly displayed. The same thing applies to music, and software in the US. In the UK, your goverment has even looser laws on whats fair-use, and whats not.

Anyway, back to your problem.
There are quite a few firewire capture cards, such as these- http://www.tigerdirect.com/applicati...asp?CatId=1424

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Thanks - that sounds great and falls in exactly with the logic in my head! I've had the tape bought and only want to make a single copy for my own use rather than produce many illegal copies to rent or sell. VHS format is dying and the producer of the VHS tape seems to think that a DVD format isn't forthcoming.

I'll look into the firewire route to connect to my laptop. I had a brief look at the page you suggested but will check things out in further detail this weekend.