This is kind of off-topic from the technical discussion in this thread, but I wanted to just throw in a comment here to the OP... fnub, if you're thinking about starting a VHS transfer service, I'd recommend reading the "Video Hobby vs. Profession" series of articles that were published here a few months ago. Article links are on the DigitalFAQ home page, but here's part 1 of 3 -- http://www.digitalfaq.com/editorials...hobby-work.htm

I was gung-ho about starting a VHS-to-DVD service myself about a year ago, but even without having the insight given in these articles (they weren't published yet) I slowly came to many of the same conclusions. It's a big undertaking, and to do it the right way is no simple task. I saw in one of your posts back in February that you said you liked this forum because you "knew very little about decks..."

Not trying to discourage you, but I just wanted to caution you so you don't put the cart before the horse and start offering services and find yourself in over your head. Even with my technical background as an electrical engineer I eventually decided against going the business route, and just bought what I needed to transfer my family's own tapes and perhaps a friend's here and there as a favor.

That being said, I'll let everyone get back to the technical discussion :)

There's actually a 4th part that's been mostly written, but isn't 100% finished just yet. ;)

The irony is that months of video work has prevented me from writing the conclusion editorial on the topic of video work. :o

The last one will cover the education, certifications and costs involved with doing pro work, even at a low level. (You won't need certs until you try to work in somebody else's studio, forensic lab, etc.) Let's put it this way: it's cheaper to buy a small sedan than it is to setup a one-rack facility capable of doing quality work. A lot of people make the mistake of assuming their home VHS collection is representative of the entire VHS format. But that's not how it works -- there's a wide variation amongst tapes you'll receive from customers. And that's just VHS.

I'm sitting on a stack of guides, editorials and articles half-written. Time to finish should be available soon.