20 Most Recent Philips Magnavox MWR20V6 DVD Recorder/VCR Questions & Answers

You would need a tv tuner on your pc's graphics card, then you could hook up the vcr with an adapter and record the vhs to your pc, then you would have to burn that to dvd. I don't think you can go directly from vhs to dvd, without an actual device (where there are those that do that.) ADS Tech's $100 DVD Xpress DX2. The DX2 has a video converter that can accept composite or S-Video signals. It converts these to digital format and sends them to a PC via a USB connection. It comes with Ulead VideoStudio 9 SE DVD software for editing the video.

Good luck!

all dvd players are region free when you first buy them, they set the region themselves, after 5 dvd's have been played on them. So if you had a european dvd player and played 5 USA dvd's on it , it would lock to the USA region and you would be unable to play european dvd's on it. Exactly what a friend did many years ago when he bought a load of american dvd films from someone and played them on his brand spanking new dvd player :)

its the copy protection system doing this. if you have another dvd player or vcr, you can hook that up to a time base corrector box and run the output out of that to the dvd recorder, allows recording from any source.

This is similar or identical to another post, but here is an answer...

Hi, I have a solution you can try.
I had exaclty the same problem. When I tried to play a tape it would load (However, I recall I had to push hard to get the tape to be accepted, which is part of the problem) but would shut off after about 12 seconds, then when I powered back up the tape would eject. Finally I took the unit completely apart and attempted to use it with the covers off. Lo and behold, I found I could play a DVD on the unit without the unit powering off, but only if the room lights were on! If I tried to play a tape it would shut down the unit. So that led me to diagnosing the infrared loading and reel sensor circuits.

Background on that is there is an infrared LED that shines up through a plastic light pipe lens. The light from that LED (you can't see it) should shine on two photodiodes that are on either side of the tap mechanism, plus down through a gear with holes in it on to the reel sensor. When there is no tape inserted the two photodiodes will be illuminated and have about 0.2 volts across them. When a tape is installed the light will be blocked and the voltage goes up to above 2.5 volts across the diodes. You have to check this with the room lights dim as the diodes will respond to that light. When you block the light on either side of the plastic light pipe with your finger (with the unit disassembled) you should see the load motor engage, and it will back off when you take your finder away. For some reason in my unit the light from the LED was insufficient to turn on one of the diodes, and also to pulse the reel sensor when the gear turned. That could be due to component aging, or even if the light pipe started to cloud due to age, I don't know. However I was able to get the thing working...

In short I got the unit working by adding 3 resistors.
To do this you'll have to remove all the covers and remove the main PCB from the bottom chassis, unplug the power supply from the PCB, and the two ribbons going to the DVD unit. But you won't have to take off the VCR assembly, which is a pain. You just need some basic soldering skills, and remember where all those screws go...
First, I adjusted the voltage across the right-hand side load sensor diode to get the diode to switch on and off. I recall that I added 1meg across the diode. So the voltage then went from about 0.5v up to 2.8v from light to dark condition.
Second, I increased the current to the IR LED. I added a 330ohm resistor across the feeder to the LED. I recall that was R511 and was originally 220ohms. That was not quite sufficient to get the reel sensor working reliably. I didn't want to stress the LED by putting too much more current through it so looked for another idea.
Third I added 56k across the reel sensor diode to bring the voltage across it down so it would switch on and off as the reel sensor gear turned.
I now have a tape playing continuously in the unit and it seems ok for the time being. Hope that might work for you too.
Craig Townsend

The illustrations within the PDF is very help!
To play disc in other DVD players…
The disc needs to be finalized.
Page 37 of the manual has “Finalizing a disc”.
Recording from DVD to VCR…
Page 39 “Dubbing Mode”
http://www.funai-corp.com/support/manuals.aspx
Type in the box: MWR20V6

It may be a timer setting after a power problem. On page 90 of the manual there are setups for the timers My VCR won't do things without the time set either. The manual may be downloaded here.

http://www.funai-corp.com/6pdf/om/MWR20V6.pdf

Basically get into the setups and set the time and hit enter. I hope this works.

Sounds like a dry solder joint or an overheating component, both will likely be in the power supply....Phil

I have no direct experience but you should note no recording will take place unless the signal format is suitable/compatible. HDMI is a digital signal and your VCR/DVD will probably require an analogue signal. A tv processes the digital into analogue but sockets at the back of tv sets tend to be input only. A minority of tv sets have two scart sockets, the second one usually providing an output sound and video of what is playing on the tv at the time. I believe it is possible to buy a box that will convert digital to analogue or vice-versa.

Before anything, I would attempt to see what the E1 code signifies. But usually when those things just shut themselves down it is because of a serious problem in the power supply. I think it is time to go shopping.

check the hours your set to record. if your only getting 4 tapes done, expand the number of hours may need new recorder