Sima SED-CM Video CopyMaster (Discontinued by Manufacturer)

If you are considering purchasing this thing to make copies of commercially made VHS tapes to DVD, don't waste your time or your money because it is essentially useless for that purpose, the resulting copies are horrible, grainy, and with jittery lines in the picture, etc. Some people say this thing will remove the Macrovision protection which is responsible for the wavy lines and such, but forget it, it will not, at least not to any kind of acceptable degree. As far as I know it is legal to make a backup copy of original tapes that you own, for your own personal use under the "fair use" provision, just as you can make an archival copy of computer software, as long as it is for your own use, and not to sell etc. The only reason I gave this thing 2 stars is that it might prove useful for transferring home videos to DVD although I have not tried that yet.

Awesome, now I can record programing from the Verizon Fios box to the Magnabox DVD recorder. Not HD, composite and S-video only.

I have spectrum cable and using a toshiba dvd recorder, there were certain channels nbc, syfy, and usa that I could record off of. Enter this beauty and hello it works now I can record stuff I couldn't before. Highly recommend!!! Wonderful device!!!!

Did not work had to return it.

This decoder comes with a warning label that it is unlawful to use it to copy VHS tapes that are copyrighted, but the warning is wasted because they have manufactured it so as not to work anyway. This is a useless device. Mine is in the trash.

Product was received in good shape and easy to set up. However it did not remove Macrovision copy protection. I was only able to back up 50% of the VHS tapes I owned onto DVD

First off let me say That I have owned this product for 5 or 6 years now, or at least since it first came out. It was made at the time and for the time of recording VHS movies from one VCR to another. When it was first out DVD's were just being markeded and an average junk DVD player was no less than $100.00 If you wanted anything back in that day to help you copy and back up your VHS movies, this was the product!! It took the Macrovission right out! And made the picture in my opinion look better if not exactly like the original. But keep in mind that it was your VCR doing the recording, all this little box did was take the copyright protection out. With out a nice VCR your recordings will always be bad. But with a good player and a good recorder this product was the best. Years have passed, and most people own DVD players now, and day to day more and more people are getting home DVD recorders. Now that we have DVD's and DVD recorderd we want to start backing up our old VHS to DVD right!?! Of course but unless we are burning Warner Brothers VHS movies, select New line, Paramount and Trystar older than 95 we have that macrovission problem. If you wanna Back up an Old Disney VHS for the kids, you can forget it!! Disney doesn't care about anything but how much money they can squeeze out of you, this is why all and every Disney flick since the begining of time has the best in protection money can buy!! CAn this product take care of it? Yes, it can, but only for VHS to VHS. If you want this product to copy your VHS films onto DVD, it is just far to old of a product with all the wrong filtering. This product was great in its day, but as everything moves on, and gets better we all have to do the same. So I have been told that if you do want to Burn your movies either VHS or DVD to your home DVD recorder you are really wanting to get a product called DVD Red PRO. look that up and I am sure you will like what it says.. I have been "backing up" my movies all my life, trust me, I know my electronics, if you have any questions about burning, recording, or anything that has anything to do with the sort feel free to ask me any questions. I got an answer for you!

Finally! This unit allows me to make safety copies (for personal use-nothing illegal here) of my VHS and DVD library. It effectively overrides copy protection, allowing me to record commercially produced VHS and DVD titles to my VCR and DVD recorder!