btw since I have your attention,. is there
a way to record from the computer to a device
or drive or flash key or something?

Record what?
[]

Likely to be "screen recording".
[]
I used to make miscellaneous VHS tapes with
all sorts of programs on them. With the advent
of DVD's I've lost those programs. I've managed
to find some of them online on YouTube etc. and
would to record them somehow because I've found
that over time some links no longer work and the
documentary can no longer be found, at least in
the original version.

Robert

If you're talking about capturing video from external sources, then
you'll need extra hardware - unless you've got a particular kind of
multimedia PC that already has it. Almost anything currently available
will _probably_ manage: old SD video (especially NTSC) isn't
particularly demanding, and VHS is even more bandwidth-limited. Expect
to be disappointed by the quality though - it's amazing what we put up
with (or even didn't notice!) in the VHS era. (The difficulty might be
finding a working player, especially one with hifi sound if your
recordings had that, to connect to the hardware!)

If you want to capture video from websites that contain it, such as
YouTube, that's a different matter: the main point is that general
"screen recording" software isn't particularly good at it - it mostly
can't capture at better resolution than the screen window, will capture
mouse movements and computer noises, and may even just record a black
(or green!) rectangle for that patch of screen.

This subject has been discussed recently, and will be again. I'll
mention the two I use: usually I try with the version of DownloadHelper
that works with my old version of Firefox (27.0), and that actually
works in most cases including most YouTube (the free version that works
with modern versions of Chrome is less satisfactory - in particular it
doesn't work with YouTube at all, and will only let you record at
maximum resolution once every couple of hours). The one that I think has
so far worked with everything is youtube-dl: despite the name, it
_doesn't_ only work with youtube. It _is_ commandline, but unlike most,
if you just use it in default mode, thus
youtube-dl URL
where URL is the address of the page containing the video, it'll work.
(It does have lots of extra parameters you can use if you want, but you
really don't have to.) Note: paste (the URL) into a command window with
alt-space e p - hardly any typing required.
--
J. P. Gilliver. UMRA: 1960/1985 MB++G()AL-IS-Ch++(p)Ar@T+H+Sh0!:`)DNAf

Old professors don't fade away - they just lose their faculties.



Paul didn't think there were anything good
out there that worked or if it did it came
with adware.

It seems to have a high review rating but I
checked the reviews and seems some people
have a problem with it.

I checked up and this is an add-on to FF is
this free or something I have to pay for? How
does the video get stored? Within DownloadHelper
itself or can I select my HD?

Thanks,
Robert