Recording a DVD on a cassette/dvd player

I've got one of those Magnavox combo cassette/dvd units that play either pretty good. The dvd is also a recorder and it records good from an external cassette player. What I'm trying to do is convert my VHS cassettes to dvd and it just won't do it. By the way, the external cassette player I was referring to is an old 8mm camera.

So, I play the cassette and it shows up on the tv and I hit 'record' on the dvd side of the unit and all the dvd is recording is the tv, ie, whatever channel happens to by playing 'behind the scenes' so to speak.

Does anyone know if its possible to even record, on dvd, the cassette being played in the same unit?

It's a Magnavox MWR20V6 and the owners manual doesn't address this that I can find. My other thought is to buy a cheap cassette player and plug it in like I did the camera. Thanks all...

Follow the instructions on page 39 of the manual for "dubbing mode" If they are commercial tapes like hollywood movies and such they are almost certainly copy protected and you will not be able to copy them or get a very distorted picture when you do. If its home videos or other stuff you recorded then it should work just fine.

If you want to record commercial VHS tapes, you'll need to deal with the Macrovision signal, which will require either a time base corrector or a pre-Macrovision VCR (think garage sales).

Note that this is of somewhat questionable legality.

Thanks guys. All of my tapes are 'home made' so I'll try the dubbing mode.