Video Playback / Recording Devices

I have a Sony BDV-N790W for just shy of 2 years. Always worked great everyday until the other day! It stopped working, would not eject the DVD it had and no menu either! Anybody know anything about these? Apparently it's a common problem. I called Sony, of course it's out of warranty, and they said I would have to ship it to Texas! No other place closer! They couldn't even tell me how much to look at it, pitiful! Sony sure isn't making it easy for their customers! Any help would be appreciated, thanks for your time.

Any suggestions on how best to transfer some recorded shows from Frontier Fios DVR to external storage or pc?

I would like to copy my leagle paid for, commercial copy protected VHS tapes to DVD-R. I have a DVR, but get the copy protected message. I fully understand, and respect, the protection laws and making illeagel copies, but this is not the case, i just want to protect my big library.Is there any inexpensive device I can to apply to the decision of this problem?