I am a bit confused. Likely my problem. You mention DVDs and VHS. They are
different media formats, tape (analog) vs. disk (digital). I am assuming
that you are talking about different things but not sure where to draw the
lines. Just so we are sure. You want to record VHS videos onto disk but want
to make sure your DVD player is working because old videos of ball games
play on your player but not computer in either Windows or Linux.

What I am unsure of is, are we talking about a DVD recorder or a DVD player.
If it is a recorder then you likely did not finalise the DVD which means
they can only play on the recorder that made them until they are finalised.
They would not play on any computer or other DVD console. To finalise a DVD,
you need to go to the settings of the recorder and look for finalise. It
varies with manufacturer and machine. I have owned half a dozen over the
years of various makes. That will make it compatible with any computer or
DVD player. If it is not a recorder then I am stymied. I do not think that
it is a codec issue.

The GIMP supports CMYK, RGB, gray scale, LAB, HSV, colour and channel
separation (including alpha channels), GEGL, scripting, colour profiles and
filters (it can even use Photoshop ones). Its biggest problem is limited
colour depth (it supports 32 bit GEGL, but otherwise is limited to 24-bit).
If you want to get higher depth use Cinepaint (32 bit) which is a fork and
is used by professional studios.

See: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/GIMP

While there are features differences with PS, the GIMP is the hands down
feature for $ winner. Most people do not need the advanced features of PS or
even Elements. Only a professional would pay the outrageous price for PS. A
full version costs as much as many users' computers. At least with the GIMP
there is no need to pirate. Elements is okay, but it isn't PS either and it
costs much more than many people want to spend or need. I think the GIMP is
superior to Elements. I am an amateur photographer and artist and I used to
use PS and Illustrator (in my Windows days), but could not afford to buy it
so used pirated versions acquired from schools where I worked. I
rationalised it because every once in awhile I would do a project for the
school, but technically it was illegal. When I moved to Linux, I missed some
applications and PS was one of them. It took awhile for me to get used to
the GIMP, but once I did there was no going back. For an amateur who does
not use Windows it is perfect. I can use Cinepaint and higher end
applications or lower end solutions like Digikam or Krita, but the GIMP hits
that sweets spot where I can do small and big jobs with ease. Everybody has
to find what works best for them. This is only one user's opinion and not
gospel.

I urge users who want PS and are willing to pay for it to use it, but think
that dual boot or VM is the way to go and not Wine. For users who do not
want to dual boot or use a VM and need a powerful application to edit photos
and do graphics to consider the GIMP. It takes some getting used to, so
persist. I read lots of PS tutorials and have yet to find one that I cannot
duplicate in the GIMP, admittedly with a bit more work since I have to
translate PS-speak to GIMP-speak. If the GIMP is not powerful enough there
is Cinepaint which is powerful enough for big studios to use, Stuart Little
and Harry Potter used it to name a couple. If you want 3D then there is
Blender and for Ray tracing, POV-Ray. There are several HDR applications and
speciality programmes. I am not saying open source is better, just that you
get what what you pay for and when it is free that is excellent value,
provided it does what you want. In many cases, in non-free software you do
not get what you pay for and you have to pay every round of upgrades. I
shudder to think of money that I have spent on bad software or software that
cost too much because I was paying for features that I would never use.
Those days are long gone. :)