Samsung R-120 help

Hi All

I'm spending a couple of weeks visiting relatives and my mother has bought
a Samsung R-120 to convert a load of old art Videos to disk, which she
wants me to do for her.

The problem is the Videos play fine through the R120 (VCR -> R120 -> TV)
but as soon as I try to record, it boosts the brightness rendering the dark
pencil lines on the white paper almost invisible. For most things it looks
OK, just a little bright (possibly a little con trick to give the
impression of improved quality) but for pencil drawings it renders the
output useless.

Any ideas how to turn this off or work around it?

-J