DivX , Xvid, to VHS

[Bez-UK]

Hi guys,

Right I'm completley trawled your forum for a solution to my problem and found nothing that can help. I haven't even found anyone wanting to do what I want instead they usually need it the other way round.

Essentially I'd like to be able to record whats on my pc screen onto a video cassette recorder.

The way I've tried to do this is use the lead that came with my GeForce 4TI4600 that is an S-Video that plugs into my card and has a video composite on the other side. (I think thats what its called its the yellow jack that is on the front of most tv's along with the red and white audio ports.)

I had a scart plug with the three video, left and right audio ports on it so I plugged this into the tv and defined that as another monitor in display settings. This was fine so although some loss in picture quality so I thought I'd try it in the video to record and then god damn Macrovision stopped me explaining it would not allow a recording device. Now alot of other people have had trouble with this getting vhs to digital format and overcome it so I assume its possible my way.

I want to record what goes on, on my pc so I can record divx movies onto vhs. (copyright in mind of course ;))

Is there some sort of descrambler I can by or a technique I can employ to get past this problem? I've been stuck on this for on and off about a year so I'm willing to try anthing.

Also if you could keep answers detailed but in lamens terms as although I thought I knew ALOT about pc's videos are a whole other ball game as the americans say.

Thank you in advance for any help tossed my way :)

[jggimi]

Hello and welcome to the forum!

I searched the forum with keywords "macrovision tv-out" and found some threads that might be of interest...

http://forum.doom9.org/showthread.php?s=&threadid=64508&highlight=macrovision+tvout
http://forum.doom9.org/showthread.php?s=&threadid=62915&highlight=macrovision+tvout
http://forum.doom9.org/showthread.php?s=&threadid=50481&highlight=macrovision+tvout
http://forum.doom9.org/showthread.php?s=&threadid=45243&highlight=macrovision+tvout
http://forum.doom9.org/showthread.php?s=&threadid=32697&highlight=macrovision+tvout

And this post in the middle of a thread:

http://forum.doom9.org/showthread.php?s=&postid=311162&highlight=macrovision+tvout#post311162

Your question is not about analog capture; rather, it's about going the other way. I'm moving it to the PC Hardware/Software forum, which is more appropriate.

[Bez-UK]

while I searched for macrovision and vhs it seems TV-out was the keyword I was missing, many thanks.

[Bez-UK]

I take it back, :D

Not on of those posts help me at all. They all roughly touch on what I'm doing but the solutions offered are to help at all. They mention to try my already tried technique and as I've explained this doesn't work because of macrovision. I'm looking for a way to record movies from a pc DIRECTLY to a vhs bypassing macrovision without using dvd wrtiers or converting the video e.t.c

Is this even possible?

Could I maybe get a PCI card to act as a video out source that would not have Macrovision and would let me record? Can you reccomend a good one?

[fellaw]

Do you have your monitor and the tv-out connected at the same time, using the monitor as primary and the tv-out as secondary in either clone or desktop-enhanced mode? I could bet you do.

And guess what? That's exactly what won't work ever. Why? Because it's the windows media player which is faulty here(especially the DirectShow engine beneath it). It refuses to output the video on other outputs than the primary. All you'll get is a black screen. I think this is microsoft's way of macrovision protection(just block everything because we're too dumb to differ the material :D). Of course, if you are trying to play a macrovision protected dvd, this causes an additional error.

Which version of the detonators are you using? You can't switch primary and secondary if the secondary is a tv or similar above a certain version, IIRC 23.xx.

There are a few ways how to solve at least one of the problems mentioned above: First, try to use TV-Tool. It helps you to get rid of the macrovision function of your card AND you can mark the tv-out as primary. It helps you to get rid of black borders, too. Unfortunately it's not free. If TV-Tool doesn't work because your tv-out chip isn't supported, you can only try to switch to an older driver which allows the tv to be primary. The last option is trying to use the tv-out only: Switch the pc off, unplug your monitor and switch it back on again. If you can see the boot-up screen and windows after booting on your tv, then you're lucky because the tv is primary now.There's a last thing I should mention: At least I had trouble using the tv-out with a vcr only. I couldn't even activate it! When connected a tv to the vcr via RF cable, it worked again.

I hope I could help you with that few hints.

[Bez-UK]

Thanks for your help.

Unfortunately thats not exactly true, I operate a two monitor setup as standard and use ultramon as an extention for doing so. I can literally drag WMP9 from monitor to monitor and it will play on either. The only player that won't do this that I've tried is real player. And I'm not exactly going to loose sleep over that one :D.

I have tried plugging my tv into secondry as you correctly predicted but there was no problem, again it would play on tv although with some quality loss as I said but films were certainly watchable.

This sin't the problem however, The problem is if I then try to do it with a video I get a propmt screen "Marcrovision has detected there is a recording device connected this is not allowed blar blar blar."

I'm using the 45.23 drivers.

[fellaw]

What do you mean with video? A DVD, XVid, DivX, MPEG1, MPEG2, OGM?

If DVD, have to tried to copy the DVD to your HD using DVD Decrypter, Smart Ripper, or whatever you like? Those programs can be configured to remove the macrovision from the video.

But I have to inform you that it might be illegal in your country to use such programs. In Germany it is.

[Bez-UK]

Clearly your not reading what I'm saying correctly. What difference would it make!?

I would still need to transfer the video onto a cassete which is why I'm posting because I don't know how to do it.

lets say my xvid encoded movie of my homemade quake 3 video needs to be transferred to a vhs cassette... how would I do it?

P.s I don't mean to sound ungrateful as you certainly don't have to try and help my and I appreciate that.

[jggimi]

You have described difficulty with recording from TV out due to MacroVision (TM) protection. All links and suggestions are to assist you with that problem.

If that isn't your problem, perhaps you could try to rearticulate it more clearly?

[Bez-UK]

None of those links help. None explain clearly how to get a xvid movie to a vhs cassette passed marcovion thats built into my card. :confused:

[fellaw]

I don't know how macrovision fits into this. PC related videos other than DVD aren't usually protected by macrovision(I wonder if it's even possible with e.g. XVid, though. Maybe someone in here can answer this).

There's a way how to check which software causes this message: GraphEdit! You can download it from Doom9. Just d&d your video file into GraphEdit's window to see which parts of DirectShow are used. If there's one in your chain related to DVD playing, then this is your faulty app. If you don't know which one it could be, simply post a screenshot of the window here.

As I wrote earlier, TV-Tool could also help, because it really deactivates the macrovision of the driver/card. But as mentioned above, you might have to get rid of any DVD decoder in your system.

[Arachnotron]

I have in the past succesfully recorded the output of the TV out of my card (a no-name Gforce MX440) to VHS using TVtool. There is a trial version, which I think is limited to 5 minutes of operation or something like that.

[mustardman]

To get a bit more complicated - I think the tool is "iuVCR" - if the following interests you, and the name is wrong, I will try to find out the real name!

This app (whatever it is) takes any video stream and converts it on the fly to DV and outputs it to an IEEE1394 card. It needs a really grunty computer to do it though!

I have tried this and it works. Took an Xvid with MP3 sound at half PAL res, and output to DV of the correct size. Which could be recorded.

I have no idea what it does with non 4:3 aspect ratio stuff, or stuff with a non-NTSC or non-PAL frame rate?

[Wolfman]

Save yourself the hassle. buy an mpeg4 capable Dvd player, burn your stuff to disk and then playback and record from there (only if its your own stuff of course) £70-£80

[maciek_m]

If you cannot find your solution through the links about Macrovision and TV-out, which seems strange to me, than the only alternative is probably an investment in some kind of hardware.

For instance, I've tried to find a solution for a similiar problem, but with capturing video. And guess what, I have not found anything solving my problem entirely yet. The best solutions offered were based on hardware.