MacroVision Protected VHS tapes.

[crjackson]

I want to archive my VHS collection using DVD-R. My capture card is the Pinnacle DC10+, and Studio 7 software.

I purchased a decoder device (designed for capturing from DVD to VHS) and the reseller say it will remove any MacroVision from any analog device.

I hooked it all up, and started my capture and fired up the decoder. I found it made the MacroVision (color saturation / flashing) worse than without the decoder.

Can someone point me in the right direction to clean up this MacroVision mess? Everything works perfect otherwise and I'm having great results with the process of archiving (good video/audio quality, except that macrovision is screwing things up).

Thanks,

crjackson

[prot0vision]

Hi There,

Never tried this myself, but if your tv has 'video out' on it, you could try running the signal through your tv, then into your capture card.

I've heard that for some tv's it will strip the macrovision off. Don't play with any of your tv's onscreen controls (volume, etc), or you might end up recording that too.

prot0vision

[crjackson]

Of the 3 TV's I have in the house, none of them has video out.:angry:

[Darksoul71]

Of the 3 TV's I have in the house, none of them has video out.
Sorry, but this is BS. Even my 20 year old TV set had a vid out. Try a SCART to composite adapter.

-D$

[crjackson]

Originally posted by Darksoul71

Sorry, but this is BS. Even my 20 year old TV set had a vid out. Try a SCART to composite adapter.

-D$

What's BS? Do you think I have video out and don't know it, or do you think it's BS that a fairly new TV doesn't come with Video Out?

I promise you I don't have any vid outs on any of my televisions. No they're not that old at all. The oldest one is about 7 years old. It wasn't a priority for me to have such nicities when any of these were pruchased. I didn't anticipate it would be needed.

Other than helping me strip off the MacroVision, I still don't see a need for it.

[Darksoul71]

I think it´s BS that your TV doesn´t have any "IO-connection" to the rest of the world. I mean even my crappy old black and white TV had an old 6 pin DIN AV connector. So all your 3 TVs don´t have any other connection that antenna ?
No SCART ?
No possibility to connect a VCR or satellite receiver ?
I can´t believe this.....

BTW: The easiest way to solve your problem would be a good graphic adapter with VIO. All my NVidia cards (Asus V6600 Deluxe, MSI GF3 Ti200 VTR, MSI GF4Ti4400 VTR) can capture MV protected material without problems and even my fairly new MJPEG capture card from electronic design (a small german company) works fine with MV material.

-D$

[crjackson]

Two of them have video inputs, but no output connection and one has only a cable/ant. connection. Funny thing is that the most limited one is only about 3 years old...

[tenebrenz]

It's probably that Europe / America technolgy divide. Most European TVs can handle NTSC these days,even cheap ones for £100 stand a good chance. Most video recorders can play NTSC tapes back as PAL60. Whereas in America PAL just isn't supported by virtually all manufacturers.

I expect it's the same kind of thing with connections, I'm sure they don't have scart in America, probably just video/audio phono sockets or something.

[UGAthecat]

about video out on USA tvs...
Through some copy protection agreements the television and movie production studios tell tv mfgs what to put on tv's in the USA. From about 1992 on you could not buy a tv in the US with video out (unless it is really high end, or from a really low end company that is under the radar of the production studios).
So basically collusion between hollywood, macrovision, and hardware mfgs have screwed us into only having AV inputs, and audio only outputs.
The way I understand it, this came about because hollywood found out they weren't going to be able to obliterate Fair Use copying of VHS tapes through the government (at that time anyway), so they decided to do it through hardware. I think the only reason hollywood doesn't force macrovision protect TV signals is because it would require FCC approval (cuz it would change the synch pulses on the signals).

If anyone knows more, or can say for sure I'm wrong about any of that, I'll gladly take a flogging :) and consider you correct, cuz all my memories on the subject are from my fuzzy headed teen years.

[crjackson]

Thanks Guys. At least now I know why none of my t.v.'s have video outs on them.

The industry got their way with me. I managed to find a copy of this 10 year old movie on DVD and just bought the thing (Total Recall). I guess I can trash the tape now.

BTW, the quality of the picture isn't like a new DVD release. It's exactly like a new tape, and no better than any of the movies I've been able to transfer to DVD from tape (so far).

[robpea]

I have a SIMA color corrector that handles and removes both forms of Macrovision. The original, and the Color striping found on DVD outputs.

It also has some color corrections. From the specifications it indicates it has 550 lines of resolution. I don't know what the SNR is, but from what I've read it is near 50Db, so it will introduce a bit of noise in your caps.

Neither of my WinTV and DC30 cards support Macrovision, both just strip it, so I mostly use it to watch DVDs through vcr on the kids TV.

I picked mine up for $85, do a search for "Sima Color Corrector" and you should find it.