convert VHS to DVD

Guy Fraser guy at incentre.net
Tue Mar 13 16:55:34 UTC 2007


On Tue, 2007-03-13 at 19:35 +1030, Tim wrote:
...snip...
> DRM - Deny Replaying of Material...
> 
...snip...

It can actually be worse than that, some HBO shows also 
include Macrovision in the broadcast signal. Windows XP 
Media Centre detects the signal and will refuse to allow 
you to watch the show once it has seen the signal. The 
Macrovision is not removed from the commercials, so if 
I am recording a non copy protected show, for my later 
personal viewing, and "The Sopranos" commercial comes on, 
the program stops recording. If I am watching the show 
real time, I have to change the channel until the 
commercial is over then switch back. My point is, you 
can not even watch the program trough some PVR devices 
and it even wrecks the viewing experience when watching 
other shows, so why bother producing the show if you 
don't want people to be able to watch it?

It has gotten out of hand, I am going to have to build 
a video stabilizer, to put between my cable box and 
my Media Centre, just so I can watch TV uninterrupted.

I have a oscilloscope and developed a device that allows 
me to view any specific line of video on it, and have 
seen first hand what the macrovision protection is. There 
is no doubt in my mind now why some movies would not track 
properly on some VCRs. The signal varies in amplitude over 
a few seconds which is what throws the AGC amuck, and when 
at full brightness it has a higher "brighteness" that 
a pure bright white signal "whiter than white" and the 
signal pulses "blacker than black" even lower than the 
sync pulses, which trows VHS tracking into conniptions.

It is indeed an evil system that wrecked the viewing and 
audio on many VHS movies and now continues to wreck the 
viewing of HBO television shows, and any show with HBO 
commercials.

I may build one of these projects listed, but had already 
started developing my own project that would just "black" 
the video portion of the single line that macrovision 
uses, ensuring the least degradation of the rest of the 
video signal. Unfortunately, due to the simplicity of what
I am designing it will only be suitable for the removal 
of a single line of video data, and since it will be the 
line occupied by macrovision it may be in contravention 
of copyright laws, so I will not be publishing my design.

Best of luck, for the rest of you, some of the suggestions 
in this tread appear to be good choices.





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