How to address anti-copy (Macrovision) errors

chipzoller · Member Joined: 31 Dec 2006 Location: United States

I know this thread is rather old but wanted to add some info. for those who may have professional or studio-quality S-VHS players with full-field TBC.

First, generally integrated TBC does NOT address the problem of Macrovision on VHS tapes. Time-based correction was and is a high-end feature that compensates for poor-quality VHS tapes by minimizing horizontal jitter and some types of interference. So most studio-editing S-VHS players with TBC (Panasonic, JVC) do not remove Macrovision protection and external boxes are required. As was mentioned in a previous post in this thread, some have replaced a few capacitors to correct for the macrovision but this voids almost every warranty (as you can imagine) and if done incorrectly can permanently damage the VHS.

Also, external TBC units don't work nearly as effectively as S-VHS decks with TBC built in.

Some models of cheaper capture cards will simply ignore Macrovision but some of the newer ATI capture cards (with 550 or 650 theater pro chipsets) have macrovision-detection circuitry that will make the capture (or preview) look like massive signal interference, almost like total corruption.

benhoff · Posted: Jan 04, 2007 19:25

Thanks for making my purchase of a switcher for way too much money several years ago, worth something. It has TBC and is sitting nicely under a DVD recorder now. I think I can set it up to blank out the running text and some logos on CNN and other shows. I wish you all had one of these althugh a regular TBC would be a lot cheaper. Thanks again. I'm glad I come here.

How come LordSmurf doesn't come around much? He's great.

imzjustplayin · Member Joined: 30 Jul 2007 Location: United States

nvm

ella · Member Joined: 26 Aug 2003 Location: Israel

Switch with TBC it's cool. Can you tell us exact part number?

Seeker47 · Member Joined: 20 Jul 2005 Location: A State of Mind, USA

ella · Member Joined: 26 Aug 2003 Location: Israel

You are right, sorry.
But still interesting if such thing exists. I use Grex for this purpose. It has interesting feature to switch automaticly to the input where video is present at the moment and stay where untill video exists. After that it starts to search for video on it's composite or S-Video input. This way I can switch between DVD player connected to S-Video and VCR connected to composite video. But I have to turn off DVD to make Grex look for VCR.

lordsmurf · Posted: Nov 11, 2008 22:19

I've updated the list of non-TBC devices -- it shrank.
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