VHS to DVD Recorder

[JohnnyCNote]

I know, it's been discussed before, but I still don't get it. Here's the deal: I've got a few old VHS tapes I'd like to transfer to DVD with my Pioneer DVR. Of course, I'm getting the dreaded "can't record" error because it's protected. I'm trying to figure out what will allow me to circumvent this, but I'm not having any luck.

Will this do the job?: GoDVD! Model CT-2 by Sima

Or does it simply defeat Macrovision and not the other thing? I used to work in video duplication (until the San Francisco earthquake in '89), and the Macrovision we put on tapes was a vertical interval thing. It didn't seem to have a digital component to it - at least no one said it did, but they probably wouldn't have known to begin with. What surprises me is that these tapes are easily 15+ years old, so I wouln't expect anything sophisticated.

What is it that the DVR is detecting?

Thanks....

[hech54]

If you are willing to spend that kind of money....look into this one too:
http://home.cfl.rr.com/filter/

I have one of these and it works great on my Philips 985.

[JohnnyCNote]

Thanks for the info! The Sima is available at Circuit City, which has a good return policy, just in case it "doesn't work" .....

[Melekal]

From what I understood the Sima products are only supposed to enhance the video quality. I've heard many people on this forum comment that this one allows you to defeat the encryption on DVDs and the one just below it allows you to get past Macrovision when converting from VHS to DVD. Honestly, I tried the one for VHS to DVD and it did make it so the message didn't come up about not being able to copy but was so jittery that I brought it back. I had already tried copying with another product that was supposed to ignore macrovision and had the jittery problem there as well. I'm convinced it allows you to still copy but the macrovision is still causing that problem with the shaking. So I just ordered one of the filters from Facet Video that supposedly guarantees to take all macrovision and other copyright protections out. If not then at least it has a 30 day "no questions asked" money back guarantee. Here's the link for that one http://www.facetvideo.com/xcart/customer/product.php?productid=83

[gshelley61]

Some of the stabilizers, enhancers and clarifiers will work OK on MV... but only a full frame time base corrector / synchronizer will strip all copy protection schemes while providing a rock solid playback image. They can be expensive, though.

[JohnnyCNote]

Thanks for all the info!

[Melekal]

Well, I just got the Clarifier from Facet Video and it worked with the Macrovision on one or two videos. However, I found other ones that had more action it tended to drop frames and the video was again jittery. I'm thinking it was the Clarifier since the video didn't have this problem with normal playback. I mentioned them previously because of the supposed "No Questions Asked" return policy but when I called to get the RA number I was grilled on why it wasn't working. Due to this I'm going to just go straight to the full blown TBC to avoid problems. I've heard the AVT-8710 removes macrovision as well so I'm going to try that one. So the return policy for Facet Video isn't really no questions asked.