copy protection

[mephoneno]

I just bought a Pioneer DV343 and want to copy DVDs to VHS tape. Someone on the Newbies forum told me that if I bought a Video Stabilizer that it would neutralize the effects of Macrovision copy protection.
He included a web link to the product.
http://www.bgsales.com/vidstab.html

Anyone else have any remarks about this product?
Does it really work?

Thanks for any info, Dave

Quote follows:
<<There is a different method to get rid of Macrovision that is perfectly legal, and you can buy it at many popular electronics stores. It's called the "Video Stabilizer." You hook it to the video source of any macrovision protected material and it gets rid ot it. It works on VHS tapes, DVDs, etc, etc.
This is what the device looks like. It's the exact same model I have as a matter of fact:
http://www.bgsales.com/vidstab.html
Because I have both a VCR, and DVD player, I use it to send my DVD source through composite cables to the VCR, then through to the TV. It makes things easier, since I have only one set of composite inputs on my TV, and I'd have to keep switching cables if I didn't have this device.
Check it out. It's a great product.
Guiboche

[ironwood321]

Why copy them to video cassete? Whats wrong with playing them from the DVD? Its better quality? At least you could record them to Super-VHS. VHS quailty shocking.

Ring up the supplier of the device and ask them directly is it a stabiliser or does it remove macrovision. There are about 2 good macrovision project i've seen on the web that you can build to do this which migth work out cheaper.

TBC (Time Base Correcters) and FS (Frame stores) also accumplish the same thing but are mor expensive.

[silver356b]

I read that a VHS with built-in TBC will do the trick. Is this correct?

[ironwood321]

If its a proper TBC (time base corrector) all synchronisation pulses etc are reconstructed. This should remove the macrovision.

You can get VCR's which have a built in DVD drive. These boast that they can be used to copy a DVD to Tape. So they either copy from DVD macrovission and all to the tape or make a TAPE which contains no macrovision.

[drdarke]

Actually, any full-field TBC or field/frame synchronizer (like what Panasonic uses in their consumer AVE line of video mixers) will do the job. While video stabilizers work *sometimes*, a friend of mine who does a video review show on public access had a LOT of problems w/them. He used to come over to my place all the time to borrow my Sima Products Corp. (http://www.simacorp.com/ ) SFX-M video mixer, until I finally got a new mixer and gave him my old one.

As for the DVD/VCR combos (at least the ones built by Samsung for themselves and for GoVideo), they use a process that doesn't as much "break" Macrovision as it bypasses it. Rather than moving the whole signal (including time base, which is where they embed Macrovision) from deck to deck, they just take the video and audio information and move them over to (allegedly) improve copy quality by providing first-generation time base. OTOH, at least w/the dual-decks built for GoVideo, the record VCR is of pretty cheesy quality to begin with (substandard VHS horizontal resolution, signal/noise ratio that's in the crapper), so the picture isn't that sharp and the colors are kind of blah.

Hope this helps,

[Dauid]

I live in a region 2 country where most people have thier DVD players modified to play all regions. Most of the places here that modify DVD players remove the macrovision at the same time.
The process isn´t very expensive and doesn´t take long.
Go see your nearest audio/video service place and ask them if they can modify your player for you.
In reply to the guy before who asked why not just watch the DVD. Sometimes when you rent a DVD that is watchable but not good enough to spend money on, you simply copy it to tape. Could be an old movie with mono sound and not the best of picture anyway.

[mephoneno]

I went ahead and bought the video stabilizer mentioned in the quotes, below. It arrived, today (about 5 days after ordering) and I have to say that for $31.99 ( s&h brought the total to $37.00) it works pretty well. There are very faint strips across the image that barely show. I tested two DVDs to VHS and am satisfied with the results. I used it with the Pioneer DV 343.

Cheers, Dave



<TABLE BORDER=0 ALIGN=CENTER WIDTH=85%><TR><TD><font size=-1>Quote:</font><HR size=1 color=black></TD></TR><TR><TD><FONT SIZE=-1><BLOCKQUOTE>
On 2001-07-31 15:44:06, mephoneno wrote:
I just bought a Pioneer DV343 and want to copy DVDs to VHS tape. Someone on the Newbies forum told me that if I bought a Video Stabilizer that it would neutralize the effects of Macrovision copy protection.
He included a web link to the product.
http://www.bgsales.com/vidstab.html

Anyone else have any remarks about this product?
Does it really work?

Thanks for any info, Dave

Quote follows:
<<There is a different method to get rid of Macrovision that is perfectly legal, and you can buy it at many popular electronics stores. It's called the "Video Stabilizer." You hook it to the video source of any macrovision protected material and it gets rid ot it. It works on VHS tapes, DVDs, etc, etc.
This is what the device looks like. It's the exact same model I have as a matter of fact:
http://www.bgsales.com/vidstab.html
Because I have both a VCR, and DVD player, I use it to send my DVD source through composite cables to the VCR, then through to the TV. It makes things easier, since I have only one set of composite inputs on my TV, and I'd have to keep switching cables if I didn't have this device.
Check it out. It's a great product.
Guiboche
</BLOCKQUOTE></FONT></TD></TR><TR><TD><HR size=1 color=black></TD></TR></TABLE>

[mephoneno]

I went ahead and bought the video stabilizer mentioned in the quotes, below. It arrived, today (about 5 days after ordering) and I have to say that for $31.99 ( s&h brought the total to $37.00) it works pretty well. There are very faint strips across the image that barely show. I tested two DVDs to VHS and am satisfied with the results. I used it with the Pioneer DV 343.

Cheers, Dave



<TABLE BORDER=0 ALIGN=CENTER WIDTH=85%><TR><TD><font size=-1>Quote:</font><HR size=1 color=black></TD></TR><TR><TD><FONT SIZE=-1><BLOCKQUOTE>
On 2001-07-31 15:44:06, mephoneno wrote:
I just bought a Pioneer DV343 and want to copy DVDs to VHS tape. Someone on the Newbies forum told me that if I bought a Video Stabilizer that it would neutralize the effects of Macrovision copy protection.
He included a web link to the product.
http://www.bgsales.com/vidstab.html

Anyone else have any remarks about this product?
Does it really work?

Thanks for any info, Dave

Quote follows:
<<There is a different method to get rid of Macrovision that is perfectly legal, and you can buy it at many popular electronics stores. It's called the "Video Stabilizer." You hook it to the video source of any macrovision protected material and it gets rid ot it. It works on VHS tapes, DVDs, etc, etc.
This is what the device looks like. It's the exact same model I have as a matter of fact:
http://www.bgsales.com/vidstab.html
Because I have both a VCR, and DVD player, I use it to send my DVD source through composite cables to the VCR, then through to the TV. It makes things easier, since I have only one set of composite inputs on my TV, and I'd have to keep switching cables if I didn't have this device.
Check it out. It's a great product.
Guiboche
</BLOCKQUOTE></FONT></TD></TR><TR><TD><HR size=1 color=black></TD></TR></TABLE>