How can you tell if tape has Macrovision??

[oldfart13]

I tried to cap a commercial tape (though it's an old one) and got a green screen with a little bit of video on top showing. I have:

ATI All In Wonder 128 Pro AGP 16 Meg
P3 1Ghz Intel
512 Meg RAM
ASUS CUSL-2 MoBo
30 Gig Maxtor HD 7200 rpm
capturing to Virtual Dub 1.4c

If it is macrovision, is there any way around it?

This was my first try at using Virtual Dub to cap an entire tape. I used the spill drive and multisegment but what I'd really like is to use only the 30 Gig drive as it's the only 7200 in the system. Can I just set VDub for multisegment with the settings 50 Meg min. and 1.9 Gig Max and remove the spill drives?

Another problem I've noticed is that the picture is shifted to the right by a few pixels and the bottom has a thick line (like a horizontal hold problem with a TV). I'd like to correct this if possible before I actually do the cap. Any pointers?

Any help muchly appreciated.

[Bstansbury]

If it is a commercial tape of a few years back it porbably has Macrovision encoded with it. The real test is to get a second VCR and hook it up to your VCR output and try and record it their,... just one or two minutes will tell you. What the typical syndrom is,.. clicking or snapping of frame size, audio distorstion, twisted video frames, rolling, and just about any other defect that would render the copy totally unusable.

[kwag]

Check this site.

http://btwincap.sourceforge.net

Not sure if you're card is supported.

I have a Hauppage WinTV GO and a Phoebe card. Both work perfectly with these drivers. Macrovision is ignored with these drivers.

Hope this helps.

[oldfart13]

Well, SOME of the tapes I want to cap are DEFINITELY Macrovision. I've tried playing them on my JVC SVHS deck onto a Sony 27" TV and have seen the colour banding (even on B/W movies) and scene brightness shifts. Yet, playing them on my old Hitachi SVHS editing deck results in a superb picture on playback. Unfortunately, that old editing deck doesn't have a TBC or else I could just turn it on and get rid of the old sync track, thereby rendering Macrovision inert. My only option will be to examine which tapes I want to cap that have no Macrovision (quite a few actually) and do those first and leave the rest until I can come up with another solution. Changing the drivers has been suggested, however that will result in several of the ATI programs I use to be rendered inoperable. Not a good solution unless I build a new capture only computer. In that case, I'd just buy a card or USB capture device that bypasses the Macrovision entirely.

Your suggestions have been noted however and I'll pass them along to others who may be interested.

Anyone tried the hardware Macrovision defeat "black boxes" advertised in many magazines? Any good? Examples?

Thanks in advance.

[Pied-Piper]

Use Stinky's Registry Tool to disable ATI Macrovision detection.

[WizyWyg]

Just find an old beta machine, and record them to beta's.

Beta's dont detect macrovision ^_^

[setagames]

um it might be your vcr... mine is pretty old about 6 years
and i can copy every ive tried so far...

[ColtWalker]

oldfart13: Yes you have experienced ATI’s built in Macrovision detection. By default, a video capture device wouldn’t care if the VHS tape had Macrovision copy protection. However, ATI took it upon themselves to purposely build into their software or drivers a routine that specifically detected Macrovision, then acted by not allowing the user to capture the source. Your “top portion” is one result, another is frame repetition, which is what I experience with my piece of junk ATI All In Wonder Radeon. If I had known that they had Macrovision detection built in, I would _not_ have purchased their product! There should be some type of disclaimer on the box if they are going to do that! I have the legal right to archive my old fading VHS movies that I paid for already.

Workarounds suggested here:

Pied-Piper suggested “Stinky's Registry Tool to disable ATI Macrovision detection” Even Stinky himself admits this tool usually does not work. It did not work for me and this suggestion is basically useless.

WizyWyg: “Just find an old beta machine, and record them to beta's” This suggestion is also useless. The Beta copy will be fine, but the Macrovision is still present. When you try to play the Beta tape and capture it to your computer, you will have the same problem. In addition, you will also have lost additional quality being as you will be on your third copy from the source.

And it is not your VCR that is the culprit. I have also tried the black box solution. The Black Box works great for video dubbing from one VCR to another. But it usually does not solve the problem with ATI AIW video capture. There is still just enough of the Macrovision left even after going through the Automatic Gain Control defeating properties of the black box that ATI AIW will detect Macrovision and it will purposely refuse to capture your video source correctly.

I myself am still looking for a working solution. The best thing I have come up with so far is to rip the ATI AIW out of my machine and throw it out the window! Sorry :o(

I would like to hear suggestions from someone that actually _owns_ an ATI AIW and has successfully defeated the Macrovision rather than from a bunch of people that are clueless and just shooting in the dark, no offense intended.

[WizyWyg]

WizyWyg: “Just find an old beta machine, and record them to beta's” This suggestion is also useless. The Beta copy will be fine, but the Macrovision is still present. When you try to play the Beta tape and capture it to your computer, you will have the same problem. In addition, you will also have lost additional quality being as you will be on your third copy from the source.

Oh and that's such bullcrap

I own 5 beta machines, my newest one being only 5 years old and I copy all my DVD's to beta since BETA is superior to VHS. I've copied many of those betas back to VHS and no macrovision at all.

I've copied VHS to beta, and BETA back to VHS. No macrovision. Copy those same VHS to VHS, voila, macrovision.

Dont know where you're pulling that crap, but Macrovision can't be copied from one source to another.

Since BETA is digital to begin with, the quality doesn't suffer as much as trying to copy from VHS to VHS. or VHS to Computer. BETA to Computer rivals any VHS to computer quality.

[resnullius]

i have an ati 64ddr vivo i use stinky's tool and i have not had a problem with macrovision.

[oldfart13]

Beta is not digital. Maybe you're thinking of Betacam, that metal tape format used by newsgathering outfits. I have had Beta equipment for over 20 years now (I have a Sony SLHFR70 and 200 decoder sitting not more that 12 inches from my hand as I write this). You will get generational loss when copying from the VHS to the Beta at any rate. One solution I've had the good fortune to fall into recently happened when a friend decided to finally clear out the junk in his electronics service shop. He gave me several boxes of prerecorded Beta movies (around 200) that he no longer wanted. A handful of them are ones that I was trying to copy from VHS and ran into the macrovision problems. I don't think any of those tapes have any copyguard on them so I should be able to cap them no problem. I think I'm just going to have to bite the bullet and do what a number of people are doing and just get a DV camcorder and pass the video through it into the computer via the firewire port. The expensive part is that camera but at least then I'll have another tool for my videography hobby. Going the cheap route with ATI is just becoming too aggravating. Buy their graphics cards. Forget their capture cards...

[twonabomber]

Just find an old beta machine, and record them to beta's.

Beta's dont detect macrovision ^_^

i've got an old Sony SLO-325 Beta deck. tried copying just a quick clip from the DVD (and VHS) onto the Beta, so i could dump it to the ZR-10, and it came up with the "copyrighted material" message. no dice that way, either.

[oldfart13]

Sony, who also (as we all know) owns Columbia Pictures have got all the DV Cam makers to add Macrovision circuitry to all their camcorders. I checked manuals for Sony, JVC, Toshiba, etc. and they all say that passing a Macrovisioned tape signal through the camcorder via the A/V inputs will cause the camera to stop operating! What utter BS! If you had the thought of using the DV cams for just such a purpose you can forget it. Looks like I'll have to find another way to save those old VHS prerecords to disc...

[SHS]

ATI have buildin macrovision.
oldfart13 the green line is most like lee your VCR head is out of line or the tape it self didn't get record rigth or VCR is eat up the side of the tape you may want check over the tape.

[CubDukat]

A safe bet is that all of the major studios use Macrovision on both DVD and VHS. Before, there were a few holdouts, but now they're all on board.

Also, there are two separate versions of Macrovision. There's the original form, which causes the blinking and flashing of the picture. That one can be easily defeated by boxes like the Sima CopyMaster (easily purchased at Best Buy). The second one, Colorstripe, is not as easy to kill. This one is almost exclusive to DVD, and according to Macrovision, is undefeatable.

Your best bet is to get one of those CopyMaster boxes and use them. There's a slight loss in signal quality, but it's a small price to pay

[nemesys777]

I had the exact same problem with macro vision. I have an old ATI AIW 128 Card. I used "stinky's" Macrovision fix for ATI cards and it worked for me. I have recently captured 3 previously macrovisioned movies. They all turn out great. I reccommend trying the patch. The link is:
http://64.80.22.253/stinky/MMC_Reg_Tool_Final.rar
Get that and then unzip the file inside the .rar called "DisableATIMacroVisionProtection.zip"
Hope that helps you out.

[oldfart13]

Been there, done that. The file when run says patch already applied. It still isn't working for me as the card caps the first frame and makes the rest a green screen...