Old LiteOn DVD Recorder - Disabling Macrovision in VHS

[asano]

Got an old LiteOn 5002 DVD Recorder that I've been using to back up my old VHS tapes but I've come across a few now that feature macrovision/copy protection (mainly NTSC vids but my PAL vhs plays NTSC fine).

I'm sure there was a hack for the LiteOn to remove copy protection but that was 7-8 years ago, all that info is kind of outdated now (I've searched) so what should I do?

Is there a little black box gizmo I can plug in to remove the macrovision and more importantly that can be picked up relatively cheaply in the UK? I've tried a couple of things that didn't work already (HQ Copy Decoder, Scart Macro Remover Leads).......

Any help greatly appreciated folks!

[jman98]

DVD hacks that removed Macrovision did so ONLY on the DVD they were playing. So whether your memory is correct or not is irrelevant to your situation. And if such hacks really did exist for your player, someone somewhere (us for example) would still have it around to be found but it wouldn't help your recording. By the way, this kind of hack was actually pretty rare although there were a few made in China players that could do it.

You need a TBC (Time Base Corrector). Someone else will have to advise you on specific models you can buy in the UK.

[asano]

Well that saves me hunting further for that hack anyway - cheers mate.

[tonypeter]

Got an old LiteOn 5002 DVD Recorder that I've been using to back up my old VHS tapes but I've come across a few now that feature macrovision/copy protection (mainly NTSC vids but my PAL vhs plays NTSC fine).

I'm sure there was a hack for the LiteOn to remove copy protection but that was 7-8 years ago, all that info is kind of outdated now (I've searched) so what should I do?

There is a hack you looking for on this site under DVD Hacks, whether it works I don't know. Additionally there are hacked firmwares for LiteOns that will do what you need. The best bet would be the DigitalFaq forum, they have a whole bunch of them for different LiteOn models, maybe even for yours.

I have LiteON 5045 and I installed a hacked firmware years ago and it works. The recorder is region free and macrovision free, and I used it for protected VHS tapes and it worked fine. Good luck!

[Henderson]

The only realiable way I know of to copy a protected VHS tape is to use a video stabilizer which connects on the video cable between the VCR and your DVD recorder. I copy old VHS tapes all the time to my Lite-On DVD Recorder (DD-A100GX) using one and it works great.

The 2 I've used firsthand that I know work well are the Dimax (still in use), and MCM Electronics Digital Video Stabilizer 80-4280. I had a problem with the one by MCM at first, but it turned out to be defective, and the company replaced it.

Oddly enough my old music video VHS tapes aren't copy protected at all, those copy straight, go figure. So I wasn't even aware I'd have any problems until I moved onto copying old movies and then had to hunt down a solution.

Edit: Here's a thread where I originally got help on how to copy those stubborn VCR tapes. The MCM unit requires a battery, the Dimax needs an electrical connection, that's the only reason I've been using the Dimax over the MCM. I'm in the US though, so not sure if the Dimax would be a problem for you, unless there's a convertor you can use for the electrical connection.

[robjv1]

Got an old LiteOn 5002 DVD Recorder that I've been using to back up my old VHS tapes but I've come across a few now that feature macrovision/copy protection (mainly NTSC vids but my PAL vhs plays NTSC fine).

I'm sure there was a hack for the LiteOn to remove copy protection but that was 7-8 years ago, all that info is kind of outdated now (I've searched) so what should I do?

Is there a little black box gizmo I can plug in to remove the macrovision and more importantly that can be picked up relatively cheaply in the UK? I've tried a couple of things that didn't work already (HQ Copy Decoder, Scart Macro Remover Leads).......

Any help greatly appreciated folks!

The Lite-On hacks did in fact disable Macrovision permanently (I had the LVW-5005) when copying from VHS tapes, although people had issues with jitter caused by them in some units (most suspected due to the LP mode hack, but since your unit has LP mode already, I believe the hack for that is not applied). DigitalFAQ has a good repository of the original firmwares, but unfortunately the rest do not seem to be archived on the internet -- including your unit. I believe you can hack the firmware on your unit though as long as it is the right version -- the issue is finding it, as I don't believe it can be extracted from the unit itself.

Edit:

You might want to check out this thread: http://club.myce.com/f89/ilo-liteon-smart-firmware-hacker-124298/index3.html

And this tool: http://ilohacker.tripod.com/