Clarifiers, TBCs and Red Thingies...

[jimmalenko]

Put the canopus inbetween your source and destination. I think you need to hold the input select button down for 20 seconds and it is meant to disable macrovision.

Try a forum search

EDIT:

Try this

[JohnnyCNote]

Is there any way to get around this MV problem for less than $100? The few tapes I have don't justify paying more than that....

[Wingpal]

Sure, Sima model CT-2 from Best Buy..........

[JohnnyCNote]

Unfortunately, it's $129. I tried one from Circuit City for the same price and it wouldn't work on all tapes. Some still "flickered" when I tried to record them.....

[nixie]

The Sima CT2 shows up on Ebay for about $60 open box. The CT2 gets rid of all macro and CGMS, but it is not really a true TBC or noise filter. If you have jittery tapes, they may not go through the CT2 smoothly. That may be the cause of the flicker you are referring to and not the macrovision.

The CT2 has two chips in it. One converts the incoming analog video to digital. The second chip converts the digital back to analog while keeping the CGMS and Macro control bits in the chip turned off. I'm assuming the first chip can convert analog to digital without being disturbed by the macrovision.

[nixie]

There are some old RCA VCRs from about ten years ago that are immune to macrovision. The sync and chroma electronics in some of the older VCRs were such that they weren't sensitive to macro.

[budz]

Put the canopus inbetween your source and destination. I think you need to hold the input select button down for 20 seconds and it is meant to disable macrovision.

I've read the newer versions of the advc-100 can not disable macrovision with holding down the button. I've tried that with my unit and it didn't work on one of the few vhs tapes that has macrovision. I used to be a betamax tape whore!

There are some old RCA VCRs from about ten years ago that are immune to macrovision. The electronics in some of the older VCRs were such that they weren't sensitive to macro.

Yes, that is true of the older vcrs such as PANASONIC. Also BETAMAX vcrs could either eliminate macrovision or they didn't have it. I can't remember for sure so someone can correct me on that.

[vhelp]

It's ben a while since I dabled w/ my past capture cards
and VHS tapes w/ MV on it. But, I can't recall it ever
being an issue w/ my WinTV-GO card (Hauppague) and
a few other Analog capture card.
.
I think that most boxes like ATI (and specially their Analog
cards) are nortoious for preventing by saying "Hello"
to MV for you - usually in stripes. Anyways.

Another experience ...

On another box I have ben testing $77 - ADS 's DVD Xpress
did not exhibit any MV issues. My model is the Rev.2
I was quite taken by the quality (from a commercial VHS tape)
It was as clean as a whistle (no Line Noise, hehe) Anyways,
just toying around. This is a Hardware MPEG-2 device, and works
great through USB-2 connections. And, great for quickies (tv
shows and things not too important) Anyways.

-vhelp

[arealgijoe]

I bought a Sima CT2 at best buy and it works great, so I bought a second one. I ahve recorded about 50 DVD-Rs using a Sansui VCR-DVD dombo and Panasonic DVD recorder, using a variety of VCRs and DVD players for the source. I did not read anything about the CT3 CONVERTING formats that I recall. Just that the input can be either PAL or NTSC and the output EITHER PAL or NSTC as selected by teh switch. In fact there was another customer there looking for a PAL/NTSC converter at teh same time. I read over the packaging and told the other person it did not sound like it was capable of such conversion.

For $130 it works great for removing VGMS and macrovision, so far. I set up a seperate copy/dub station in my office with the VCR connected to the COMP input, S-video connected to the DVD player and use the CT2 to switch video inputs.

I was reluctant to spring for $200 or more for one unit. I travel between my place in michigan and florida and want to be able to have copies available so I can watch some of my movies w/o transporting them back and forth. That can be risky, my previous car was totaled on I 75 last april in tennesse and a lot of things were damaged. FYI I was between Chatanooga and Knoxville doing about 66 or 67 mph in the right land and still got slamed HARD from behind. The other driver was crazy or on dope, she told the sheriff her invisable(?) DOG prevented her from changing lanes and she was 30 miles away from her destination (near home) going teh wrong direction!

=JD=.

[Xyscaling]

Squeeze in here to ask a quick question.

I've got the "older" Sima, Model SCC, how does it rank?? Does it do any TBC?? I know it sure helps with Macrovision from VHS and DVD.
Thanks, Tom

[nixie]

I have the older SCC. My SCC doesn't get rid of CGMS and it doesn't get rid of all the macro pulses. It leaves in the false black level pulses. It didn't remove macro on my tapes that had these black level pulses, which cause the screen to appear dim.

It does reinsert the color carrier, so it should get rid of the macro color stripes.

The SCC is handy for balancing the colors on old home movie tapes that sometimes have a green hue or some other color.

I traced some of the circuitry in the SCC and it mainly uses analog switches to sharpen up the existing sync pulses. So, it's not really a TBC. A TBC usually has frame memory and reinserts video into a new internally generated sync. The SCC doesn't do this.