Problem with VHS and some TV broadcast - Macrovision and not

[Rob.]

Hi all.

I have a problem that has been ongoing for some months now... the problem is that when I transfer some signals from my VHS via composit-in into my AverTV Studio 303 card I get distortion of all kinds.

Here are a sum up on my problems

* OLD VHS-CASSETTES that are worn-out and with drop-outs when watching on the TV, tend to have colour some seconds and then they turn into B/W, and do not return into colour until I've stopped the tape and started it again. These tapes are from the 80s so they SHOULDN'T have been affected by Macrovision

* MACROVISION? I have some newly recorded tapes off TV (SVT, TV3 here in Sweden), and when I try to pass them via the composit-in the picture gets brighter and brighter until it gets unstable and get dark all of a sudden. IS THIS Macrovision?

Does anyone have good soloutions to this problem? I've been thinking of getting a TBC - but a (somewhat stupid) person in a shop called "Expert" here in Sweden told me that a Time Base Corrector wouldn't solve any of my problems and would certainly not take away Macrovision (although he had no idea what it was he hadn't heard it would help me to take away copyright protections!)... He said that it just syncs the audio and video - but that's not the whole truth I believe?

Thanks in advance!

/robin

[flaninacupboard]

yes, the light and dark effect is macrovision. you can buy macro killers relatively cheaply (called video cleaners, or video boosters.)

a TBC may help with the bad videos, but it's worth trying another VHS deck first, TBC's don't come cheap.
If you have a lot of tapes to convet it may be worth buying a standalone dvd recorder with TBC.