Macrovision Protection on NVIDIA Video Cards

[Cunhambebe]

Hi there...I've got a doubt here. One of my friends who lives in Brazil has recently bought an NVIDA video card. She says all NVIDIA cards have been released with the Macrovision Protection since 2003, blocking the video output for TVs (through the TV connection output). She says if she connects the TV output to a VHS recorder, the image keeps turning from black to white. She would like to know if there's a workaround for this "problem". Thanks in advance.
Please take a look at: http://www.theinquirer.net/?article=8425
Cheers!

[guns1inger]

Most (all ?) of these cards ship with s-video out, and a strange adapter that has a standard s-video connection at one end, and an RCA at the other. If you plug the RCA into a composite input on your TV you will get black and white as the colour information doesn't make it through the composite port. PLug it into an s-video connection (using an s-video - s-video cable) and you will get colour.

Macrovision, if enabled, will only come into affect if you are playing a DVD that has the macrovision flag turned on. Even then, you can usually disable this through a hack to your playback software.

[Cunhambebe]

Thanks so much my friend. I don't use this kind of stuff that's why I didn't know what to tell her
Cheers,
Mark

[thecoalman]

Macrovision, if enabled, will only come into affect if you are playing a DVD that has the macrovision flag turned on.

It will if the tapes are in "bad" condition. I had the same issue with a FX5950 with VIVO. The quotes are because it will play fine in a VCR, even playback fine on your computer but the captured file will have a white bar across 75% of the video. In my case it popped on and off as hit certain parts of the tape it misinterpreted as MV.... Don't know if this applies to a TV broadcast though.

The WDM driver version 1.08 doesn't have MV detection enabled. This driver is impossible to find on the Nvidia site..... Except here:

ftp://download.nvidia.com/Windows/23.11/WDM_1.08.exe

Note: I have used this succesfully with my 5950, don't know if there is any compatibility issues with newer cards. Use at your own risk. This BTW will produce subpar captures compared to the newest drivers.

Ultimately a TBC or some other external device is the best solution.

[skeg64]

coalman, the question was about MV coming out of the card, not being played into it.

[Faustus]

I remember some sort content protection that keeps some stuff from displaying out to the TV correctly under windowsxp. But only happens with a bad driver or something.

What I'm saying is, I had some strange errors updated drivers and was fine.

[thecoalman]

coalman, the question was about MV coming out of the card, not being played into it.

Ahh I see says the blind man... According to the article the OP pointed out:

He said he had contacted VisionTek, which made his card originally, and got this response. "This is a bug in the drivers that we have addressed with Nvidia. We hope to see them fix this in the near future. You should continue to use drivers prior to the 41.09 series for complete functionality."

Those drivers are available from that FTP as well, AFAIK they should work because Nvidia drivers are supposed to be fontwards and backwards compatible with any card. You'll be reducung the functionality of a newer card by installing older drivers though. Again use at your own risk.

ftp://download.nvidia.com/Windows/

[Cunhambebe]

Thanks to all for the help. You know, drivers and everything.....isn't there a player (software) that is able to skip this protection?
Thanks.