The Case For Nuking Macrovision in 2024

[Titan_91]

The last time you heard the word "Macrovision" you or a friend were probably copying VHS tapes or using DVD recorders in the early 2000s. Movies protected with Macrovision do nasty things to the picture when an automatic gain control (AGC) circuit in the recording device gets confused. An example of a program with Macrovision is Disney's Tale Spin DVD set.

This is relevant, at least to me, in 2024 because I use a component to RGB converter to watch DVDs on an RGB CRT TV. Unfortunately, Macrovision messes with my converter and causes the same problems as if I were recording with a VCR. The picture gets extremely dark. A side effect of a piracy protection measure whose collateral damage prevents me from playing retail non-pirated DVDs on my own equipment. Fantastic.

Of course I could try a more expensive component to RGB scalar to see if it doesn't have this issue, but I'm not willing to spend that kind of money. And I enjoy trying to repair cheap junk and make stuff useful. I have also tried video cleaners/stabilizers but they didn't fully remove the Macrovision pulses. Instead, I started digging into really old forum posts that claimed certain early turn of the millennium DVD players had the option to (unofficially) turn off Macrovision. One that was often mentioned was the CyberHome CH-DVD 500 and a few Apex models. But, some of the Apex ones with this ability often needed custom firmware via a burned CD-ROM, custom EEPROM, or hardware modifications. And others had this exploit patched mid-production so it was a complete roll of the dice. I didn't see any of these things were needed for the CyberHome.

I picked up 2 CH-DVD 500s on eBay, one for parts and the other "tested and working." It wasn't, so I got my money back and had 2 broken players for the price of a single parts machine. I did this knowing the power supplies would need repair. Got one of the power supplies going with new capacitors, then found the IDE DVD drives were both dead. Not surprising, as CyberHome was not a quality brand. I believe these were only $70 in 2002 prices when new. Fortunately being PC IDE drives, I tried a few spares I had on hand. Pioneer and HL brands work more or less perfectly.

With the replacement drive sorted I tested the Macrovision trick. The process is playing the DVD, stopping it, entering the setup menu, changing the region or video output, then changing the setting back. When you resume playing, Macrovision will be gone. Then the picture looks fine! Ignore the pink screen in the photos, that is caused by the component converter not liking the player's menu screen for some reason (probably because it's a $35 converter).

The Macrovision killing exploit persists throughout chapters, titles, and even when going back to the menu. The player will check for Macrovision again and turn it back on if you leave it stopped for too long. I also used a Sony PVM monitor in its HV delay mode to confirm the Macrovision pulses were no longer there.

[Eric-jan]

If you're able to set the component output to progressive, you kill the macrovision, this works for me with my ES35V and my Intensity Shuttle, where the software also can be set to 576p or 480p (625p/525p) you do get the upper and lower noise for free.

[Cornucopia]

Things haven't changed much in the last few years, but I would recommend what I recommended a decade ago: RIP the dvd. If you truly need to watch it using that system, burn that rip to a DVD+RW/-RW. The process of ripping the disc would have removed the Macrovision flag altogether, so the newly burned disc won't have it it trigger. No need for any special player, firmware, process, etc.

BTW, Macrovision company is not gone - they changed their name to Rovi, recently bought out TiVo & Xpery. They still are sticklers with their IP, but the focus is no longer on analog, and no new tech is being put towards analog, for the simple reason that there is no market for that since nobody is really doing analog anymore (yourself and a few other hobbyist stalwarts excepted, of course).



Scott

[DB83]

I do not know about the above. But it sounds like a fault rather than a fix. Same that some capture devices ignore MV whereas others do not.

Macrovision exists as a means for copy-protection. Given that there are several versions of MV, what works for one dvd may not work for another.


And these copy-protections exist that those not the know cannot copy their dvds.

[Cornucopia]

DVDs being digital, MV does not exist on any of them. What exists is a flag that tells the player to apply MV at the player's analog output. That's why ripping will so easily defeat MV - it turns off/removes that flag.

There are very few DVDs that recent versions of makemkv, DVDFab, etc cannot get around. The great majority of effort being done by Hollywood producers these last few years has been toward beefing up CP on Blurays (HD & UHD/4k), and not working on DVDs, since those are passe. Thus, existing forms of CP are still being used there.


Scott

[Titan_91]

DVDs being digital, MV does not exist on any of them. What exists is a flag that tells the player to apply MV at the player's analog output. That's why ripping will so easily defeat MV - it turns off/removes that flag.

There are very few DVDs that recent versions of makemkv, DVDFab, etc cannot get around. The great majority of effort being done by Hollywood producers these last few years has been toward beefing up CP on Blurays (HD & UHD/4k), and not working on DVDs, since those are passe. Thus, existing forms of CP are still being used there.


Scott

It's just getting around the flag, yeah. I don't even have to rip them, just burn a copy with the Macrovision flag disabled in the VOB files. In fact, there are some DVD ISOs on the Internet Archive I will probably end up burning which would give me a chance to check for and remove those flags. I don't really rip DVDs, I enjoy playing them as intended, handling the discs, looking at the box art, and obviously spending a few hours fixing old players.

Buying entire box sets of shows and movies from 5+ years ago on eBay is quite affordable while collectors are looking to exit the streaming market. I was able to spend $100 and buy something like 8 different volumes of old shows for dirt cheap used. Some were even Blu-ray, many were complete series sets. All of them play, some of them were never even used and discs are in perfect shape.

[lordsmurf]

I don't even have to rip them, just burn a copy with the Macrovision flag disabled in the VOB files.

I think you misunderstand the term "rip".

"Ripping" is extracting container-less or non-standard formatted digital data, into a standardized format that can be manipulated on a computer. Yes, that also means that a DV tape is technically "ripped" (not captured), and an analog VHS tape is "captured" (not ripped).

Re-encoding, burning new copies -- that's the manipulation.

DVD-Video is UDF, which is not standard formatting to computers

When you "rip" that disc to an image (ISO), you can also manipulate it to remove unwanted aspects, including re-flagging.

But the ripped video should be 1:1 copy of the source. It is not, and cannot, be changed in any way.

CD audio is container-less, and the raw PCM audio data must be stored in WAV or AIFF, if not a disc image (ISO, BIN/CUE).

[Eric-jan]

A lot of tv or films are available through torrents , even remastered from Bluray... even ones that where never been released before.... google is your friend...

[aramkolt]

Hmm. I haven't seen component macrovision being discussed much, but you might just try passing the "green" component wire only through any of the common macrovision strippers or "video stabilizers" as they used to be called that are meant to work with composite. I believe 100% of the macrovision signal is in that green wire and the stripper will just see the information on "Y/Green" as a black and white composite signal. This should work theoretically as long as the device works in realtime and doesn't add lag which I believe is the case.

A commercial TBC with VBI (Vertical Blanking Interval) blanking settings and component in/out would also work, but that'll be much bigger (rack mount size usually) and more costly.

[Eric-jan]

Hmm. I haven't seen component macrovision being discussed much, but .

See post 2

[aramkolt]

Hmm. I haven't seen component macrovision being discussed much, but .

See post 2

Progressive is useless for a CRT monitor that needs 480i.

[Eric-jan]

A household tv CRT (which most people had/have) has/had no component input, only RGB in & out or passthrough. For EU mostly..
Maybe US models had at least s-video in and out ?
So different tv-system devices don't mix very well, only when the user knows exactly the whereabouts of the devices, (sellers on the internet sell different tv-system "devices") or choose them correctly, things go like they should.
Also, 480i is already a digital resolution identification, analog resolution is in lines, fields, and frames, Wikipedia has good info about that.

[aramkolt]

Ah yes, I am thinking more from an NTSC perspective where component was the standard and not RGB - but people here like to RGB mod their TVs mainly to get the best resolution from vintage video game consoles that supported RGB (and had no component output).

In the US anyway, there were only two consumer types of consumer CRT TVs that displayed 480p - one was called "enhanced definition TV" (EDTV) and the other would have been HD CRTs but they were really only made in a limited window of time during the HD transition and I'd estimate that they represented something like less than 2% of CRTs in people's homes even when you could buy them.

OP could use a computer monitor to display progressive RGB here, but it gives a different look and feel than a TV in my experience.

Not sure about the international market's progressive CRTs though.

[Eric-jan]

To my knowledge, only LCD/TFT/OLED (flatscreen) can show progressive in a good fashion, my EU combo-recorder manual states clearly only to use interlaced on it's output to a CRT, RGB or component output can't be used at the same time, SCART was mostly used for settop boxes, or adapting cables for gaming consoles, flatscreen (lcd) tv's of the "transition" are also gems, they have, VGA, component, s-video, composite, SCART and HDMI inputs at the same time.