VirtualDub Complaining Falsely About Copy Protection

[Teshia]

I have an old videotape I taped off PBS in 1982. It's really old and it's not in good shape, but it's just a taping off TV, not a movie, and so I find it very unlikely that it would have any kind of copy protection. Yet, when I try and capture it in VirutalDub, it stops the capture everytime the picture gets too crazy and complains that I'm trying to capture from a copy protected source. This is insane, it's just a tape off TV, it has nothing to do with copy protection. How the hell do I get around this? The tape is already in enough bad shape, I don't want to wait any longer to back it up.

[Teshia]

Another related problem I have is this... I have some other old tapes, not QUITE as old as the one I mentioned above, but old nonetheless. They capture, but not well. There's a horrible blur at the top of the screen. Any way I can compensate for this using some form of software? Here's an example of what a frame looks like, you can see the blur - it's typical of old VHS tapes.

http://www.interzone23.com/fun/badvideo.jpg

[BJ_M]

you have a problem with old video that is common . smearing , time problems and a few other things .. normally you would run the machine through a time base corrector and video stabilizer/color corrector first before capture ..

i dont know your capture card but different ones can somewhat be compinsated for this (a little).. another solution MAY be to either run it through a dv cam first or tape copy it to dv first .. at the least are you sure the heads on your machine are clean ?

[Teshia]

The heads are clean and the tapes play much better to TV through composite video cables and coax. The image seems to not be as stable through composite video on the capture card for some reason. Are there any filters in VirtualDub that can help me? How do I stop it from complaining about copy protection when the picture goes too crazy?

[BJ_M]

did you try another cap program ? direct vidcap or something like avi_io (which i like) ..

[Teshia]

I don't know what either of those are. Where can I find them?