My problem:

I've got a kitchen TV that is a combo TV/VCR to save space.  When I try to view DVD's on this set using a separate DVD player and the standard yellow RCA video input about half of the disks yield pathalogic darkening and brightening of the image as well as pretty severe color defects.  At first I thought it was a bad DVD player but I tested out a couple of combinations and it is any DVD player with that particular TV set.

I eventually developed the hypothesis that the video defects were related to copy protection of the DVDs.  Some research on the internet has strengthened the hypothesis in that the description of the video defects that would appear on tape if you recorded one of these DVD's are very similar to what I see on my hybrid TV when I try to watch them.

My ideal solution:

Some sort of signal conditioner that I can place between the DVD player and my TV set to eliminate whatever features of the signal are screwing up my TV set.  Preferably it would be idiot proof and less than $100.   Does anyone know of something like this that actually works?  I have seen a number of products that puport to permit the recording of copy protected DVDs to videotape and, even though that isn't what I intend to do, it seems like if they actually do what they claim it would solve my problem as well.


Another option:

If take the output from the VCR and run it though an rf modulator, will the copy protection signals still be present in the modulated signal?  I do this now with my satellite so I can watch it in multiple rooms so if it will work it is something that I already know how to do.



Thanks!

C'mon, somebody must have a friend that has some personal experience with DVD copy protection.

Thats not the dvd copy protection, thats the plain old macrovision copy protection.

What you need to get rid of it is a video stabilizer:

http://froogle.google.com/froogle?q=video+stabilizer&hl=en&btnG=Search

Quoted: Thats not the dvd copy protection, thats the plain old macrovision copy protection. What you need to get rid of it is a video stabilizer: http://froogle.google.com/froogle?q=video+stabilizer&hl=en&btnG=Search

+1 on it being the Macrovision Protection.

plain old macrovision copy protection.

Exactly!  A customer of ours couldn't play DVD's through their new Pioneer plasma TV's because of this crap.  Macrovision corrupts the signal by creating a set of white and black blocks at the top of the picture.  Our customer had several old very high quality Beta VCR's that had an analog AGC (automatic gain control) that simply couldn't react fast enough to the Macrovision signal corruption so it didn't get confused by the corrupt signal.  After connecting the DVD players through the extra Beta VCR's, they can now play DVD's with their Pioneer TV's just fine.  If you have a 15 year-old VCR, you might be able to connect the DVD player through it to get it to work.  You can also buy boxes that will remove this corruption from the signal, and I've read that you can buy higher quality DVD players that don't corrupt the signal in this way but I've never tried one.z

Thanks for the replies!

I just checked out the video stabilizers.  They seem to range from $40 upto $140.  Any recomendations as to which ones actually work?

An interesting fact - the Macrovision signal is not in the video on DVD.  It's actually generated by the DVD player and enabled by a flag on the disc.  The DVD author has the choice of either using Macrovision or not, and all DVDs do no use it.

If you use a utility like DVD Decrypter or DVD Shrink, besides stripping Region coding it also turns off the Macrovision bit.  Plus most "code free" players ignore the Macrovision flag.  Before I got a code free player or DVD burner, I used a Sima video stabilizer so I could route the A/V from the DVD through by VCR and it worked just fine.

Quoted: An interesting fact - the Macrovision signal is not in the video on DVD.  It's actually generated by the DVD player and enabled by a flag on the disc.  The DVD author has the choice of either using Macrovision or not, and all DVDs do no use it. If you use a utility like DVD Decrypter or DVD Shrink, besides stripping Region coding it also turns off the Macrovision bit.  Plus most "code free" players ignore the Macrovision flag.  Before I got a code free player or DVD burner, I used a Sima video stabilizer so I could route the A/V from the DVD through by VCR and it worked just fine.

I've noticed that many DVD's don't have the problem, but the ones my kids like the most, Disney, all have it.

I will try the video stabilizer.


Thanks,

Who watches DVD's in the kitchen? And furthermore - if someone did, what would they watch? Emeril's first season on DVD yet?

Quoted: Who watches DVD's in the kitchen? And furthermore - if someone did, what would they watch? Emeril's first season on DVD yet?

I like to watch porn while I cook for my girlfriend... Gives white sauce a new meaning.

Quoted: Who watches DVD's in the kitchen? And furthermore - if someone did, what would they watch? Emeril's first season on DVD yet?

Don't knock it till you've tried it.

Also don't knock it till you've tried to keep a couple of hungry kids out from under your feet while you're cooking dinner.   For what it's worth, they prefer Pooh.

DVD Region + CSS Free I'm TOLD is good if ou are making backups of disks that get abused.... but haven't hyad a chance to TRY it out yet... I think I'll have to upgrade Nero :/

Quoted: For what it's worth, they prefer Pooh.

For dinner, or for the movie?

Quoted: Quoted: For what it's worth, they prefer Pooh. For dinner, or for the movie?

That's so wrong.