Re: "Analog Copy Protection??", Part 2

Sorry I didnt read your long message which no doubt looks interesting...
However please be to the poitn when you ask a question... not everybody has
so much time..

If you are asking if macrovision is beatable then the answer is yes. its
very easy. keep googling. there are hardware as well as software only
solutions.



"Kirby" <Kirby@discussions.microsoft.com> wrote in message
news:1EB0B383-B92C-4150-BABB-ED5BAF0BFC4A@microsoft.com...
> Hello all. Thank you to the people who replied to my original post 2 or 3
> days ago. No I don't remember the names of any sites or forums, was just
> doing web searches and quick glance-and-reads for pertinent information,
> moving on in the list of search results. Guess my search terms weren't
> even that great since I didn't find much info pertaining to software and
> hardware, skipped over a lot of links in the search results.
>
> But yes, I now know what I was talking about, thank you for mentioning the
> Macrovision thing, gave me something else for the searches. I've learned
> that it's embedded in the video signal on some pre-recorded VHS tapes so
> that its incoming signal on a recording tape-based device is handled in
> random ways to degrade the video quality. Hm, what a trip ha ha ha,
> remembering now as I think back, now I know what the randomly-changing
> brightness and color quality was all about when I've recorded some old VHS
> tapes that I have onto new tapes so that I wouldn't have to throw them
> away or look for them or buy them again (have two VCR's from a pawn shop).
> The picture quality is degraded but far from intolerable.
>
> So my original questions are -- and now I know how to ask/word them -- is
> this copy protection, or Macrovision, a part of what's recognized or
> whatever by video capture programs or hardware or both?...and what about
> Movie Maker? I'm new to digital video because I've been limited to older
> computer stuff until just now. My Pentium 2 board (350 MHz CPU) went out
> a couple weeks ago, wouldn't boot, even via the floppy, guessing it's the
> IDE controller on the board and affecting it in general. Fortunately,
> it's also just now that my finances are well enough for stuff that's still
> older but up-to-date enough to be called fast and at least semi-modern.
> While waiting for this equipment (CPU, board, vid card), I'm having to use
> an older VIA C3 board, or rather board with C3 CPU embedded onto the
> board, that I found in the dumpster 2 weeks ago still in the computer
> case. Bummer that it's on the way out too, can't use audio or the
> on-board Ethernet or even my printer anymore, even after deleting most
> items in Device Manager for the auto-detect to be re-done when booting
> with this board for the first time. Doesn't shut down Win98 comnpletely
> most of the time and it freezes sometimes too.
>
> What I'm upgrading to is a Duron 950 at 133 MHz bus speed and PC2100 DDR
> RAM (for the 133 bus speed), board supports up to 1.4 GHz CPU's and if I
> understand correctly what I've read at the company's site, 2 GHz with a
> BIOS update or two. The video card is the ATI All In Wonder 8500DV. My
> main interest was getting a kick-butt graphics card even though I'm not
> much of a gaming nut, was a pleasant surprise to learn that the 8500DV can
> do video capture (didn't click for a li'l while that that's what the 'DV'
> meant, duhhh, ha ha). But, it was when reading info about the card that I
> initially came across the issue about analog copy protection and then I
> started searching around. It seems, so far anyway, that this 8500DV card
> will be absolutely worthless to me for video capture abilities if this
> Macrovision stuff is going to be an issue because one of the things I'm
> interested in doing is transferring all of my old VHS tapes onto DVD so
> that they'll last and last....and if that's the case, then it'll just be
> what I was looking for in the first place, a graphics card, and I'll use a
> separate device for video capture when I'm able to find/purchase one. Not
> many tapes but I still want to transfer all of them. I also like to get
> creative sometimes, taking bits and pieces of movies and putting them
> together in a theme-like type thing, illustrating or exemplifying various
> aspects of life and society and being a human being with conviction and
> fortitude in life's issues that have emotional and psychological affects.
> Oh well, anyway, that's a whole 'nother issue....
>
> So anyway, yes now I want to know if this copy protection -- this
> Macrovision stuff -- is an issue with Movie Maker. Or is it in hardware?
> Or is it in both? Or does it depend on the company who makes the program
> or card? And also, can any video capture program be used with any video
> capture card/device, be it external or internal? My curiosity is based on
> how with recording and playing audio, any audio program can be used with
> any sound card. CoolEdit by Syntrillium, Sound Forge by Sonic Foundry, or
> even Windows own cute li'l Sound Recorder program. Doesn't matter about
> the card, any card, any of those programs and any other program can be
> used -- audio is audio. The issues of differences and specifics for any
> one card or program is in the choices that are made in what features and
> abilities to include or not include in the program or card.
>
> Is it the same with video capture cards and video capture programs or is
> it best to use only the program that's included with the card/device? Can
> Movie Maker be used with any capture device....hmmmm, hey that's right,
> Movie Maker comes with WinXP but no capture devices do, so maybe that's
> part or all of that answer. Uhhh, OK, but what about this Macrovision
> stuff and Movie Maker?
>
> And, are most or all vid capture cards and devices and vid capture
> programs affected by this Macrovision stuff?
>
> Or does anyone know?....is this Macrovision stuff common knowledge type
> stuff for a lot of people? If no answers here, then are there any message
> forums anywhere that talk about it thoroughly and knowledgeably with
> relation to computers and video capture? I'm new to digital video now
> finally being able to have and use a computer that's decently modern, and
> I'm looking forward to understanding these things better.
>
> If it would be inappropriate for a particular answer to be posted here in
> this Microsoft/corporate-sponsored newsgroup which <*sighhhh*> no doubt
> has to abide by a whole bunch of surface stuff/policies and where maybe no
> answers can even so much as *look* like they're going against what is
> corporately/officially tolerated as being OK or acceptable, then please
> don't hesitate one iota to e-mail me directly, so much more to life than
> what is so commonly tolerated and not tolerated in the 'pseudo-official'
> world of business-this-and-that and cuckoo corporate politics and
> corporate acceptableness that way too many people let themselves be molded
> into.
>
> Thank you bunches whoever is able to help me to understand these things
> better,
>
> Kirby
>
> P.S. My address is different from when I got this Passport account, and
> I'm also writing it out at length because of the automated address
> scanning that happens in newsgroups. It is the word 'Lifes' and the word
> 'graces' as one word, the '@' character, then 'sbc' and the word 'global',
> with a period and then 'net'.