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

From: Graham Hughes, MVP Digital Media (graham_at_simplydv.co.uk)
Date: 06/29/04 

Date: Tue, 29 Jun 2004 21:07:12 +0100

Little long for me to read it all in depth.
Macrovision as you have already said is programmed in to the signal, not
hardware or software.
Not looking up the card, if dv stands for being able to capture video then
it will probably be digital video and not useable for analogue.. just my
guess unless it has vivo.
Your analogy with sound card and capture card is not quite right, closer one
would be sound card and ohci ieee1394 card, which will work with all dv
components and editing apps.
Analogue capture is a totally different ball game and much harder to get
right without spending lots of money.
I wouldn't bother with making dvd's so they last. VHS tapes will no doubt
last longer than any home burnt dvd's so far.
Graham. 

--
Graham Hughes
MVP
www.simplydv.co.uk
www.dvds2treasure.com
"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-*** 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'.