Macrovision. Enough stupidity left over to frustrate genuine tape archiving in 2024 yet genuine pirates laughed at its presence.
The machine laughed at Macrovision. You could copy tapes all day long to another machine. Or did I use it as destination? Either way, if any mates wanted a copy it was easy.
Many years ago, I chased down an Apex DVD player specifically for the very special hidden "YOU SHOULD NOT BE HERE" settings menu.
It must have been the case then with any cheap off-brand vcr, because I dubbed literally everything I rented. Eventually I didn't have to go rent anything. I never saw macrovision cause any issue whatsoever.
watched a thing about how Macrovision worked and remembered how Sears' house brand VCRs/VCPs were relatively immune to it because they left out the fancy gain/tracking stuff the system used to fuck-up copying
I have an old PC system w/TV tuner, still hooked up to a VCR. I have an old VHS movie (rare theater documentary), never released to digital format, that I finally decided to convert. Took HOURS of troubleshooting to get it to fire up again and then figure out how to get around the macrovision. /1
Flores do Ipê Branco no jardim - White Ipê flowers in the garden! #ecossistema#macrophotography#macrobrilliance#macrovision#macroperfection#featured#top_macro#macro_delight#macro_fread#macro_mextures#kings_macro#bns_macro#macro_higlight#thehub_holic#naturelovers#presercationnature
When DVD players came out, Sony (model DVP-S3000, I think) was found to have had two dipswitches in it that a) turned off Macrovision and b) made them region-free. Wish I’d kept mine.
In retrospect, the courts sided against Warner Bros in that 3rd party case, and I think Sony (and Disney) in the VCR case that let us tape shows. Two anti-corporate rulings. Corporations moved to things like the 10NES chip and Macrovision copy protection.
