Posted by john graesser on 10/03/05 18:43

"FatKat" <robynari@juno.com> wrote in message
news:1128362015.437385.263470@g44g2000cwa.googlegroups.com...

> Since a lot of recording is still done with old fashioned VCR's, why
> doesn't this copy-protection apply to them as well? I mean, if they
> can block DVD recorders which record using anallog tuners, why
> shouldn't the same be true of VCR's?

Perhaps for the same reason that Betamax format vcr's were immune to
macrovision. They were designed and built before the protection was added.

I use a vidcap card in a computer for my DVR. I also have a patch file that
is supposed to remove the code that allows macrovision to work, I still
haven't tried using it since nothing I record has macrovision, but if shows
start coming over cable with macrovision then I will try the patch. Programs
like DVDdecrypter already can remove macrovision from DVD's when the movie
is ripped to the hard drive. If you then want a vcr copy (for your vacation
home without a dvd player) you can make one with the tv out of your video
card into the tv in of your vcr.

If you worry about DRM (like I do) then buy your equipment now before the
blocks are put in place, then later on you can still record any signal that
your old equipment will still respond to. Newer format signals like HD and
its successors will still be blocked from copying.

On a related note, I tried cutting and pasting text from a website yesterday
and was surprised when IE announced that the text was copyright and wouldn't
copy the text. I had to manually retype the info that I needed from the
site, this is the sort of user unfriendliness that the world is going to. I
didn't try using IE on my win95 box to see if it was blocked as well, I
don't know how far back Microsoft wrote that code into IE.

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