Viability of cheap VHS capture

[spoRv]

AFAIK it SHOULD bypass Macrovision...

[crissrudd4554]

Is there any particular devices/machines for that you recommend??

[spoRv]

Nope. I again reccomend to ask for help on videohelp (or doom9 as alternative), as there are real experts there, with much more experience in term of piece of hardware known and/or tested.

[crissrudd4554]

I did ask on videohelp. The response that seemed most helpful was this.

"The real fix for this is TBC as jagabo mentioned, but you'd need to add a device to remove the copy protection if you'd like to use DVD recorder passthrough."

That's why I'm hesitant to go this direction though to be fair I'm still waiting for the HVR 950q tuner to arrive so perhaps I should just wait.

[spoRv]

Yes, just wait. And let us know what will happen. Meanwhile, do your homework, and search and study about TBC, Macrovision and so on...

[crissrudd4554]

Ohhh trust me I am. Here's a few sites I've been looking at.

https://arstechnica.com/civis/viewtopic.php?t=309957

http://www.avsforum.com/forum/106-dvd-re...-tape.html

http://www.ecoustics.com/electronics/for...49784.html

[crissrudd4554]

My 950q today. No dice. Still got the fuzzy signal although something did catch my attention, at least enough to convince to keep trying. Check this out. Here's a 950q capture on the Panasonic VCR in my living room.



Note that the top portion of the image is for the most part ok?? Now here's a 950q capture from the General Electric VCR in my bedroom.



Pretty interesting huh?? Perhaps after a few paychecks I'll give 955q a spin.

[spoRv]

Maybe it's the tracking - if it's automatic, as I suppose, you can't do anything... to test this theory, try to capture another tape, *maybe* tracking would work better.

Another problem could be the heads are dirty, try to clean them with the proper tape cleaner, or, if you are courageous, open up the VHS recorder and clean them with the hysopropilic alcohol - NOT the "classic" pink one!

Last issue I can think of is that the heads are consumed - after thousand hours it could be the case; if you bought it new, only you can know how many hours of operation it could have; if used, well... probably a lot!

[crissrudd4554]

I could be wrong but I don't think it's the heads. The tuner I used in this case looks identical to the EyeTV tuner I was having difficulty with yet if I use Dazzle and other programs I don't get that staticky look. For example that screengrab from Empire Strikes Back I shared a few days ago was captured on the same VCR that the first image above was captured on. So IDK. Guess I got tinkering to do. Another thing I may wanna try 950q on my Sony VCR at my other place just to see how that looks too.

[crissrudd4554]

I guess things don't change. This was why I was hesitant to post over at VideoHelp. Keep in mind I hadn't responded in there for a few days but anyways I got this post tonight.

"I haven't responded because this post annoyed me:

Originally Posted by crissrudd4554  
Keep in mind I had never heard of TBC until just two days ago so my limits of knowledge on the matter might be making me think into this too much.

Post #6 in the thread you linked in your OP, to which you replied on 31 Jan 2016. He later told you that your Panasonic doesn't have TBC. In this thead you posted a photo of it, saying "I don't know if it has TBC or not but then again I don't know what TBC is."

I enjoy helping people, but you've got to hold up your end too. Re-read the threads where you have asked about this in the past, research what line and frame TBCs are, what Macrovision and removers like Grex are, then post back if you want to proceed."

The bold is where he linked to a thread on here where Jerryshadoe had mentioned my VCR does not have TBC. However the post in question was over a year old so how was I supposed to remember that??