Hi All,

Some DVD's that I have give my Predicta the dreaded re-trace lines from copy protection or whatever. I see a couple of home-brew projects out there but time is at a premium for the next few months and I would rather find an off-the-shelf solution. Would this work?

https://www.amazon.com/XDIMAX-GREX-7-4-Grex-Video-Stabilizer/dp/B0096I2DNE

A bit pricey but if it works I'd be happy. Any other available options welcome, including buying one used from one of y'all.

Thanks!

From the description, it does what you want.
Definitely buy through Amazon so you can return it if it doesn't work.
Have not seen this particular unit before. Some other ones I have seen in the past (and have had) had a tendency to degrade the color burst a bit, and older sets might not like that.

Well, I went ahead and ordered it. I'll let you all know if it works. Is this type of retrace line uncommon? I would have thought this crowd would have a "go to" solution like the BT modulators for RF signal generation.

Macrovision is hidden in the vertical sync bar on a few lines as a white line signal of varying intensity. It dips below 100 units IRE and the recording unit's sync passes some video for a bit until the line floats up to around 140 units of video. Above 100, the recording unit's automatic video level kicks in and tries to crush the video back to 100 which also crushes the recording sync level down below usable and the picture falls apart. Some recorders have Macrovision sensing inside and give you the "cannot record" warning. These adapters usually just reinsert new sync on the transmitted signal. RF is not the problem, it is doing its fine job getting the signal there.

Well, it works great! I'm sitting here watching The Streets of San Francisco which formerly had the dreaded retrace lines and it looks great.

:banana:

No picture degradation that I can see. Totally eliminates those annoying retrace lines. No we'll see if it holds up over time. But so far so good!

:thmbsp: Thanks for the report!

Im glad its working for ya buddy!!!!!

Better get one quick before the gov't makes them illegal.
I tried using a broadcast type proc amp to clean up the vertical interval and it didn't work.
Its says it works for DVDs also. As I understand it, there are several styles of copy protection used over the years.
So, I suppose it works on all of them???

I have no idea what copy protection schemes it works on. All I know is that some of my DVD's used to have the issue and the ones I have tried since I got the device work fine. But I have no idea what protection the DVDs I have use or if they are all the same or what. This week I'll try all the DVDs I have that had the issue.

Many video production switchers of the day would either discard and rebuild the vertical interval, or allow you to do a 'wipe' that excluded the source's vertical interval from the switcher's output.

Some full-frame timebase correctors, freeze-frame units, or frame synchs did too. All of the above are pretty cheap nowadays, though they do chew up some real estate and electricity.

Not sure what the scheme of these newer devices is but Macrovision in the day sued bunches of mfrs to get them off the market. Some settled and some sold out to Macrovision. Macrovision morphed in to Rovi in 2009 and became a software and analytics company and in 2016 bought TiVo as they exist today. Part of the Digital Millennium Copyright Act (2008) contains language banning devices made specifically to thwart Macrovision type devices.

Having analog-video-specific language in the DMCA seems somewhat comical. Almost as much as having the corporate remnants of Macrovision now owning TiVo, the groundbreaking DVR device.

Chip, it is comical now but was strangulation in the day and a world-wide agreement. The TiVo remnants today are a genius reinvention of a name. If you use Facebook you are using some of their analytics. But your new TiVo is a third-party hardware now.

And another analog copy workaround is a vintage Betamax. They re-inserted sync just fine. Use one as a pass-through even if it does not play.

During the days of Macrovision I worked in a large video production/post facility. Spent as much time making sure it worked for our customers as I did 'managing' it on customer playback equipment... the same ones who insisted we have it run thru Macrovision. Also making sure that it didn't kill closed captioning signals, which are on line 21/field 1 (mostly). A somewhat level-sensitive data signal nestled one line away from a deliberately wacky video signal.

Good tip on Betamax for those in need.

Have a couple no-longer-used satellite/SD TiVos, plus the ever-popular Replay TV just for good measure.

Many video production switchers of the day would either discard and rebuild the vertical interval, or allow you to do a 'wipe' that excluded the source's vertical interval from the switcher's output. Isnt it amazing how it didnt affect the tape it was on??

How did they ever figure that out???

Not sure I understand your comment, but when playing a Macrovision tape thru a switcher, the tape is just a source, and nothing is modified on it during playback. If you wanted to preserve the switcher's modification of the signal, you needed to make a recording of the switcher's output.

The only machine/format that could modify the signal that was actually on the tape would be a digital format, for example D2, which had a pre-read function. By playing with the signal flow from the various heads, you could read-before-write and do things like add titles to an existing tape. Preview copiously, because once you press record, you're committed. Like jumping off a cliff with a parachute; you might land safely, but there's no turning back.

I'm curious about the "Many video production switchers of the day would either discard and rebuild the vertical interval, or allow you to do a 'wipe' that excluded the source's vertical interval from the switcher's output. "

Would such a device make it easier for the set to sync? And presumably strip out any offending additions to the blanking interval?

It's standard practice in vision mixers (production switchers in the US) to replace the entire sync and blanking interval. This ensures that the output has consistent sync, burst and blanking. Hence VBI information will not normally pass through a vision mixer.

Same is true in a SDI environment. If a system needs to pass embedded packets these are normally passed through a sidechain. Often decoded and re-encoded.

Most timebase correctors will also replace the entire sync and blanking interval. Back in the 1990s/early noughties I designed a number of TBC/frame synchronisers for G2 Video Systems. We weren't supposed to mention that they would effectively remove macrovision. Our official line when asked about macrovision was "not something we've considered or tested". This was actually true, we hadn't thought about it in the design and I'm not sure we ever ran any formal tests. It's just people found that it did remove macrovision:)

Hence both vision mixers and TBCs will usually remove macrovision.

While these professional devices will actually remove Macrovision, it's a high-overhead way to do it, in terms of size, complexity and power.

In my years of captioning in the analog domain, I often had to guide editors through the task of modifying video content without disturbing existing captions. That led to the 'wipe from line 22 on down' technique of preserving the VBI information (captions, Nielsen codes, etc.) but replacing visible picture. (For example, this was often used to create 'tagged' spots with individual retail locations from one previously-captioned master.) Doing the opposite had the spin-off effect of disabling Macrovision. So like Jeff, it was not our primary goal.

The challenge in the digital age is verifying which equipment will faithfully throughput (or record/playback) caption data that is in the VANC area of the digital signal. Some extremely popular gear will not. Other popular gear from the same manufacturer will. So I always have to vet the chain of equipment after caption insertion to guard against unpleasant surprises.

Not a Macrovision thing, but my caption equipment can set or reset the record flag in the digital signal. But in a similar vein, my (pro) HD-SDI recorders don't pay attention to that flag, and will record anything.

The challenge in the digital age is verifying which equipment will faithfully throughput (or record/playback) caption data that is in the VANC area of the digital signal. Some extremely popular gear will not. Other popular gear from the same manufacturer will. So I always have to vet the chain of equipment after caption insertion to guard against unpleasant surprises.

A bit OT for this thread but having designed SDI audio embedders, both SD and HD, I reckon I've seen most of the incompatibilities that are possible in that area. The original SMPTE272 (SD embedded audio) wasn't very well written (possibly because it was the first for ANC packets) and could be interpreted in various ways. The HD standard was a lot better but I've still found at least 1 truly perverse implementation.