4 out of those 5 ICs are 4000-series logic chips. That's because all it did was allow the signal through from input to output until it detected the start of the vertical blanking pulse, then it would switch the output to deliver its own, clean blanking pulse for the correct amount of time before switching back to the input signal right at the end of the vertical blanking pulse. In other words, instead of trying to remove the copyright protection inserted into the blanking pulse, the device would simply remove the blanking pulse completely and substitute its own, clean blanking pulse. One or more of those transistors (Q1, Q2, etc) would have been used as the switching/buffering circuit, switched on or off by the logic chips. 4013- Dual, D-type flip-flop (probably part of the switching circuit but could be part of the timing circuit) 4025- Triple, 3-input NOR gate (part of the switching circuit) 4040- 12-stage binary ripple counter (part of the timing circuit) 4081- Quad, 2-input AND gate (part of the switching circuit) MC14538BCP- Dual, Precision Retriggerable/Resettable Monostable Multivibrator (part of the timing circuit) Good times, when removing copy protection was simple.

I am old enough to remember when movies became "priced to own" as they were called. I think WB was the first or one of the first studios to charge $24.99 for certain newly released films. The first one I got was in February 1990. I was a sophomore in high school. Between classes, I called my older sister at work and begged her to stop at the mall on her way home and buy me Lethal Weapon II on video. Now, my sister knew how much I loved movies and since I never made such a request before, she bought it for me! I had that tape for 20 years. Later that year, my brother taught me how to hook up our two VCR's to transfer videos. Then, for 20 bucks, I bought a little box called "The Terminator 2" (I shit you not) which bypassed the copy guard put on the rented tapes. For the next 10 years, I used it to duplicate videos every Tuesday when the new movies came out. Good times. (I really have to start watching the videos BEFORE I comment) That said, when I switched over to DVD's in the late '90s/early '00s, I would rent DVD's and transfer them to video. I remember when Die Another Day was released, it had a copy guard on it. Skeptical, I plugged in my T2 and it actually removed it!

okay, this guys voice is very amazing. he should consider voice over work.

I had a lump in my throat when you started talking about the 80s, simpler happy times, many people I knew and loved are no longer here yet I am still here and just going through the motions

The primary use of this device was really to stabilize picture of VHS tapes with loss of synchronization. And yes, Macrovision override was the secondary use :D

I remember my Dad using the Video Stabilizer to fix a fuzzy VHS of Tom and Jerry we rented from Blockbuster. We connected it to our first VCR, which was the external recording unit from an 80s personal camcorder. Later in highschool, I found out that the video stabilizer could still be used to circumvent copy protection on DVD players!

Video 2000 machines were not affected by Macrovision. They copied VHS tapes perfectly. The copy protection was recorded onto the V2000 which meant that the good V2000 copy could not be used to copy back to VHS. My local video shop hired VHS machines as well as tapes, delivering and collecting them. I had a good collection of films on V2000. I think the video shop was copying VHS to V2000 for their V2000 rental tapes as they were just in plain boxes.

Back in 1986, BACK TO THE FUTURE was the first movie I tried to copy. From my old sears Beta machine to my new Sanyo Betacord. I had no idea why the picture was going bright to dark. Boy, does your video bring back memories!

When DVDs first came out. Macrovision wrecked havoc on the legitimate use of DVD for a lot of people. I'll explain. DVD players, when they came out, did not have an RF output on them, only audio/video. But most TV's back then still only had an RF input only on them. So most people would try to use their VCR as a RF modulator. Make sense, RIGHT? Well here's the problem. Most VCR's would still react to the Macrovision signal from the DVD player. Even though you were NOT trying to make a copy of the DVD onto a VHS tape. This forced a lot of people to have to go out and buy a separate RF modulator just so they could hook their DVD player to their TV.

I paid $20 for mine back in 1985. I still have it even though it will never be used again. I copied 100s of movies with this device at the added cost of a 9 volt battery.

I still have two machines that do this, a GTH ACE standard convertor and a CopyMate video copy enhancer. I still use the ACE. Back in the day, we used JVC SVHS VCRs, made perfect copies, in fact even though Im in Scotland I have that NTSC JVC VCR seen in this video.

Can confirm. Those suckers work like a champ! They do indeed re-generate the video signal. I had one that used a DC adapter and a red LED to signal that it was getting power and working. The 9V battery model is genius. They paid for themselves after one or two tapes back in the day. They also made you popular with friends and family who wanted a favor. : )

I remember our video store offered insurance for tapes! They had a sun-melted tape on the counter with a price tag of $89.99 as a warning. I knew a lot of people with two VCRs, who dubbed tapes like this all the time. They had full shelves of pirated tapes.

I wish I knew about this thing back in the day!! So many tapes I couldn't copy because of Macrovision. It was always a gamble, too: I'd start recording with my fingers crossed, and quickly enough I'd discover which tapes were copy protected. After a while, I pretty much knew which tapes / companies were protected and which ones weren't. MCA Videocassette Inc. weren't, and neither were the early MCA Home Video tapes (up until '85 or so). MGM/UA in those big book boxes were fine, as were the early Warner Home Video clamshells. Media, Prism, U.S.A. Home Video were all good. I tell ya, I had become a pro at knowing which ones were gonna copy, and which ones weren't, lol!

In the mid 90's I would rent the tape, make a copy onto the cheapest blank VHS I could find, disassemble the cassettes and literally swap the reels out, then take the crap one back to blockbuster. I must have done it over 100 times and never got caught.

The way we got around macrovisioning Was we would 1st try VHS to VHS And if it was macrovision we would hook up my beta recorder , recording from vhs to beta the scrambling wouldn't affect the process.

Thanks for making me feel so old :-/

I had and still have a Toshiba VCR, it was a multi system vcr that actually removed macrovision when copied tapes. I used to make copies for friends because nobody else could do it.

One of my vcr didn't care about any copy protections. It was a really old vcr like from the 70s. I always wondered why.

Had to use one of these as a kid because I had a 13 inch VHS TV combo unit, but the VHS didn't work. Even when not recording, macrovision engaged on external VCRs.

I used the old Sony Betamax SL-5400 to get around the Macrovision. What I did was I connected the video out of VHS player that plays the tape to video in of Sony Betamax SL-5400 and the video out of Betamax to video in of another VHS that records the content. But on the back of Betamax there is a PCM switch turn it off but you loose the closed captioned. If you don't turn off the PCM the Macrovision is still there. I tried this same trick many years later when DVD was introduced but didn't work. DVD Macrovision is too strong.

Back in 1993-2004, my father used his Professional Panasonic VHS Movie Maker Video Camera to copy VHS tapes without loss of quality and to bypass Macro vision copyright ©️ protection. My dad still has that Professional Video Camera and it's in perfect condition and still works amazing. Hook it up to any VCR, You can copy any VHS Movie with it!

My understanding was that Macrovision altered the sync signal in such a way that a second generation "copy" would just not work. Probably unknown to anyone but Betamax users, these movies would copy just fine to a Betamax machine. It was because Sony regenerates the sync signal before recording. The only movie I had trouble copying was Forbidden Planet in which there was a shift in the vertical scan. I originally had a pair of Betamax machines, but bought a VHS unit to play rental movies, and if I chose, I could make Betamax copies.

Back in the 80s and 90s as a child. I could only record my favourite movies from free to air TV channels. But it wasn't until 1993 when I got my first Hi-Fi VCR.

I have been waiting 36 years for this info.... thanks... better late then never

well this can come handy when digitalizing old degraded vhs

I had (and still do have) one of these and it worked quite well stabilizing my video signals. How I got mine was funny, though. I’m looking at the ads for things like this in the back of Video Magazine or Video Review, whatever I was getting at the time. It’s about 1989, 1990. I look at the ads selling these boxes and realize the address you could send a check to to get one was less than a mile from my place. I called the number, asked if I could come by and pay cash. They said sure, come by. It was just a dingy little call center, 3-4 people answering phones and stuffing boxes in to envelopes. Ok the story isn’t funny but I’ll bet none of you got yours that way, huh?

About 20 Years ago, i rented a copy of Saving Private Ryan, and During an argument, i broke the Tape, and brought it back to the Video Chain Store. I was charged 79 dollars to cover the cost of the tape. You will be glad to know that i own a DVD copy of Saving Private Ryan purchased from a Local Store, for 5 dollars on Clearance...LOL!!! Saving Private Ryan will be the most memorable movie i have ever owned..LOL!! P.S I Love the Channel. A Big Fan!

Holy shit, they were never that expensive in the UK, wow. I remember having a copy of Toy Story in 1996 from one of my Dad's friends. It was grainy and the audio was crap, barely audible even. I assume it had some kind of copy protection like this one. I even remember some Disney VHS's having intros before the main feature, that told the owner that they can't copy (this) VHS tape(s) with quality, even had a kid voice actor complaining about the quality. Just like I complained when I was 6/7 X).

I also had a Video Stabilizer unit which worked great. In a later period I bought an Samsung 'Worldwide video recorder'. This baby could copy anything I threw at it.

i still have and use mine.. we paid $30 in the 90s.. just need to check the 9v every so often ..

They worked. I still have one in my storage. Macrovision actually worked better for the studios than the copy protection on a dvd.

Back in the day I had one of those. :-> An older model though, metal case held shut with screws.

I've got one of those boxes around here somewhere. It worked really well, IIRC.

I typically copied from VHS to Beta... the Macrovision didn't work on my Beta units. (But I still use the Stabilizer when I copy to DVD)

In 1983 (i was still at school and only 15 years old and am from the uk) my aunt gave me a front loading phillips vcr that would record anything thing you threw at it even if it had macrovision, i never understood how it worked as it was just a bog standard vcr, it didnt have any hacks added to it. I had that vcr for over 16 years as i used it for my main play machine as well and it never broke down until finally one day i started to get into these newfangled dvd disk things. I found out later that my parents had thrown it away when they cleaned out the garage, I still think about that vcr all this time later where i would spend many a night copying the latest big blockbuster movies, ahh the good old days before i was forced to become an adult and get a job so i could pay all my hard earned money out on bills etc.

There were some movies such as "Batman" and "The Cotton Club" where the Macrovision was so strong that it effected the original. So Macrobusters made better copies than the original. Another trick was to rent the movies on VHS and copy them to Beta . No box needed because Sony never bought into the Macrovision scheme.Those were the days.

Over 10 years ago I had to buy that BOX just to watch rented movies. I was using a TV Tuner in my PC.

Use your VHS vcr videorecorders and blank VHS tapes to get even with the news media and tell your friends to just use their vcr videorecorders !

Why do some people end up with a much less stable image when Macrovision is in effect? For example, Technology Connections's video on Macrovision showed crazy effects, such as loosing sync?

I have one of these I love it. Works for DVDs too!

My local rental video store was a knock off shop that used to copy all their movies from blockbuster(wasn't one in my neighborhood) without any protection, i used to think VHS was just crap quality.

An english electronics -magazine had in 80s how to make one, made one and it worked perfectly. Only that my main videorecorder was sony betamax, that had no problems with macrovision. Copied even the signal perfectly.

Hey, thanks for this video. I am about to travel to the 80's and this will be a great help.

Or you could just get a really old seventies VCR, tho that would put an end to the amazing sound/video quality

There must be several generations of macrovision. I remember copying tapes and having them look like the scrambled premium cable channels. Yours looks pretty watchable. If that was all you had, you could deal with that. Also, my dad had some kind of special cable box that unscrambled those channels, probably around 1986 or even earlier. Would that be something similar to this?

So does this work when you copy VHS tapes to DVD?

In the mid 80’s I had two VCRs. My original 1982 mono National (Panasonic) VCR and a newer HiFi VHS machine. I copied many rental tapes at the time. I rented The Outsiders, and it was a HiFi tape. I loved that movie and wanted copy, but a HiFi copy but only had one HiFi VCR (this was before macrovision). I copied the tape, and then opened up each cassette and swapped the reels over, then took back the original cassette with the mono copy inside. Lol. The things we do…. I can imagine the people who rented it after me spent hours trying to adjust the tracking to get the HiFi audio track to play.

7:47 I have two of these RX-11 devices; I loved them. I always got a kick out of the fact that they "talk out of both sides of their mouths" on the labeling of this device --- it first says the whole huge "WARNING" spiel, yet immediately afterwards shows you the diagram with the unit hooked between the "VCR PLAY" and "VCR RECORD" units, obviously being used to illegally duplicate movies. :P :D

I didn't see macrovision show up in Australia until 1992-93 with some cbs fox ex rental tapes like White men cant jump. What I found back in the 90's was that by connecting the rf antenna cable from the wall to the first vcr then to the second vcr then to a video game console rf switch box that it got rid of all the dark/light flickering and then a digital signal stabiliser was all that was needed to get crisp copies. Not that I ever sold copies. Later 90s/early 2000's VCR's and DVD players supposedly had macrovision integrated circuits inside them that over rid even the stabiliser boxes ability to clean the image up and would instantly stop recording when it had a macrovision protected tape or disc in it and record was pressed on the second unit whether a dvd recorder or vcr

My method was to take apart the play VCR and tweak the video gain a little higher than normal. The AGC of the record VCR would fix the increased signal level yet still keep the colorburst and sync pulses at the correct size. Bypassed most of the early versions of MacroVision.

1:10 Try $100-150 ('85 dollars, $230-350 now). The term at the time was ''priced for rental''. If you didn't return the tape or destroyed it that's what they would bill your credit card for. Very few new releases were even available in general retail, most tapes that were were either old (pre-1950) movies or exercise videos.

Two great VCR’s there 👍. Oh how I hated Macrovision as much as I hate regional encoding on DVD’s today 😡. I have a Region 2 DVD player to watch my British programs that aren’t available in Region 1.

Damn, i had a feeling it was run by the magic of a young girls heart inside of there.

The Copymate Deluxe CM-2 was actually the best stabiliser. Cased in steel and equipped with Composite & S-Video connections this was the king of these gadgets but commanded a high price. I still have one somewhere...

I built a analogue video processor in the 80s / 90s. It replaced the vertical interval and cleaned up the video.

Disney was best known for VHS tapes that contains Macrovision technology. I have a ton of Disney tapes that all have Macrovision process to prevent copy protection.

Those 80ies VCRs looked nothing like the ones in this video.. they were very big and heavy and most all of them were top loaders.

Macrovision Copyguard technically falls under "copy deterrent" due to making the copy unbearable rather than wholesale preventing it from happening. At least, it does when making a _VHS_ copy. DVD recorders react in a way that _does_ make it a full copy protection scheme, however, by refusing to function upon detecting those signal pulses.

With the digital video stabelizer you can now use it to record your vcr takes to dvd without having fuzzy lines onscreen.

Certian older vcrs from the 90s when you are playing something macrovision protected in general can already show the macrovision pattern despite no recording in progress. For example, early 90s panasonic vcrs or mid 90s-early 2000s Funai Vcrs.

To get around Macrovision back in the day I would run the composite from the 1st VCR through one of the "video-in" ports on a spare home theater amplifier. Then connect the 2nd VCR to the "video-out" on the amplifier. Worked with DVDs and VHS.

Nice video. I've considered making a video showing how the Macrovision signal worked (using an oscilloscope) but was a bit concerned about the legal implications. On another note, I have an Apex DVD player with the "secret" menu that allows the Macrovision signal to be turned off. A nice feature, but who would want a VHS copy of a DVD movie? :)

Hey man, great presentation. I was wondering can I use that video stabilizer as TBC (Time base corrector). Will it fix the dropping frame issue of digitilazing the VHS tapes to my computer. Do you have any expirience of that?

Yes I bought that took me a while to hook it up and it really worked

Grew up with 2 VCRs attached to each other just like that. Except all cables were in the back. Talking early 80s. Before alot of manufacturing started putting the RCA Jack's on the front. But as old VCRs wore out my Dad would buy new ones and it looked more like this. Lol

ive got an CRT Television that has a fit over HDCP so i do a very simular thing to use many of my things with that television There were televisions that also had trouble with macrovision too

I've got a problem, one VHS (1998) at almost the end of the recording, it starts to have some noise in the image, then the sound starts to pitch up and image is having more noise and finally black and white image with high pitch sound and the end (with a drastic pitch down and image turns into "snow noise')

SOURCE = Player VCR RECORDER = Recording VCR 1. Audio Out (Red & White) on SOURCE Player to Audio In on RECORDER 2. Video Stabilizer Out (Yellow) to Video In (Yellow) on RECORDER 3. Video Stabilizer In (Yellow) to SOURCE Player (Yellow) Out Does this sound correct? Thanks!!!!!

Excellent video

Back around 1990, my parents had a similar RF-connected device. And believe it or not, we did use it for the intended purpose: to stop the flashing &/or rolling picture, of prerecorded tapes, on our 70's-era telly.

My Dafs best friend was a videogile and introduced my Dad to video tapes and copying. He was also the first person we knew with a camcorder..... well actually it was a VCR ypu carried on a shoulder strap and a separate camera that connected to it through a cable. It was pretty cool for the late 70s. My Dads friend gave me the first copy of Star Wars on video. He had the original Fox release before there was CV copy protection. I wore that tape out. After he got the Empire Strikes Back. We copied it on right after Star Wars. Back then we copied everything in the Long Play 6 hour mode. So most of my old tapes dont look so.good now.

Thanks for the info. I'm gonna copy a lot of movies and sell them at the flea market.

I used to own a bootleg copy of Back To The Future on VHS, recorded alongside Indiana Jones and the Temple of Doom, and Back To The Future had the same Macrovision problems. Fortunately, Temple Of Doom wasn't affected by Macrovision.

The best way around macrovision was to buy a GO VIDEO Dual Deck VCR...which I still own one....they had circuitry inside known as AMERICHROME which defeated macrovision.

I built a two transistor amplifier that restored the vertical sync. Then they came up with a more complicated system. RCA made a portable digital VCR that automatically defeated the copy protection.

It's great for VHS versions you can't get on any other format.

Apparently 8mm tape was impervious to Macrovision, as I was able to copy hundreds of VHS tapes direct to 8mm (normal and Hi-8) without any problems or signal degradation.

Oooo that explains why some of the VHSs I had had the orange faces.

Nice video, but Macrovision was not nearly as common as you claim. As someone who worked in a video store from 1988-1999 and made countless copies, I guarantee that nowhere close to 99% of tapes were protected. In fact, less than a third did. That number decreased even further as second prints came out and the extra money wasn't invested in protecting later prints.

Yes there was a time I was recording everything then in 1985 tapes were being coded so we could copy films anymore

"The sound quality was fine, it didnt effect the soundquality" Sounds exactly like south parks version of the old guy in pet semetary. Hes in the aspen episode. 4:12

I have two box sets of the original Star Wars trilogy on VHS. The wide screen one has copy protection, the full screen doesn't.

In the late ‘90’s, my local rental store was raided for renting copies since they started. I guess it took 15 years to get caught

Those devices found a second use in the early 2000s for people who used their VCRs as input switchers for their shiny new DVD player. They have a habit of putting out a copy protection signal that messes with lower quality units which these things get rid of.

Back then, during the 1990's, I overheard a conversation at the local Radio Shack about copying Letterboxed "Raiders of the Lost Ark" to VHS from Laserdisc. As far as I know, Laserdisc players in the North American market didn't have ANY copy protection. In time, I found a Pioneer Laserdisc player and did a test VHS copy; no playback problems whatsoever, and it was in higher audio and video definition! Also, Laserdisc releases, such as "Aliens" were the Special Edition/Complete versions that weren't available on VHS for love or money. When DVD eventually replaced Laserdisc, Mac The Ripper and DVD-R/+R "made video piracy possible." By the way, Copying from VHS or Beta tapes, even at top speed resulted in fuzzy video; each generation was half the quality of the original. (An even better argument for Laserdisc.;)

So, I could rig this stabilizer up to a vcr/dvd recorder and another vcr and use it to copy to dvd?

Is that the original picture tube in that TV? Looks like its front was put over a newer one. You still need these boxes to copy tapes to DVD recorders- the picture doesn't get messed up going through them, but they'll see the Macrovision signal and refuse to go into Record mode.

Thanks just found a set of two of these on eBay!

few years ago i had a friend tell me he spent $90 for Robocop on VHS and STILL has original tape that he bought and the sticker was still on it

Great video, loved this fun trip down memory lane.

Hey databits, my SO and I both had computers in 1985, and we were just kids at the time.

I can't find this on ebay. .😢😢😢😢 I bought a copy of purple people eaters from eBay (20$+20 s/h) and was going to simply record onto an old DVD recorder that I've had for like ten yrs and never used once but was in for rude awakening lol so I've come to KZfaq. I'm very grateful for your upload thank you. But am sad that I can't find any units on ebay lol

Do you have any old school vcr's to do teardown or reviews on? I used to have a sony that had uhf and vhf channel knobs on it, tape control buttons were mechanical style piano keys

I didn’t even know you could record them, I thought they had the record protect tab removed.

We never felt the need to duplicate rental movies. For one thing we only had one VCR and we'd typically just rent them and watch them. Once you've seen it do you really really need to see it again? It was actually quite festive, we'd make popcorn buy some candy or pop at the neighboring store to the video rental and have a fun night in.

good old days....i remember using scart cable to copy vhs...my beautifull childhood

Great product!

Nice vid man, very kool!!!!!!

i liked your vintage color tv more than that hack device though! :) what brand / model is that? its color / contrast quality looks really good for its age, doesn't it?