Page 1 of Various copy protection formats.

I have a Macrovision disabled player, and can copy to VHS with no problems.

I recenly bought a HDD recorder which refuses to copy from the player, and also from the VHS copy.

Can anyone tell me what sort of copy protection this is likely to be?

It seems to affect most of my discs, although one I know it doesn`t have a problem with is the League of (not extraordinary) Gentlemen Series 1.

It sounds like CGMS-A to me. (It`s odd that you should be getting this, though - disabling Macrovision inside a DVD player usually has the effect of disabling CGMS output as well.) Basically, it`s a system designed to prevent recording onto digital formats, just as Macrovision is intended to stop you copying to VHS.

With CGMS-A, there`s a flag embedded in the video signal which all standalone digital recorders are supposed to recognise. If the flag is set, the recorder won`t record.

VHS recorders don`t understand the CGMS flag, so you can quite happily tape a CGMS-protected signal on a VHS deck. Moreover, the CGMS flag is preserved on the VHS recording, so when you then try to copy the tape onto a digital medium, the protection is activated.

As with Macrovision, the DVD itself determines whether CGMS kicks in or not. This explains why you`ve been able to copy some of your DVDs but not others.

The problem is easily solved with a box like this, which is intended to strip out CGMS as well as Macrovision.

Mike

Thanks for that.

Yes, I have a mate who makes tellies who couldn`t understand why turning off MV didn`t solve all my woes.

To be honest it is an odd DVD player that wasn`t advertised as nonMV. It`s just that when I was switching it to multiregion I started mucking about with some other flags, one of which allowed me to record on VHS.

Presumably that box you point to will work until the next protection system comes along?

Quote:
Presumably that box you point to will work until the next protection system comes along?

Yep.

No doubt when the next format comes along to replace DVD, they`ll invent a new protection scheme to go with it - but you`ll be fine for now. :)

Mike

Quote:
No doubt when the next format comes along to replace DVD, they`ll invent a new protection scheme to go with it - but you`ll be fine for now
.....and about 10 mins after the new protection comes out, no doubt ;-)

Ste

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