Page 1 of Copy protection information.

I have a philips dvdr880 and I`m tying to put copies of my old vhs tapes onto dvd so it will make life easier in the future. Some videos copy ok but some bring up the message "copy protection" on the dvd recorder. Is this macrovision at work and can I get around it or is that just for vhs to vhs and this is something else? Please help.

It`s *not* Macrovision (that only foils copying to VHS) - it`s actually something called CGMS/A (Copy Guard Management System/Analogue). The DVD recorder is designed to recognise a CGMS flag in the analogue video signal, and refuse to record if the flag is present.

CGMS is used on most recent VHS movie releases. It might also be used with things like pay-per-view films on Sky Box Office, for example.

Anyway, there are two ways round it - buy a box which can strip the CGMS codes from the video signal (probably about £50), or get your DVD recorder hacked or chipped to disable CGMS.

Mike

Cheers for your advice Mike. I think I`ll go with the extra box solution for now. I`ve only just bought the dvd recorder and from what I`ve read it might become tempremental in the future so I don`t want to mess with it if there is a chance it`s got to go back. I wouldn`t have bought it if I`d discovered this site first!

ive had the same problem as amf666
i can copy some dvds to tape then back to dvd but not all of them.
im interested in the box to strip out the cgms.
where do you get them?
cheers