ATI AIW Radeon Capture Problem!

[Guest]

I just recently put in the new All-In-Wonder Radeon Card. After getting the TV functions to work, I experimented with the "Digital VCR" or recording function. Now with TV this works fine. One of the main things I want to do, though, is to transfer some of my VhS tapes onto MPEG-4 format so that I can watch them on my laptop while I am away on business (laptop doesn't have a DVD drive). I know that the tape has special encoding and that when you try to record this copyrighted material the software won't let you. I know that ATI did this to prevent piracy, but is there some way that I can transfer those VHS tapes to CD without losing too much quality in sound and video? Please help.

 

[Guest]

Your best bet and time saving is mpeg2. Mpeg4 will take alot of puter time.
Go to the www.videoguys.com to learn about stuff from their online info..
Good luck.

 

[Guest]

Not 100% sure this is the problem but the most common form of copy protection is Macrovision which you can quite happily buy an addon box for which will remove it. I bought a "copy enhancer" about 4 years ago that takes your composite video output, cleans up the sync. and then puts it straight back out again. Using this I've done tape to tape, and DVD to tape but haven't captured.

 

[bman]

Just as a point of information, Macrovision usually does nothing as far as the video sync signal is concerned... usually the method is more subtle - i.e. a spike in the video signal level, which causes the AGC (auto gain control) in today's VCR's to turn down the gain (which appears as a darkening of the picture). My theory has it that the AGC while in record mode is much more sensitive to variations in the video level and hence Macrovision works when you try to dub from one VCR to another without a buffer (copy box of some sort) in between.

The video amp inside the copy box, and the other circuitry that may reshape (stabilize) the sync signal, act as a buffer for the recording VCR, hence the good copies you get using such a method.