So why can't I tape a DVD to my VCR?

[krispos42]

It cycles from distorted to static if I try it.

Any ideas?

[JVS]

1. they probably designed it so you wouldn't be able to

[krispos42]

7. I was afraid of that...

I'm gonna try something...

[Spirochete]

2. Many DVD's are copy protected

so you'll be unable to record a copy-protected DVD. You'll get blue lines, or dark-light-dark-light fluctuations all through the recording.

[krispos42]

4. That's what I'm getting

But what's funny is that they don't appear until I press "Record". And when I stopped it, they went away.

[KitchenWitch]

3. Because the RIAA are evil bastids and have encoded the DVD so you cannot record it.

:banghead:

[petronius]

6. The DVD/VCR player manufacturers would have to be complicit, right?

Lotta bastids in this game...

[KitchenWitch]

8. true true!

rat bastids.

[petronius]

5. You're probably not using Duck Tape - other stuff can't do the job

(:silly: response to your subject...)

[krispos42]

9. Quack (groan) quack (groan)

:P

[Hand]

10. Insh'Allah. nt

[TreasonousBastard]

11. The trick is to...

tape from the video and audio outs of a TV. The TV should filter out the copy protection stuff. Some VCRs might so it too, if you use two VCRs.

[Orrex]

12. How are you linking them?

I have an older TV and connect the DVD player to it via a modulator, because I don't have the three input jacks on the TV itself. The modulator has a simple coaxial output that plugs into the TV, and presto. Granted, the picture quality doesn't have the supernaturally perfect resolution so beloved of HD-o-philes, but it's a lot better than a VHS tape or the basic (non-digital) cable feed.

It's possible that you could use a modulator to plug into your VCR in a similar way, but if you have a more recent VCR and you already use the three-jack system, I can't advise you, alas.

On the plus side, lots of stores sell modulators for under $15, and it gives you an excuse to do your Marvin the Martian impression.

Good luck!

[qdemn7]

13. Macrovision

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Macrovision

Macrovision's home entertainment technologies are incorporated into the vast majority of all DVD players, digital cable/satellite set-top boxes, personal computers, Digital Video Recorders (DVRs) such as Tivo, and Portable Media Players (PMPs) such as the iPod.

Analog Copy Prevention

A DVD recorder receiving a data stream encoded with Macrovision's legacy ACP copy prevention signal will simply display a message saying the source is "copy-protected", and will pause the recording. This is achieved through a signal implanted within the offscreen range (vertical blanking interval) of the video signal—either physically recorded directly on the tape (as with VHS) or created on playback by a chip in the player (as with DVDs) or the digital cable/satellite box (as with all HDTV programs being down-converted to standard definition). NTSC and other video formats store the video signal as “lines.” A portion of these lines are used for constructing the visible image by transposing them on the screen, but there are approximately 20 to 40 lines outside the visible range that are used for different things in different countries, like closed captioning. Macrovision inserts pulses into this non-displayed area. These signals cause the automatic gain control on the recording VCR to compensate for the varying strength. This makes the recorded picture wildly change brightness, rendering it unwatchable. On most televisions, the viewer on the screen sees no effect in ordinary playback of the modified video because the signal is outside the visible area, but some TVs do not properly blank the vertical retrace and leave dotted white lines near the top of the picture. Some newer TVs also mistake the Macrovision pulses for synchronization pulses. Another modification also used in Macrovision is the addition of colorstripes—rapidly modulated colorburst signals.