Curious Effect On Capturing From VHS

Neil.F.1955

Senior Contributor Joined: Mar 07, 2012 09:15 Messages: 1303 Offline

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Jun 05, 2014 06:59

I don't know if this has happened to anyone else but recently I've tried to record some old TV documentary content from old VHS tapes that I've had for some time and "rediscovered" what I had on them. I must stress that these are HOME RECORDINGS, taped off television broadcasts on a domestic VHS video recorder. When I set up for "capture(using PD7), I get a warning: "This movie is copyright-protected - Recording is prohibited!" Huh? Yes, there are commercially-sold VHS tapes of feature movies that have such protection embedded into either the video or linear audio track which stops a programme like PD7 or any other software(later Power Director versions included) from recording these tapes to computer, but these home-made tapes do NOT have such a protection embedded into them. Domestic VHS decks just don't have such a function!, So where is it coming from? Is it in the software or the player, or the capture-card? It's got me stumped as I'm soon to do some VHS-to-DVD transfers for a friend from my Tuesday evening snooker group. I'd certainly like this problem not to show up again(though it doesn't occur on all home recordings, I should point out).
Anyone got any answers?
Cheers!
Neil Forbes.

borgus1

Senior Contributor Joined: Feb 27, 2013 00:33 Messages: 1318 Offline

Jun 05, 2014 10:34

It's conceivable that the original video had such protection that, while it did not thwart the VHS recorder, may contain signal elements that PD doesn't like.

Purging it may call for a video proc amp/frame synchronizer.

In another forum, Carl mentioned that transferring VHS to DVD, then editing from the DVD, has worked well for him - though this wasn't in regard to copy protection. That might be worth a go.

This message was edited 5 times. Last update was at Jun 05. 2014 11:21

Carl312

Senior Contributor Location: Texas, USA Joined: Mar 16, 2010 20:11 Messages: 9090 Offline

Jun 05, 2014 12:00

Quote: In another forum, Carl mentioned that transferring VHS to DVD, then editing from the DVD, has worked well for him - though this wasn't in regard to copy protection. That might be worth a go.

I have not run into copy protection, One reason is I use mostly analog video outputs from the source (Satellite Receiver).

My VHS recording were from TV or Satellite TV. I have not had any trouble with copy protection.

What I have seen is bad tracking on old VHS tapes. The original machine that recorded some of the tapes has long ago died.

Carl312: Windows 10 64-bit 8 GB RAM,AMD Phenom II X4 965 3.4 GHz,ATI Radeon HD 5770 1GB,240GB SSD,two 1TB HDs.

Neil.F.1955

Senior Contributor Joined: Mar 07, 2012 09:15 Messages: 1303 Offline

Jun 05, 2014 23:18

Hi, Borgus1 and Carl312, I'll address this to both of you. I think a point was missed here, and that is that these tapes I'm trying to capture from were, and are NOT commercially-made feature movie tapes, rather, they're off-air recordings or dubbed from camera tapes. So there should be NO embedded copy-guard system on either the video or audio tracks of the tape. The output of my VHS recorder is composite video(analogue) (yellow RCA connector), and Left/Right Stereo Audio(red and White RCA connectors) fed to a Kworld(trademarked) video capture card device. Nothing out of the ordinary there, I should think. I don't think there is any problem in the connection, or in the inner workings(electronics) of the VHS recorder itself.

"In another forum, Carl mentioned that transferring VHS to DVD, then editing from the DVD, has worked well for him - though this wasn't in regard to copy protection. That might be worth a go." The only problem with that idea is that this "phantom"(shall we call it thus) copy protection would get in the way there as well. As I said, it doesn't affect every tape but sometimes it raises its ugly head and causes problems.

On a lighter note, Have you an old Video-8 or Hi-8 camera? Have you noticed how well these cameras' tapes dub to VHS or Betamax, leaving the VHS or Beta copies just as good for mastering as the original Video-8 or Hi-8 tapes? I found this out when I first ventured into this. However, and here's the rub, a VHS cassette, recorded on a VHS, or VHS-C camera, dubbed to another, or to a Betamax, the resultant copy is NOT a good master for capturing to computer. Hmmmm!
Bye for now!
Neil Forbes