Question DVD region?

[Notebook]

That's the main reason I miss video cassette tapes - no region restriction nonsense there!

Except for the old PAL/NTSC problem, at least thats gone away! Hang on a minute, no it hasn't!
As an old colleague of mine said "aren't digits wonderfull, now we need a source of quiet!".

N.

 

[Andy44]

VHS had/has copy protection, which is still a nuisance. The reason I bought this UK copy of this movie is because my VHS copy won't let me burn it onto a DVD. So this copyright BS didn't start with DVDs, it's been going on since the 80s.

 

[Artlav]

VHS had/has copy protection, which is still a nuisance. The reason I bought this UK copy of this movie is because my VHS copy won't let me burn it onto a DVD. So this copyright BS didn't start with DVDs, it's been going on since the 80s.

Um, what?
Could you provide any details? I never had any problems with copying VHS to DVD, whether paper-boxed or box-sold, neither the play-back ones.

 

[Notebook]

There was a VHS copy protection system, at least in the UK, for rental tapes, to prevent duplication at home. If I remeber correctly it put a bit of a dc bounce on the field interval of the VHS.
It didn't affect most home televisions, but it upset the input circuitry of the copying VHS which expected a stable signal.

Could be wrong, it was 20 years ago!

N.

 

[ozone]

Macrovision? They are still around;
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Macrovision_Corporation

 

[Notebook]

Good grief, thats the mob, didn't expect to see that name again.

N.

 

[TSPenguin]

Macrovision is only abandoned now with the new completely consumer harrassing HDCP and theirlike. For anything analogue macrovision still remains wide spread!

 

[Andy44]

United States fair use law, as interpreted in the decision over Betamax (Sony Corp. v. Universal City Studios), dictates that consumers are fully within their legal rights to copy videos they own. However, the legality has changed somewhat with the controversial Digital Millennium Copyright Act. After April 26, 2002, no VCR may be manufactured or imported without Automatic Gain Control circuitry (which renders VCRs vulnerable to Macrovision). This is contained in title 17, section 1201(k) of the Digital Millennium Copyright Act. However, there are a number of mostly older VCR models on the market that are not affected by Macrovision.

So if you are fortunate enough to buy a VCR outside the US, you may be free of the copy protection BS. But since I live in the US and bought a VCR/DVD combo in 2006, I am subject to the fact that my representatives in Congress apparently took a big fat bribe from RIAA and decided to leave me hanging.