Canopus ADVC100 Converter
So, as part of a family project to convert unreplacable VHS tapes onto DVD, I went digging looking for "Firewire DV Bridge" black boxes that take video in, and spew firewire out.
The ADVC100, well, basically, does not suck. Not only is it doing a kick ass job at bidirectional video conversion between firewire and analog video/audio, it also has a nice hidden de-macrovision toggle. No, I'm not pirating and selling the latest DVD warez, but just simply trying to preserve some old tapes that we don't expect to be released to DVD by the original vendors. (obNoteForLawyers: Look up "fair use"...)
Also, as a side benefit, the same box can work without a computer, to go between a firewire camera and standard A/V. Some video cameras can do this natively, but for those that can't, this is not bad box to have around!
Could you pls tell me how the hidden de-macrovision toggle is activated? Iwant to transfer a dance teaching video to DVD to easily move back and forth between the lessons, but my ADVC 100 only renders black and white videos, I believe because the tape is macrovision protected. Very frateful for any help.
Refards
Lux
Hold down the input/output toggle for about 20 seconds. If you're watching the video out, you'll see color bars come up, then after, color bars go away. Once they go away, macrovision is disabled until the box power cycles.