I have in my possession a 2nd generation Star Wars bootleg VHS from either 1977 or 1978.

You can read more about it here: http://originaltrilogy.com/forum/topic. ... Post582266

It appears to be very sensitive to AGC circuitry, so dark->bright scene changes appear blown-out and bright->dark scene changes appear crushed (a.k.a., too dark).

I can't disable the AGC in my Panasonic AG-1980P, so I have no way of knowing if the blown-out/crushed scenes represent the signal stored on the VHS. I have a hunch that they don't because multiple captures of the VHS show the same blown-out/crushed scenes differently.

Are there any D-VHS or S-VHS units that allow you to disable the AGC?

My understanding of consumer video is that the AGC is a necessary part of the process.

Well, it's certainly necessary to implement Macrovision.

With that being said, most pre-Macrovision VCRs came without AGC circuitry.

Betamax was immune to Macrovision as were a few RCA decks, but most pre-Macrovision VCR's were affected by it - that's why it was developed the way it was, because all VCR's had AGC that would respond to it. Colorstripe Macrovision affected Betamax too but not all that bad - I can make dubs from DVD to my Betamax decks and end up with a nice copy with a few colored lines, almost like LaserDisc dropouts in the image. Not so with VHS - my 1981 VHS deck, which predates Macrovision by many years (The Cotton Club was the first Macrovision tape release), goes crazy when trying to dub a protected DVD or tape. Mitsubishi TV's were also affected by Macrovision and most studios would supply non-Macrovision tapes to buyers who owned those model TV's. Macrovision actually backed off the level of their signal on tapes to increase TV compatability.

Have you already tried disabling in the capture device instead? I didn't know it was possible, but Matrix claims their MX02 has the option.


(tip via Jarvis @ DigitalFAQ)

msgohan: Thanks for the tip, but that's unfortunately way way out of my price-range.

http://www.bhphotovideo.com/c/product/6 ... ptops.html

Buy for 400 resell for 20% off? I would buy it from you.

According to its manual, the Matrox RT.X2 card from 2006 allows the same feature. It's a full-length PCIe card so it will be annoying and possibly impossible to install in some cases, though.



Looks like it originally sold for $1100. eBay completed listings show a range of $115 to $300. I was outbid today on one that ended at $162.50. Not actually in the market at the moment since I don't have a PCIe machine here.