Trouble dubbing Duke games...help!

[dukeblue1206]

I have been trying to dub old Duke games from VHS to DVD...but most of them stop after about 5 minutes in and say it cant be recorded. is it because some kind of copyright issue. Some of the games record fine but it seems the newer games almost always stop recording. Anyone else have this problem? I really want to dub these before the old film in the VHS starts to erode.

[Richard Berg]

What equipment are you using? I wouldn't be surprised if standalone, consumer DVD recorders respected Macrovision.

Worst case, you have to send the VHS to a professional, or to me

[Karl Beem]

What's your hardware and capture method? There are macrovision fixes.

[dukeblue1206]

its a magnavox VCR/DVD recorder..the vhs is sony and the DVD is maxwell. I had never heard of Macrovision until u 2 said it..lol...on wikipedia it said many DVD recorders mistake the mechanical instability of worn videotapes for Macrovision signals, and so refuse to make what would be perfectly legal DVD dubs of people's home old movies and the like. This widespread problem provides a legitimate basis for the sale of devices that defeat Macrovision. What kind of devices defeat Macrovision? Im no electronic expert so excuse my ignorance. But thanks for any help

[emjaybee1305]

I use a little video stabilizer gadget (sometimes called a copy enhancer or a protection eliminator) for dubbing game tapes and home movies. You can purchase these on websites such as http://www.regioncodefreedvd.com, but you can often find them on eBay for much less money.

The stabilizer I have is one of the older, lower end models by a company called Sima. Since I'm not trying to do anything fancy, like actually breaking through any copyrighted movies (and hope that no one reading this will use this info to do anything illegal like that), I've had pretty good success with the stabilizer I've been using.

The only drawback with one of these stabilizers is that, as far as I know, you can't hook one up to a VCR/DVD recorder combo unit. It has to be hooked up between a standalone VCR and a DVD recorder. I ended up getting a cheap VCR and hooking it up to my VCR/DVD recorder, with the stabilizer running between the two units.

Using one of these should get rid of any wobble on older video tapes that could be mistaken for Macrovision signals and should override any sort of protection that your recorder might be picking up on the newer games you've been having trouble recording.