These work and can be purchased for anywhere from $20.00 up.
Macrovision was designed so that commercial video tapes could not be copied. This is caused by an embedded signal within the videotape itself. The video tape is played back on the VCR, the VCR detects the signal, resulting in the video tape COPY changing colors and rolling the video.. This protection has been in place since the mid ‘80’s. It’s been deemed and sanctioned by the movie companies to be a good copy protection scheme. A different type of Macrovision is on commercial dvds and BluRays as well.
The problem with Macrovision in VCRs, is that the signal detection mechanism within the VCR is; at times, so strong, that it treats video tapes that were created at home as tapes with Macrovision copy prevention. So, the result is that even with home video tapes..the problem exists in a major way. The video in copies still rolls and changes colors, and does other nice things to prevent a good copy from being made..it’s frustrating, to say the least.
ADS Technologies is one of the very few firms that manufacture products that totally ignore Macrovision. Hauppauge is another. IF anyone runs into problems with Macrovision, ADS Tech, and Hauppauge is the way to go, in my opinion; for what it’s worth.
the Hauppauge website =
http://www.hauppauge.com/site/products/data_hdpvr.html
the ADS TECH website =
http://www.adstechnologies.com/index.php?main_page=product_info&cPath=1&products_id=4