Home Video Asylum

TVs, VCRs, DVD players, Home Theater systems and more.

line-in won't be your problem

Plugging a DVD player into the VCR is not the way to go. The Macrovision copy protection will create havoc with the VCR's US Congress mandated always-ON AGC circuit (Automatic Gain Control, which tracks the luma level in the video signal). The picture will get bright, dark and/or do other undesireable things.

The only ways around going this route are to either use a pre-'90s VCR (they either had no AGC circuit or one that could be turned OFF), a DVD player that has a hack to disable the Macrovision signal (most Taiwanese/Chinese players do) or use a copied DVD that has the Macrovision signal stripped out of the digital stream (by using a program like DVDDecrypter).

If the real problem is (a) that the display you want to use doesn't have enough (RCA) audio/video inputs, then get an inexpensive switcher or (b) that the display only has a coax input, then get an inexpensive audio/video modulator. Either solution is available from Wal-Mart for under $20 or even less via ebay if you're not in a hurry.


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  • line-in won't be your problem - Joe Murphy Jr 09:14:01 10/08/05 (0)


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