pulsar

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catmistake's picture
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pulsar

Anyone ever have the issue with a VCR that oscillates the picture back and forth between light and dark when playing a tape? I always assumed it was due to the tape having seen too many records, or played too many times, but I've got a new one for yens.

My bottom of the line Pioneer DVD player is doing it... I have it connected through a composite RCA cable connected into my VCR which is coaxed to the TV, and not only does it fluctuate between a light and dark picture, sometimes the feed winks out and I get the VCR's no signal blue screen. I thought it might be the VCR, but I also have it connected up to my 8600, and it oscillates there, too, when I am digitizing or passing the video signal through... and it does it whether I am using the composite or s-video inputs...

What the heck is that about? The DVD player is just about a year old!

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Copy

I think its macrovision, because it doesnt want you to copy dvd's onto video's.

Bring Back The Clamshell

catmistake's picture
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Hmmm...

I don't think that's it... like I said, it looks exactly like what my VCR does (sometimes with some tapes), a pulsing, slow oscillation between a lighter and darker saturated picture... there are no scan or interference lines, and it does the same thing plugged through my 8600's video input... it didn't used to do this.

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Whatever it is, you should be

Whatever it is, you should be aware of macrovision. Whenever you hook a dvd player through a VCR it will make the brightness fluctuate slowly. I'd suggest getting an RF modulator and see if that fixes your problems.
[b]Logan Tong[/b]

catmistake's picture
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bad AGC?

Well, curiosity has prompted me to connect it to something I know doesn't have an AGC circuit... my IIc monitor. I get the same thing. I didn't think the 8600 had one, which is why I thought that wasn't the problem. But it looks just like that.

My understanding of the way it is supposed to work in VCRs is that it is only active if you are trying to record...

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The Macrovision copy protecti

The Macrovision copy protection on DVDs (or DVD players) works differently than with VCRs. You will get the brightness variations you're experiencing whenever the DVD player is hooked up INDIRECTLY to the TV, i.e. through the VCR.

DVD player manuals always say to hook up the DVD player directly to the TV. Unfortunately, this advice is mandatory -- I've never seen a DVD display properly when hooked up to a VCR.

Matt

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He's right

Here is my setup:

I have the Coax come into my VCR, then i output from my VCR to the TV thru Coax and RCA (i need to do this so i can record one thing and watch something else on TV). I then have my DVD player going into a seperate inpput on the TV (RCA, it is a cheap ass DVD player, an Oritron, i think). This seems to be the best way to do things. I also advise a universal remote that allows you to control multupe devices. I use a OneForAll that lets you program up to 4 devices, got it real cheep at WalMart.

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