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Weird TV/DVD/VCR/Xbox Problem

post #1 of 6
7/11/03 at 1:31am
Thread Starter 
I have an older 27" TV in a back bedroom and I've had an Xbox and VCR hooked up to it for quite some time. Tonight I got a new DVD player for the living room and decided to hook my older DVD player up to the TV along with the VCR and Xbox.

I got everything hooked up and it's all working, but when I play a DVD the TV's brightness level cycles up and down constantly. I got a surge protector to plug everything into and that did nothing. I've unhooked the Xbox from the mix and that did nothing. I swapped the TV out with another almost identical TV that we have and it does the same thing. What the hell is causing this?

DVD player is connectd to the VCR with standard Red/White/Yellow AV cables. The VCR is connected to the TV with coax. Please help me.
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post #2 of 6
7/11/03 at 10:03am
That's called "Macrovision", my friend. If you're running your DVD to the VCR first, then to your TV, the Macrovision copy protection is causing the screen to flash the brightness up and down to deter you from using the VCR to copy the DVD. If you get a DVD player (or can alter yours) without Macrovision, or one where you can turn it off, you won't have that problem anymore.
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post #3 of 6
7/11/03 at 10:23am
You can get a converter from Radio Shack (or where ever) that will allow you to use coax for your DVD player, then you can get a coax switchbox. All pretty cheap.
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post #4 of 6
7/11/03 at 12:01pm
Thread Starter 
Thanks, guys. That's really freaky. I am almost positive that I had this hooked up the same wayback when I first got the DVD player in 98 and never saw this effect.

Anyway, I'll be hitting Radio Shack at lunch today to get some stuff.

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post #5 of 6
7/11/03 at 5:28pm
Quote:
Eli Ca$h needs a subtitle:
Thanks, guys. That's really freaky. I am almost positive that I had this hooked up the same wayback when I first got the DVD player in 98 and never saw this effect.
Also remember how much the DVD technology has advanced since then. The Macrovision coding may have not been as strong back in '98. I had a similar thing happen when I copied some Laserdiscs to VHS a while back. Some did the flash, some didn't.
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post #6 of 6
7/11/03 at 6:17pm
I used a signal enhancer (I forget the exact name) when I used to run my DVD player through my VCR.

I bought this one from Best Buy a few years back. It has RCA jacks, and I think they had one that had s-video.

Its basically a little box that you patch into your cables and it boosts the signal so that when you copy a VHS you don't loose some of the brightness, color, sound, etc, in the transfer.

It worked for my DVD player!

P.S.
There's a big ole warning on the box about copy protection.
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