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From: fish@ihu1g.UUCP (Bob Fishell)
Newsgroups: net.video
Subject: Re: copying rented videocassettes
Message-ID: <785@ihu1g.UUCP>
Date: Mon, 3-Mar-86 17:59:21 EST
Article-I.D.: ihu1g.785
Posted: Mon Mar  3 17:59:21 1986
Date-Received: Wed, 5-Mar-86 03:51:03 EST
References: <161@ides.UUCP>
Distribution: net
Organization: AT&T Bell Laboratories
Lines: 30

> I have recently purchased a vcr (VHS) and have used it for playing rented
> tapes and recording a few broadcast movies.  I am aware that something
> called Copyguard exists, but I know next to nothing about it.  If I borrow
> a friend's vcr and attempt to copy a rented tape, will I get garbage?

"Copyguard" isn't used much any more.  What it did was to snip off part of
the sync pulse, on the theory that it would cause a pirated copy to roll
uncontrollably.  Since it also messed up older TVs and could produce a
jittery picture even on newer sets, it wasn't very well received.  Besides,
it's ridiculously easy to defeat with any sync stabilizer, an after-market
component that restores to the sync pulse what copyguard snips off.  They're
about $60 nowadays.

The kind of copy you get from a rental tape (or any other tape, for that
matter) depends on the condition it's in.  If the original is in good
shape, you'll get a good copy.  Some rental tapes, especially ones
of very popular films, get beat up in short order, and yield lousy
copies.  I've rented tapes that had been so chewed up by previous renters
that I couldn't watch them, let alone copy them (I recently rented a copy
of "Rambo" that must have gone to 'Nam with him).

Almost everything that comes out on videocassette will be available on HBO,
etc., within a year.  If you've got cable, you might just want to wait
until they broadcast the movie you want; you'll usually get a better
copy that way.
-- 
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/  \
\__/			Bob Fishell
			ihnp4!ihu1g!fish