I RULE!!!!!

[mamajoan]

I'm so freaking proud of myself! I figured out a way to get around the copy-protection on my "Buffy" Season 3 DVDs! *does the happy dance*

Really what I figured out is how to copy DVDs onto my TiVo. And since I already know how to copy from TiVo to videotape, I'm all set! Sure, it involves having to run through each thing twice -- and I'm sure there will be some degradation of quality -- but hey, don't argue with what works! :)

Thanks to my brother for suggesting it, btw. It was one of the things I had considered trying, but I was so discouraged after all my other ideas failed to work, if he hadn't suggested it I might not have gone to all the trouble. It *did* involve some futzing around with the TiVo (nothing that will void my warranty, just stuff that took a while and was tedious) and, according to some posts on the TiVo forum, it may slow down the performance of my TiVo; but we'll have to wait and see. If there's a really noticeable slowdown, I can always undo what I did and then redo it again if I ever need to tape from a copy-protected DVD again.

So now I can finally make Wendy her tape of Buffy S3 episodes! Although, Wendy, if you're reading this, don't hold your breath. I got a lot of stuff to clean off the hard drive first. *sigh*

Yay. I'm so happy. I'm sticking it to The Man!!! Woohoo! Never has my Spike icon seemed more apropos! :)

Now I just have to decide whether to buy the Buffy S4 DVD set, which is coming out soon. S4 was the weakest season in my opinion. It started off well with "Fear Itself" and "Beer Bad," but quickly went downhill. OTOH, it would be weird to own all the other seasons on DVD and have a gap. Hmm....

Comments

[sandykidd.livejournal.com]

el-chlaal....be careful about how public your confessions are....'cause, you know, the legality of copying something for yourself is one thing, but it's a wholly different game when you copy for others. not that i blame you.

btw, i'm not a buffy fan anymore (over saturation, for which i blame my sweeties and my best friend), but since i get a massive discount at work on things like that, if you wanted to solve your "season 4 dilemma" by buying it at 30-40% off, i could help you. i can do that sort of thing for my fambly.

side note: did you tape xena? you know, all of it? see, i was banned from watching it when i was still living at home (too much girl-on-girl innuendo for my grandmother's tastes, i guess), and i didn't always have a tv in college, so i missed most of it. and the only episode i can find to buy is the last one (which i've never seen), and i'm not spending $25 for ONE FRIGGIN' EPISODE, no matter how big a fan i may claim to be. i don't recall if you are as big a xena fan as you are a buffy nut *grins*, but i just thought i'd ask. thanks! -sk

[munoz.livejournal.com]

What kind of copy protection does it have? I have an oooooold DVD player that I run through my VCR all the time anyway (easiest connection setup for me), and I rarely encounter a disc I can't tape or watch. So maybe it's just a matter of finding a cheapass DVD player from way back in 1998.

[mamajoan.livejournal.com]

I don't know the official name for it, if there is one, but it's the kind where, when you try to play the DVD through the VCR, the picture keeps fading from normal to really really dark -- like unwatchably dark -- and then back again.

And you're not the first one to suggest using an older player, but first of all where am I gonna find one of those, and second of all, [insert rant here about how I should be allowed to copy the DVDs that I paid for with my hard-earned money *without* having to pay lots of extra money for special hardware]. (I did think it would work with at least one of my VCRs since one is five or six years old and the other, although several years newer, is a cheapass brand, but no dice.)

Anyway, it does work with some DVDs. Mostly I blame the Fox production company; I'm assuming it was them, being super-obnoxious about copyright in general, who decided to put extra-super-duper protection on the Buffy discs. (And presumably other Fox ones too, but I don't think I have any Fox DVDs other than the Buffy ones. I haven't actually tried copying any of the Buffy S1 or S2 ones.)

And yes, I do realize that there's a difference between me being allowed to copy for myself and being allowed to copy for others -- but since that can't be differentiated via technology, either Fox or I have to be screwed. It was me, and now it's them. Nyah! ;)

[munoz.livejournal.com]

I have no trouble playing through my VCR, although the brightness does go up and down. Thankfully, for me at least, it's very slow and very subtle, hardly noticeable. For *some* DVDs, I can't record them because the screen gets all wonky. But this has only happened with about 4 DVDs (oddly enough, all WWII war movies).

You might be able to get an old cheapie on eBay. Mine is a Panasonic DV-414. It's so old I can actually play burned VCDs on it! Very cool for when I'm making animations and I want to see it on a nice fuzzy TV screen.

[kenboy.livejournal.com]

Macrovision.

What brand DVD player do you have?

I ask because many players, like my own dear Daewoo, believe it or not, have either secret codes or firmware upgrades you can do in order to get around things like regionalization codes and copy protection. I keep almost ordering the West Wing season one DVD from amazon.uk, since I can change my region code at will (and play PAL video on my NTSC tv.)

Anyway, http://www.nerd-out.com/darrenk/ is where you can start looking for a hack; might be able to save yourself one step in the whole copy process.

[mamajoan.livejournal.com]

unfortunately for me(?), I have a Panasonic.

It turns out that my big success wasn't ... I'll post about it later after I get over being totally pissed off. :P Thanks for the link but didn't find my player on there. I'll be doing some searching on Panasonic hacks, that's for sure... sigh.