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General discussion

Copy-protected video...

Aug 13, 2005 10:47AM PDT

I have encountered a rather unique situation, and am calling upon the senior members and anyone else knowledgable to help me out. I am in the process of converting a friend's collection of home movies over to DVD, but have reached a snag. Apparently a couple of the tapes were done by a professional photographer, who copy-protected the videos. (The contract stated that he keeps the originals, and that any future copies must be purchased from him.) Ordinarily this wouldn't be a problem, but apparently the photographer has recently passed away. He worked alone, was not married, and had no kids. Thus it's now impossible to obtain a copy on DVD, or the original tape.

Thus, I ask, is there a proper procedure for such cases? If I had him take the videos to another photographer, could the other photographer (legally and technically) transfer the footage to DVD? Granted, it would cost more than what he's paying me to transfer and clean up the old tapes, but one of them is of his wedding...something he really doesn't want to lose.

Thanks in advance,
John

Discussion is locked

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VHS to DVD
Aug 14, 2005 12:41AM PDT

You must be playing the tape and recording the output onto a set-top DVD recorder.

I don't think you would encounter a copy protection problem if you go from VHS tape and save the output on a computer.

You will need a PCI video capture card for your computer, or a USB capture device.

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Copy protected video
Aug 14, 2005 4:46AM PDT

If all else fails from Snapshot's method, the guy surely should have the original film that was made into a video tape. The maker of the tapes would send the original film back to the owner. All you need is a projector for the particular film, and a camcorder, then input to your PC or make a VHS tape then to DVD.

JR