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How common was video rental piracy during the 90s? (nord.pub)
submitted 3 months ago by to c/piracy@lemmy.dbzer0.com
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[–] 22 points 3 months ago (7 children)

It was not free. You rented for a price, then returned the VHS. The longer you kept it, the more you paid.

My grandma recorded a few thousands of VHS, but she aimed at an historical collection so that was all from the television, dubbing existing VHS needed more equipment and was. Not that easy.

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  • [–] 9 points 3 months ago* (6 children)

    We had a VHS camcorder that didn’t have the anti copy channel on its play head. So you could record commercial VHS with the scrambl copy protection right to any connected VCR. I think at even had S-video for higher quality, but I may be wrong. It’s still in my moms attic because I wouldn’t let her throw it away 7-8 years ago.

    But also during the Netflix DVD era I ripped 100s of movies and tv series.

    The drives are all dead by now though because burning them to DVD took too long.

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  • [–] 13 points 3 months ago* (3 children)

    That was Macrovision, which was a signal inserted into the top few frames that weren't shown on a TV, but which the VCR used to calibrate its black level. I designed a box which removed them so I could make copies of stuff. It was a bit pointless with hindsight, because I very rarely watched the copies I made. I think the enjoyment of getting one over on the man was far more than actually watching the films.

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  • [–] 1 point 3 months ago

    I wasn't even trying to copy, just trying to connect a DVD player to my RF-cable-jack-only TV.

    DVD player -> AV cables -> VCR -> coaxial cable -> TV.

    Nope! Not allowed! It's 2001 and we're already screaming loud and clear that pirate copies are superior because they just work.

    I ended up getting a Voodoo3 3500 TV on clearance sale, and playing movies on the TV through that.

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  • [–] 1 point 3 months ago (1 child)

    My dad had us on the VCR train pretty early on, so we had a model that was from 83 or 84, like whenever they basically first came out for home use. All those scrambl and antipiracy protections they had later on, it wouldn't pick them up. So if I remember this correctly, as long as you used the older VCR to play the movie, you could copy it on the newer one, and those protections wouldn't work and it would come out just fine. I even remember, quite vividly, when we discovered that. One of those key moments in our household.

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  • [–] 1 point 3 months ago*

    Same. Our camcorder was one of the first that didn’t need to have a separate deck slung over your shoulder. But our VCR (early RCA) still separated so you could use it with a camera.

    I think we got it in 84-85 too. I think our basement tv was still black and white at that point. We only ever used it during tornado warnings.

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