Is there an inexpensive way of copy protecting my vhs & dvd dubs. Macrovision seems to be set up for big runs and is expensive. Any alternatives?

Thanks,

mickey

VHS does not have and affordable way to be copy protected in short runs from duplicators. There is no home method to do this.

I have heard of some DVD replicators doing Macrovision on short runs of pressing DVD's. But again, no home method.

FYI, the new Adobe DVD mastering software will be Macrovision-capable.

I pay 90 cents per copy for macrovision on 100 copy runs on VHS.

What the software does is set a flag to enable the Macrovision (DVD Studio Pro does the same). The flag is then used by the replicators to add Macrovision to the pressed DVD's. You will not be able to do it yourself.

Of course, with any sort of copy protection it's really a matter of choosing what level of sophistication of pirate you're trying to thwart, as there isn't a scheme yet that hasn't been cracked.

You could always put a watermark on the bottom of your footage.