Remove Macrovision Protection On TV Wonder Pro
By Jeffrey | May 18, 2007
This might seem like a highly specialized guide as it’s directed specifically at those of you using an ATi TV Wonder Pro card to capture video.
Those of you with this card probably are aware that anytime you try to record video from a source with Macrovision protection - like VHS tapes - the video image will freeze and/or stutter disallowing you the ability to record it.
It’s not a problem with the software - any video capture software will have this problem - because the protection is built into the drivers for the card.
I spent literally hours trying to find a way to get around Macrovision protection on VHS tapes, and I want to save everyone that trouble if possible.
For the record, I own all these movies, but I want them on DVD. And I’m not a big fan of buying something I own again.
But enough talk, let’s get on to the guide.
The Problem
Like I mentioned above, the problem lies with the drivers.
So let’s get rid of those drivers!
The TV Wonder Pro is based on the Conexant cx2388x chipset, and drivers for that chipset are near impossible to find.
But lucky for you, I found them. So download them from here. Unzip that file somewhere and open up the Driver folder.
Don’t use the setup program it comes with and don’t uninstall the TV Wonder drivers you already have installed, just open up Device Manager.
New Drivers
Replace the driver for the ATi Video Capture with the Conexant driver cx88vid.inf.
Replace the driver for the ATi Crossbar wtih the Conexant driver cx88xbar.inf.
Replace the driver for the ATi Tuner with the Conexant driver cx88tune.inf.
Now it should look like this:
Simple, Huh?
Now you should be able to capture all video input, from whatever source, even if it has Macrovision protection.
However, you won’t be able to use the included Catalyst Media Center to capture because it has Macrovision detection built into the software and will not allow you to record if it finds it.
All other programs I have tried work fine, though.
I recommend Nero Vision, WinVDR, or Virtual VCR, but you can use whatever you want.
Final Thoughts
If this guide was helpful to you, please consider donating to SavvyGeek using the button on the sidebar. Your contributions help keep this site going!
And as always, if you have any thoughts or comments you’d like to leave please feel free to do so below, or just drop me a line at:
This prevents the freezing and stuttering but I still get blue flashes due to macrovision.I hope someone can figure out how to fix this.
Posted by: .45 on June 3rd, 2007 at 1:23 pm