Modulating VCRs?

[Jeffhs]

Originally Posted by Ed in Tx

The Macrovision was recorded on the tape in the video vertical interval. I recall a VCR, a Hitachi-built GE in particular from mid '80s, that would strip out the Macrovision by inserting clean black horizontal lines over the Macrovision as well as the VIR signal. Like an external "video stabilizer" copy box. Thus the composite video out and likely the RF-modulated signal had no Macrovision or VIR signal in the video. As I recall the reason they did that was the timing errors (wow & flutter etc from the VCR playback) would screw with how the TV handled the VIR signal since it needed a stable time base to work right, if it ever did.

GE's VIR system on its high-end TVs of the '80s was indeed problematic, which is almost certainly why many if not most people never used the feature. One of my great-uncles had a GE VIR-equipped TV in the '80s, but I don't think he ever used it -- he may not have even realized the feature was on his TV in the first place, as the switch that enabled and disabled VIR was not that easy to find, if I remember the front panel of his set correctly.

"....it needed a stable time base to work right, if it (VIR) ever did." You are so right! As I mentioned above, VIR was a feature on high-end GE TVs of the 1980s that was supposed to automatically adjust color, tint, contrast, etc. of the color picture using a signal sent by the TV station in the vertical blanking interval. Sometimes it worked well, but much if not most of the time it did not, which is why many if not most owners of these sets left the VIR switch off and adjusted color, tint, etc. manually to suit their own tastes.

I believe GE discontinued the VIR feature on its high-end sets after only one or two model years, never being reinstated on newer sets -- and certainly not on "GE" branded flat screens, although there could be a special VIR-like signal in the digital streams of today's DTV signals since the pictures on most FS sets are very stable, rarely if ever requiring adjustments of the on-screen color and tint controls. This, in my opinion, is the best thing ever to happen to TV since color and stereo sound, to say nothing of the vastly-improved (over 525-line NTSC) picture quality of today's digital television.