Retrace hash with DVD player?

[N9ZQA]

The retrace lines are due to the Macrovision protection on the DVD (this also causes the brightness variations). Macrovision inserts extra pulses into the vertical blanking interval which our older sets simply weren't designed to handle. The simplest way to get rid of them is to get a DVD player which supports Macrovision on/off. They are usually the $20-$30 specials. I've got a Daewoo DVDS151 that works well for this purpose, through a modulator to Ch. 3.

It should be possible to duplicate the DVDs on your computer without Macrovision protection, but then you have two sets of plastic sitting around.

-Jim